#DailyDevotion We Hope For What We Don’t See
Romans 824We are saved, hoping for this. But if we hope for something we see, we really don’t hope. Why should we hope for what we can see? 25But if we hope for what we can’t see, we wait for it patiently. 26In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, because we don’t know how we should pray, but the Spirit Himself pleads for us with yearnings that can’t find any words. 27He Who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit means to do, that in God’s own way He’s pleading for the holy people.
What are we saved hoping for? Our adoption as sons of God at the resurrection through Jesus Christ. We are saved through faith in the promise that we will participate in God’s glory on the last day on account of Jesus Christ. Our hope is this world is going to be renewed through the resurrection of Jesus and we will heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ in it.
Hence is the nature of our faith. We hope for something we cannot see or prove. As St. Paul says, if we could see it, it wouldn’t be hope or faith. Since we are hoping for something we cannot see, Paul concludes we wait for it patiently. Creation has been waiting patiently for it to have the curse removed for several millennia. We can wait the mere 70 to 80 plus years we walk upon the earth in these bodies of death.
Since we are weak, because of our fallen flesh, the Spirit helps us. He helps us when we don’t know what to pray or how to pray. Such is Jesus’ promise in Luke 11:13, “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” “The Spirit Himself pleads for us with yearnings that can’t find any words.” This is not speaking in tongues but rather the groanings of our hearts towards God. Certainly you have prayed this prayer, “Ugh!” Like Jesus who intercedes, prays for us at the right hand of the Father, so too, the helper, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. He takes our prayers and unspoken prayers and prays for us the things we should be praying for in the manner we should be praying for them on our behalf. So our prayers are always in accordance with God’s will.
The Father who searches our hearts, our new regenerate hearts, knows what the Spirit is trying to do so in God’s own way he is pleading for the holy people, all Christians everywhere. So David says in Psalm 20:4 “May He give you your heart’s desire and carry out all your plans.” These are not the plans or desires of our old wicked hearts but the new heart created in us by the Holy Spirit when we came to faith in Christ Jesus.
With such a hope, we may open our mouths and make our requests known to God. We may not always be praying right or what we should be asking for, but since we are praying in this hope promised to us, the Holy Spirit will take our prayers and make them right before God. So the Father will answer our prayers with yes, but it will be yes to the prayer we should have prayed and not always the prayer we actually mouthed. And that’s a good thing for he answers our prayers in the manner that is best for us and for his church.
Merciful God and Father, may the Holy Spirit ever increase in us faith in the hope of your glory and may he intercede for us for the things for which we pray and the things for which we ought to have prayed. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.