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<p>&quot;The Spirit helps us in our infirmities. We do not<br />
          know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit<br />
          Himself intercedes for us with groans that<br />
          words cannot express.&quot; Romans 8:26<br />
          <br />
          &quot;We do not know what we ought to pray for.&quot; <br />
          How often do we find and feel this to be our case. <br />
          Darkness covers our mind; <br />
          ignorance pervades our soul; <br />
          unbelief vexes our spirit; <br />
          guilt troubles our conscience; <br />
          a crowd of evil imaginations, or foolish or worse <br />
          than foolish wanderings distract our thoughts; <br />
          Satan hurls in his fiery darts thick and fast; <br />
          a dense cloud is spread over the mercy seat; <br />
          infidelity whispers its vile suggestions, <br />
          until, amid all this chaos, such confusion and<br />
          bondage prevail that words seem idle breath, and <br />
          prayer to the God of heaven but empty mockery. <br />
          <br />
          <strong>In this scene of confusion and distraction</strong>, when all <br />
          seems going to the wreck, how kind, how gracious <br />
          is it for the blessed Spirit to come, as it were, to the <br />
          rescue of the poor bewildered saint, and to teach him <br />
          how to pray and what to pray for. <br />
          <br />
          He is therefore said &quot;to help us in our infirmities,&quot; <br />
          for these evils of which we have been speaking are <br />
          not wilful, deliberate sins, but <strong>wretched infirmities</strong> <br />
          of the flesh. He helps, then, our infirmities . . .<br />
          by subduing the power and prevalence of unbelief;<br />
          by commanding in the mind a solemn calm;<br />
          by rebuking and chasing away Satan and his fiery darts;<br />
          by awing the soul with a reverential sense<br />
          of the power and presence of God;<br />
          by presenting Jesus before our eyes and <br />
          drawing forth faith upon His Person and work; <br />
          and, above all, by Himself interceding for us and in<br />
          us &quot;with groans that words cannot express.&quot;<br />
          <br />
          When the soul is favoured thus to pray, its petitions are <br />
          a spiritual sacrifice, and its cries enter the ears of the <br />
          Lord Almighty, for &quot;He who searches our hearts knows <br />
          the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for <br />
          the saints in accordance with God's will.&quot; Romans 8:27
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