Post by Admin on Nov 9, 2017 8:23:44 GMT
Tonight’s starter question was about remembering a time that someone stood up for you – examples were how a supervisor might support someone's career through putting in a good word, or how someone came to the defense of another (who without realizing it, said something that offended) by reminding us to look at that person’s heart and see that no harm was meant. In many of these cases, we might not know immediately that we were being defended or helped. In fact, we might never know how someone helped us behind the scenes.
“Help” is an important word in tonight’s verse. The Greek word is used only in two places in the New Testament, verse 26 in Romans 8, and in Luke 10 discussing Martha wanting Mary to help with chores. The Greek word captures the type of “helping” in which someone picks up the other side of a load and helps to lift it. That opened our consideration of the Holy Spirit as ready to share our load, not take it from us. And that requires us first to recognize that we do not and should not solve every issue and handle every challenge all by ourselves, and then to turn to the Holy Spirit to ask for His help.
The focus of tonight’s scripture was the last two verses, 26 and 27, where the Holy Spirit is helping us to pray. That means we are already trying to pray from an open, loving heart, and have already also faced the question of what we should pray for: should we specify a solution, request God to heal someone or change a circumstance, or be completely vague? And in thinking about that quandary we could see the Holy Spirit in a special way. As our advocate, He has access both to us and our thoughts, as well as to God and His will. We can’t know the future or advise God about any situation. In prayer, we can be compassionate and loving and yearning for peace, and then connect with the Holy Spirit to convey those prayers to God. Upon presenting them to God, the Holy Spirit can also bring back to us God’s will, and advise for us also. That helps us adjust ourselves to actually accept and understand God’s will, rather than just being obedient to it. There were some great examples shared, such as Normi feeling the love of the congregation through prayer that gave her strength, and Susan mentioning the Lord’s Prayer, which seems on the surface to be a list of requests to God from us, and instead can be seen as really the perfect merge of His will for us with our perspective on daily needs.
We each received a prayer slip with a suggestion for a way to launch a prayer relationship with the Holy Spirit. “Holy Spirit, I am not sure how to pray for ________________, but I know that I want God’s will to be done. You are the one who comes alongside us and pleads for us. I ask you to intercede with the Father on behalf of __________________according to the will of God.”
Of course, we also had a great hymn with beautiful words to read. New Apostolic Hymnal song, #257, Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire.
Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed;
the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try,
prayer the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on high.
Nor prayer is made on earth alone: the Holy Spirit pleads,
and Jesus on the eternal throne for sinners intercedes.
O Thou by whom we come to God, the Life, the Truth, the Way,
the path of prayer thyself hast trod: Lord, teach us how to pray!
“Help” is an important word in tonight’s verse. The Greek word is used only in two places in the New Testament, verse 26 in Romans 8, and in Luke 10 discussing Martha wanting Mary to help with chores. The Greek word captures the type of “helping” in which someone picks up the other side of a load and helps to lift it. That opened our consideration of the Holy Spirit as ready to share our load, not take it from us. And that requires us first to recognize that we do not and should not solve every issue and handle every challenge all by ourselves, and then to turn to the Holy Spirit to ask for His help.
The focus of tonight’s scripture was the last two verses, 26 and 27, where the Holy Spirit is helping us to pray. That means we are already trying to pray from an open, loving heart, and have already also faced the question of what we should pray for: should we specify a solution, request God to heal someone or change a circumstance, or be completely vague? And in thinking about that quandary we could see the Holy Spirit in a special way. As our advocate, He has access both to us and our thoughts, as well as to God and His will. We can’t know the future or advise God about any situation. In prayer, we can be compassionate and loving and yearning for peace, and then connect with the Holy Spirit to convey those prayers to God. Upon presenting them to God, the Holy Spirit can also bring back to us God’s will, and advise for us also. That helps us adjust ourselves to actually accept and understand God’s will, rather than just being obedient to it. There were some great examples shared, such as Normi feeling the love of the congregation through prayer that gave her strength, and Susan mentioning the Lord’s Prayer, which seems on the surface to be a list of requests to God from us, and instead can be seen as really the perfect merge of His will for us with our perspective on daily needs.
We each received a prayer slip with a suggestion for a way to launch a prayer relationship with the Holy Spirit. “Holy Spirit, I am not sure how to pray for ________________, but I know that I want God’s will to be done. You are the one who comes alongside us and pleads for us. I ask you to intercede with the Father on behalf of __________________according to the will of God.”
Of course, we also had a great hymn with beautiful words to read. New Apostolic Hymnal song, #257, Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire.
Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed;
the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try,
prayer the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on high.
Nor prayer is made on earth alone: the Holy Spirit pleads,
and Jesus on the eternal throne for sinners intercedes.
O Thou by whom we come to God, the Life, the Truth, the Way,
the path of prayer thyself hast trod: Lord, teach us how to pray!