Ditto

– Rhonda Fleming

Have you ever had a situation in your life and you didn’t know exactly how you should pray about it?

Maybe it was a relationship issue with no easy fix and you weren’t even sure what to ask God to do.

Or maybe it’s simply a desire for something you need . . . like a better car or a bigger house.  Or something you really want . . . to be married or to have a baby. And maybe you aren’t sure how or even if you should pray about it.

Or perhaps it’s a situation you’ve gotten yourself into. Maybe you’re carrying around too much debt, or too much weight, or too much regret.

What you want to say is . . . Jesus, just fix it!

It would be awesome if we could know how to pray in every situation . . . what to ask for . . . how to agree with God’s will. Then we would be able to pray with all certainty that He would answer our prayer. (Image via Pixabay)

But sometimes I just don’t know. I know what my own desires are. But sometimes (well, maybe most of the time) my desires are very self-focused and all about my comfort.

Recently I’ve rediscovered a few Bible verses that are helping me when I don’t know how to pray.

I’ve read these verses hundreds, if not thousands, of times during my life.

But I recently read them in a new translation. And this translation’s wording jolted me out of my complacency and familiarity and gave me so much HOPE I just had to share.

Chapter 8 of the book of Romans has long been one of my favorite passages in the Bible. And verse 28 has always given me such assurance – especially when things aren’t going like it appears to me that they should.

In case you’re not familiar with Romans 8:28, here is my simple paraphrase: God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are fulfilling their God-given purpose.

But verses 26-27, the two verses leading up to that famous verse, have always been just – well, just hidden in the shadows of verse 28 – at least for me.

But now I see verses 26-27 as being the lead hitters with verse 28 batting clean-up. (Pardon the not perfectly accurate baseball reference.) Together these three verses are powerful.

They always were powerful verses. But after decades of ‘knowing’ what they said, they had become commonplace for me.

Now, after reading them in the Passion Translation, I am amazed – again – at the Word of God.

Here’s the powerful trio:

²⁶ And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.

²⁷ God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, his holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny.

²⁸ So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.

– Romans 8:26-28 (TPT) (Bolded words represent author’s emphasis.)

Did you catch that?

God the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God the Father for each one of us in perfect harmony with God’s plan for us and our individual destiny.

So, when I have a seemingly unsolvable problem that appears to be standing between me and my destiny, and I don’t know what to pray for or how to pray about it, I can REST. Because Holy Spirit is praying FOR ME – in a way that will be best for me and everyone concerned.

That doesn’t mean I stop praying. I continue to pray and remind God of the issue and thank Him for His answer and tell Him that I’m trusting Him to do what’s best.

I sometimes also tell Him (again!) what my longings are and how I would like to see it resolved and ask Him what I need to do, or change, or say.

But sometimes – especially when I feel overwhelmed by the situation – I just say “Ditto.”

I just tell God that whatever Holy Spirit is praying about my situation, I agree with. And that’s what I want, too. Because God the Holy Spirit is passionately pleading with God the Father about my particular situation. And what He’s praying for is in perfect harmony with God’s plan and my destiny.

And nothing I can come up with could be better than that.

Whatever situation you’re facing today, you can rest, knowing Holy Spirit is passionately pleading before God the Father for YOU and YOUR situation in perfect harmony with God’s plan and YOUR destiny!

So, if you don’t know what else to pray about a situation, you can just surrender and say . . .

Ditto!

This post was written by Rhonda Fleming.

She is the founder of Anchoring Hope and the author of Treasure Seeker Bible Study Workbook.