Most of us have had those times in our prayer lives when we
aren’t quite sure how to pray for a difficult situation.

Charles Spurgeon once wrote: “How can I pray? My mind
wanders: I chatter like a crane; I roar like a beast in pain; I moan in the
brokenness of my heart, but oh, my God, I know not what it is my inmost spirit
needs; or if I know it, I know not how to frame my petition aright before thee.”

It reminds me of the story of a little girl who got lost in
a cornfield. The farmer heard her voice and found her talking and crying
incessantly. As he approached her, he said, “Don’t cry… I’ll take you home!”
The little girl looked up at him and smiled and then gave him a big hug and
said, “I knew you would come, I was just waiting for you!”

The farmer said: “Waiting for me? What made you think I was
coming?”

“I was praying you would come,” she said.

“Praying? When I first heard you, you were saying
A-B-C-D-E-F-G…what was that for?”

“I don’t know how to pray. So I just prayed the alphabet and
let God put the letters together for me.”

The apostle Paul assures us God does just this.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not
know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the
mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to
the will of God.”

Next time you are struggling with what to say in a difficult
situation, trust the Holy Spirit to pray for you.