Today I want to encourage you in your prayer life. God has some great encouragement for you. What he says encourages me and I hope and pray that it encourages you also.

This text from Romans 8 is probably one of my greatest comforts when it comes to my prayer life. So many times, I don’t know what to pray, and yet when I just sit still and listen to the Lord, His Spirit prompts my prayer. More and more these days my prayers are less words and more listening as the Lord answers – sometimes even before I ask.

In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words.
All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God’s people. Romans 8:26,27

So this is an encouragement to you and your prayer life, part of the whole Lenten invitation from the Lord:
Return to the Lord – Return to Prayer

All three readings set for today have to do with prayer.

In the Old Testament reading we have Jacob wrestling with the Lord – all night. While the wrestling match is real, and Jacob had the scar to prove it, it is very much an allegory of some of our praying: wrestling with the Lord.

In Romans the Lord reminds us that if we are struggling with what to pray, His spirit will pray for us and with us.

And in the Gospel, when Jesus was about to be arrested, he invited his disciples to come stay with him and pray. They keep drifting off and in the end Jesus prayed alone. The invitation to pray remains.

Prayer is this wondrous gift that the Lord gives so that we can keep connected with him in an ongoing conversation.

This Lent we will follow the overriding theme of “Return to the Lord”. This Sunday we will take up the call to return to prayer.

Lord, open our hearts and minds to unceasing prayer – such that our lives are an open prayer engagement with you.

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