Prayer: Being Led

This morning, at the end of the worship service, I went to the front of the sanctuary (I like that word) to stand with a friend and offer prayer for anyone who needed or wanted it. Because there is another presence there as well—God—it is often a soul-satisfying or enriching experience for all of us who are praying. But relying on the Spirit’s direction in prayer means that at times we move into uncharted waters. It can be like stepping into a river together and swimming across through sometimes turbulent water. At the end of the prayer, we all emerge, dripping, on the other side.

The act of such prayer itself is a mystery. After the person describes his or her need in a few sentences, we take each other’s hands and plunge in. Sometimes I ask a few questions for clarification, so as not to pray for the wrong thing entirely. But I always enter prayer with the awareness that my knowledge is partial. And that even the knowledge of the person asking for prayer is partial. Who can know the deep places of the heart? So it is not always clear at the outset what we should be asking God for.

This morning a woman asked for prayer regarding a matter that she wished to keep personal. She gave just a few words of description as to her need, but these were very general--yet she was bringing to prayer a very specific struggle, a specific event in her life that she felt needed healing and straightening.

Then we began to pray. Into my mind came specific things to say, specific things to ask. They arose out of my own heart and experience but also, seemingly, out of another place. As I was praying, part of me was saying, "Whoa! don't you think she'll be a little offended by this?" Another part said, "Keep going. Have courage. Have faith."

Afterward she expressed surprise that she had received insight during the prayer into things that she did not understand before. We talked about how in the very act of praying, we feel moved to ask for things we don't understand or comprehend.

As I write this, a passage from Romans 8 comes to mind:

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

It happens now that I trust the Spirit's voice, trust the push and pull of the current as we pray together. I trust the heart of God that groans for us, deeper than words. Walking with someone into the river of prayer is an exceptional privilege. It gets close to the meaning of life.