Romans 8:26-28
God has invited us to come to Him with our requests and concerns. Yet we don’t truly know how to pray as we should, because we have limited knowledge, faulty motives, and misplaced desires. But we have a Helper who intercedes for us according to God’s will.
The Holy Spirit knows exactly what the Father desires to do in our life, and His prayers are always answered. For example, we may ask for relief from suffering or hardship, but the Lord’s will may be to use these things to produce Christlike character within us. We may think our prayers have gone unanswered, but the Spirit has taken our desire for something good and turned it into a request for something better.
The Spirit not only prays for us according to God’s will, but He also clarifies the Father’s will to us. Scripture tells us what the Lord desires and how He works. As we renew our mind with His Word, we’ll be better able to pray effectively. Yet there is great comfort in knowing that none of our prayers fall on deaf ears. The Spirit takes each one and interprets it to fit the Father’s will.
Did you ever wish for an emergency telephone line that rang in heaven? The truth is that we have something much better. The Holy Spirit lives inside us to be our helper in every situation.
The night before His crucifixion, Jesus warned the disciples that He was about to depart. The news confused and frightened them, even though it wasn’t the first time He’d spoken of His death. But the Lord offered His followers assurance that He would send them another Helper.
In this passage, the Greek word for “another” means “one of the same kind,” signifying that the new Helper would be like the Son of God—a divine being. As promised, God’s Spirit came to dwell in Christ’s followers at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).
Without the Holy Spirit, we’d never be able to live the Christian life. That’s why Jesus told the disciples to delay spreading the gospel until after the Holy Spirit’s arrival. Our Helper not only empowers obedience but also teaches, guides, intercedes, comforts, transforms, and gifts us for service. Whenever we’re beset by tough times or temptations, He provides strength, endurance, hope, and encouragement. We’re so privileged to have a divine Helper who is personally assisting us every minute of every day.
Have you ever wondered why God lets bad things happen to you or your loved ones? Hardships and suffering are a consequence of sin and the fallen condition of the world, but why is He allowing distress in your life? Though trials are painful, understanding the Lord’s purpose can bring joy and hope.
When a person is saved, he or she begins the lifelong process of becoming holy. And few things build character like sorrow. Unfortunately, our spiritual growth may be slow during pleasant times, but pain brings us to our knees in dependence upon God as we seek His help, strength, comfort, and grace.
Another reason the Father allows trials is to test and refine our faith. When we go through the fire of affliction and remain true to the Lord, we’ll come out more sure of our salvation. Not only that, but we will have greater trust in God’s character and dealings with us. Then when the next difficulty arises, we will remember His faithfulness during the previous trial and be able to rest confidently in Him. If we submit to the Lord, He’ll use our hardships to mature us, and that’s reason to rejoice.
The prophet Isaiah says of the Lord, “We are the clay and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). Comparing God to a skilled craftsman, Isaiah describes how He shapes believers so they increasingly resemble the Savior. Some of the tools our Father uses to mold and perfect His creations are ...
• The Bible. Jesus prayed for us, saying, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17). As the Holy Spirit illuminates what we read, we’re slowly transformed.
• The church. As part of Christ’s body, we learn of God’s ways from the pastor and teachers who have been called to minister. Fellowship with one another is also a method the Lord uses in our sanctification as we encourage and hold each other accountable.
• Suffering. Painful circumstances teach us submission, humility, and dependence on God so we can emerge from the difficulty with deeper faith, greater spiritual maturity, and refined character.
The Lord is forming us into vessels that honor and reflect Him. Are you yielding to His shaping tools?
The Lord has a grand plan for the life of every believer, and it can be summed up in the term we looked at yesterday: sanctification. This refers to the process by which something is made holy—in other words, separated from its former common usage and dedicated to God for His purposes.
Every person is born spiritually dead and an enemy of God (Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:10). But the moment we trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, our sins are wiped away, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, and we’re adopted into God’s family. From that moment on, we are set apart as God’s children for His sacred purposes.
This means we are here on earth not to chase after pleasure and personal gain but to serve and obey the Lord. And in so doing, we bring Him honor and glory. As members of God’s family, we are called to reflect Christ’s character. The Lord now calls us saints—a term that shares its root with sanctification—not because we live sinlessly, but because that’s our position in Christ and should be our practice as well. No longer are we to give ourselves to sin; instead, we should present ourselves to God as slaves of obedience.
