When No Words Come

Have you ever been so overwhelmed with emotion that you can’t think straight? I have. It is very frustrating. When something distressing hits me hard and suddenly, I feel like a kid on the playground whose stomach just got slammed by a kickball. The wind gets knocked out of me. I lose my confidence and feel like I am bobbing up and down in an ocean, drifting with the wind.

When a late-night phone call comes with tragic, difficult news, it is hard to rally my mind because my heart is so full.  My emotions kick in immediately before my intellect has time to reason or to process. These are the times when I need most to pray, but I am so overwrought that no words come.  My disappointment and heartache feel like they are putting a clamp on my mouth and shutting the door to my thoughts.  I can’t voice a prayer and I can’t conjure up an idea for a prayer.  I am stuck – unable to pray but needing to pray more than ever.  This is when I am immensely grateful that I am not alone.

Romans 8:26 proclaims,

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.”

God knows my heart.  He knows that I long to pray but that I am trapped with emotion and tangled up in confusion.

Thankfully, I don’t need to fret because the Holy Spirit takes over for me.  He approaches God the Father on His throne of grace and prays on my behalf.  He utters my heartfelt desires with sighs too deep for words.  These are some of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture.  What a gift that the Spirit will serve as my advocate to God the Father.  The Spirit can express what is inexpressible for me; He whispers into the ear of the Creator my heartbreak and pain.  He delivers what I cannot bring by myself.  This brings me peace that I am being heard and reassurance that my shattered heart matters to God.