BREAKTHROUGHনমুনা

Prayer is Complete Surrender to God’s Will 

Alone. At the end of her rope and with no where else to turn, Joyce experiences a breakthrough. Her heart’s cry is no longer about John being healed. It’s suddenly all about God and surrendering to His will, no matter what. And in that moment of absolute surrender, the Holy Spirit meets her there with a peace that passes understanding. 

This is the kind of prayer Jesus modeled for His disciples: Your Kingdom come. Your will be done. Yet it’s not a prayer void of hope. It’s a prayer steeped in the hope that, though this world is utterly broken, God will make all things new. 

In Romans 8, Paul acknowledges that we live in a broken world. We experience suffering now. Loss. Sometimes the brokenness comes at our own hands; sometimes we are the ones who are broken by outside factors. Paul first encourages us that things won’t always be this way. We were made for a whole, healed world, and one day that will be reality. In the meantime, we groan. And all of creation groans along with us. 

Then Paul says that even when we don’t know how or have the ability to pray as we ought, the Spirit of God intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words. As broken people, we often don’t have the confidence in God to pray for His will above our own. But he is still with us. He still longs for that conversation. So in these moments of weakness, his Spirit will pray for us. We may not know what to say or how to trust, but He does. We may not even know what we truly want or need. But the Spirit will do the talking and plead to the Father on our behalf, in harmony with God’s will. Our role is to simply enter his presence. 

This is praying in faith. We don’t have the answers, but we know the One who does. We don’t even presume to know what is best in any situation. We simply come to God in faith and surrender, not because we know how He should solve our problems, but because we know He is the only one who can. Sometimes the conversation is quiet and tear-filled, and it matters even then. Perhaps especially then, because those are the moments you can experience your own breakthrough.