the Holy Spirit, toe-tapper and whistler

So, if the Holy Spirit is constantly taking our prayers to God for us...

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. ~Romans 8:26-27


That must make Him one patient Holy Spirit, huh? I mean, think of all the times we are deep in prayer and all of a sudden our mind wanders off to what we plan to cook for dinner, or try to remember if we set our alarm clock, or do our children have matching socks for tomorrow morning. Can you just picture the Holy Spirit praying on our behalf and then all of a sudden, He has to tap his toes and whistle a tune, waiting until we come back to prayer?


It must also make Him one great interpreter, too! Think of all the run-on sentences we use and how many times we repeat the same sentence over and over again or use the wrong tense. Sometimes He must wonder if we are 35 or 7 years old. "Focus, Danielson!"


Of course it doesn't matter to Him. He cares that we draw near to Him and have an intimate relationship with Him. He cares that we pray incessantly and always look to the Lord. And to be honest, the times I feel closest to Him are the times that I cry out and not care about grammar. The times where I don't try and structure the entire prayer to sound right. 


Have you caught yourself restructuring? Do you ever reword your request mid-sentence because it didn't sound right? I mean, this is God we're talking about! Not only did He know what we were going to say the first time (the time we thought it was incorrect), but He also knew we were going to change it, and He also knew the entire time what we were praying for, so it didn't matter that we changed it at all. And ultimately, He knew it was it our heart to begin with so really the prayer was not necessary to bring it to His attention, but He wants us to bring it to Him, like a child brings thoughts and requests to a father. 


How special is that? 

photo courtesy of
turnbacktoGod.com

Here I am, trying to pray for what I think I should be praying for in a manner I think is appropriate, and the Holy Spirit kindly takes those requests and translates them to what God wants to hear from me so that He can respond to me. How special that makes me feel that the Holy Spirit bridges the gap between me and God until the day I can be with Him.