Useful Bible Studies > Romans Commentary > chapter 8
Prayer is so important for us as Christians, but we do not really understand prayer. We speak to God, but we do not see him. We do not know how he appoints his special servants, the angels, to assist us (Matthew 18:10; Hebrews 1:14). We are hardly even aware of the battles that they fight on our behalf in the spirit world (Daniel 10:12-14; Revelation 12:7-9).
We pray our prayers in the best human language that we know. In that, we are like Solomon, who built a great house, called the temple, for God. However, Solomon was wise enough to know that even the highest heaven could not contain God (2 Chronicles 6:18); his temple certainly could not do it. In the same way, we are foolish to imagine that even the finest words can express the true prayer of our hearts. Of course we can and should pray in our own languages. However, we must also ask God to send his Holy Spirit to help us in our prayers (Luke 11:9-13).
Paul was especially aware of the help of the Holy Spirit as he prayed (1 Corinthians 14:15 and 14:18). He had the gift of tongues. In other words, he sometimes prayed, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in languages that he (Paul) did not understand. Paul probably did not know whether he was then speaking human languages, or the languages of heaven. However, he believed that the Holy Spirit was giving him words to speak in prayer. By that means, Paul prayed prayers that his human mind, in its weakness, was unable to express. So, his experience was that the Holy Spirit was praying through him.
Next part: The Holy Spirit's prayers for God's people (Romans 8:27)
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