Likewise 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. And he who searches the hearts of men 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 (RSV)
In the small hours of the morning of October 18, 1977, our daughter Elizabeth was born beautiful and alert. I have in my mind's eye her face as she beheld the world in which she had been born.
A few minutes later, her sister Sarah was born. She was blue. It is vivid in my memory the doctor lifting her arm and watching it fall lifelessly to the table. I was frozen in anguish and fear. I wanted to pray, plead with God for the life of my child. A million words pent up in my heart could not find my voice. I heard myself say, 'Please!'
There was no more desperate prayer ever offered in my life and, in my mind, never more inadequate a prayer. 'For we do not know how to pray as we ought,' was the truth of that terrible moment. I could not pray for my child as she lay before my eyes, blue and breathless.
Miracles take place even before we realize they are happening. A miracle of prayer was offered, not in my voice, but by the Spirit whose presence tapped the well of my heart, flooding the Throne of the Father with the prayer I could not make.
God provided talented and competent doctors, nurses, and others whose gifts were employed in less time than it takes to tell. Sarah was breathing, pink and beautiful.
The sighs of the Spirit that morning all those years ago have been with me in countless circumstances. The comfort of those Spirit offered prayers has maintained my soul in many times and places where prayers could not come.
The Father's love is such that we need never fear that our prayers might not be adequate. Even the most faltering syllables of our souls become glorious by the work of the Holy Spirit.