Prayer – Romans 8:26-39
Romans 8:26-39
26 The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer
Gracious God, we come to you as we are, full of thoughts and desires, not always sure of what to say to you or how to say it. And yet, by grace, we can trust that you search our hearts and know every word before it passes our lips.
While the world around us and far beyond us is not always as we would have it, we thank you that all things work together for good, for those who love you, those who are called according to your purpose, and we pray that we are among them, not by our doing but by yours. Help us to trust in, and live out of, your love and forgiveness.
And when we do act in your name, as we must, may we be confident that regardless of apparent success or failure, challenges yet to be overcome, that to be on your side is the right side. Strengthen our hearts through the sure and certain knowledge that ultimately we are more than victorious through Christ who loves us, and that nothing — nothing — can separate us from your love made real in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is in his name that we pray this. Amen.
