Scripture:Paul wrote, “ We do not know
what we ought to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words
cannot express." (Romans 8:26), NIV We have over
sixty lambs bounding about the farm these days. There are also thirty-six
mammas trying to keep track of them! “How,” you might wonder, “do they do
it?”
I can only tell you what I have observed: they use
Caller ID. The sheep version of it, anyway. The anxious mama, or the
strayed lamb, will call out, and the other responds. There may be some running
about, some frantic searching, but soon the mama and lamb(s) are together
again. Voice recognition is a high-tech buzzword these days, but voice recognition
has been around for a long time. Most of God’s creatures have it.
Think of the many people you can recognize over the
telephone by their voice. Sure, you miss once in a while, but we can claim
that the phone modifies the sound.
Note also how quickly mothers can pick their children’s
voices out of a gaggle of toddlers. Or how the slightest sound from a baby
will awaken a mother from the deepest dreamland.
Our technological age has adapted the computer
to enable recognition of individuals by several means, including fingerprints,
eyeball scans, and voice recognition. The most widespread form of computer
recognition is the database. You have encountered it in many stores or businesses.
If you have shopped there before, and are in their database, your
name and address will quickly appear on their computer screen when they
enter your telephone number.
It is a nice feeling to be recognized, whether
by friends on the telephone, or by a business through their computer database.
You can say, Hey! I’m real, I am recognized, somebody cares enough to
have my name in their remembrance file.”
God, of course, has had all of these abilities to know
who is calling upon Him from “everlasting to everlasting.” God bestowed
all of the marvelous “Caller ID” qualities upon His creation. There
is, however, a special relationship that is worthy of note: God has you
in His database. “Even when we do not know what we ought to pray, the
Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (Romans
8:26)
Best of all, we are assured that the Spirit intercedes
“in accordance with God’s will.” (vs. 27) Think about it - Does this
verse mean that it is God’s will that the Spirit intercede for us, or that
the Spirit converts our thoughts and desires into a form that meets God’s
will? Quite possibly, both?
Prayer is the key, because prayer works both ways,
if we enable the full power of prayer.
God is not just a big answering
machine somewhere in heaven that we dial up and leave a message, saying,
“God, gimme!” and hang up.
God and the Spirit combine to answer as to God’s will in the matter if we
but “stay on the line.”
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