James Ussher (1581-1656) listed the many infirmities that comprise our need for the Spirit's help in prayer: "Roving imaginations, inordinate affections, dullness of spirit, weakness of faith, coldness in feeling, faintness in asking, weariness in waiting, too much passion in our own matters, and too little compassion in other men's miseries."
Our human condition renders us, Thomas Boston said, "apt, instead of bread, to ask a stone; instead of a fish, a scorpion; to pray for what would do us ill, and against what is for our good." He elaborated the following:
1) We might pray against God's mercy
2) We might pray for that which could hurt us
4) We might not pray for what we truly need
5) We might forget what we ought to pray for
6) We might not pray according to God's will
Boston concluded, "There is so much remains of corruption in the best of us, that it is hard even in our prayers to keep within the compass of what is agreeable to His will. We must have the Spirit's help in prayer if our prayers are to be pleasing to God."
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27).
Romans 8:26-27 must surely be one of the most dear and assuring passages of Scripture to the heart of the believer. Think about God's goodness and mercy continually provided to believers in providentially directing our desires and our prayers.
Anything pleasing to God that we pray, any pure desire, any prayer agreeable with the will of God, any desire and petition strained of all selfishness and desire to human gain - is conceived in the heart the Holy Spirit and is willingly expressed by His prompting. Praise be to God.
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