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While reflecting with a friend the other day about a challenge that had presented itself, my friend asked: “What should we be praying for?”
After sitting with the question for a beat or two, I said: “I don’t know.”
No, I wasn’t employing a pastoral care tool to invite further examination or contemplation. I did not know what we should pray for or how to craft the prayer.
Blessedly, Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome encourages us for such a moment. Paul says:
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).”
Paul’s message is good news! I find the promise of the Spirit’s presence and help to be deeply reassuring when I feel helpless and without a prayer. Even—and especially—when we don’t know how to pray, the Spirit comes to our rescue and assists us with “sighs too deep for words.”
At a basic level, the word Spirit in the Bible suggests wind and breath. The Holy Spirit moves unseen with life-giving power over the earth’s surface and in our lives to direct, enliven, and sustain.
The other week, I picked up a book that got me thinking about my breathing. Breathing for Warriors by Dr. Belisa Vranich and Brian Sabin invites readers to consider that they are not breathing as they could and that our poor use of our lungs and diaphragm results in our bodies failing us in many ways. With corrective breathing activities and mindfulness about how we have control over something that is not entirely automatic—that is, our breathing—the authors suggest that by renewed emphasis on inhaling and exhaling, our bodies, minds, and souls will be the beneficiaries of the increased airflow.
The book’s message has resonated with me. When I am anxious, scared, or agitated, my breathing becomes shallow and located in the upper portions of my chest. My heart rate rises, as does my blood pressure, and I prepare for fight or flight (typically, fight!) rather than a more centered and thoughtful response. By strengthening my diaphragm to breathe more fully from my stomach, I can activate my parasympathetic nervous system’s response, which settles me down and helps me be responsive rather than reactive.
Sunday is Pentecost, the Church’s celebration of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to Christ’s followers. The Bible teaches us that the Spirit descends upon the disciples like a mighty rushing wind. If communion is an opportunity for us to ingest Christ’s presence through bread and wine, then the Holy Spirit is breathed into us and fills us up, body and soul.
No, we may not always know what to pray for. But we can always pray deeply and trust that the Holy Spirit that fills our lungs and powers our bodies will also provide us precisely what we need.
Our deep breathing of God’s mighty rushing wind will remind us of the promise that “All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).”
The Holy Spirit is available to us all. Breathe deeply, and you’ll feel God in your bones.