Weakness

This past year, I have been talking to God regularly. Prayer is hard for me at times, but I've been sticking to my weekly routine.

This is a very interesting and difficult to understand passage written by Paul on prayer:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

If I get this right, God prays for me to himself on my behalf. What good does that do? Seems strange to me - illogical.

I looked up "intercede" this week: to intervene between parties with a view to reconciling differences.

With this idea, it makes much more sense. I think it means that God takes responsibility to bring us together where I'm too weak to pursue it. I guess I just need to be willing to talk to him.

So God made it clear to me this weekend, he wants me to make kindness the top priority in all I do. This is one of my biggest weaknesses, as I wrote about weeks ago. He basically told me that if I practice kindness, I will be fruitful, and if I don't I won't. So all the things I'm good at won't lead to anything, and the thing I'm bad at will lead to results.

When my mind opened this weekend and I saw this new situation, my initial response was "God, you've got to be kidding. Can't it be something else? This is a joke. You know it's hard for me." I can see working at it with my family, but everywhere? It's overwhelming.

I guess there really is no surprise here. Paul wrote about his own struggles, and God's response to them: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

God, I'm at a loss for words.

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Sundays | Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

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