And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness

I've mentioned before that we have a little 7 pound, 11-1/2 year old dog.
Since we are a long distance from our children and grandchildren, she fills
in that place lots of times. Through the years we have learned to interpret
many of her "silent communications". This morning however we had a problem
with that "communication". She (the dog, not my wife) will often sit and
stare at us and we have a series of questions we ask and then try to judge
her response to the questions. She has us trained well enough that we often
get the answer right quite quickly. This morning we went through that common
procedure and kept getting mixed signals. It seemed she wanted her kibble/
food and yet when we provided it, she didn't eat, she just sat and stared at
us. My wife said, "I don't think she knows what he really wants." Finally my
wife determined that the dog just wasn't feeling well today and picked up
some of her food and held it in her hand and the dog took a few pieces at a
time and ate.

How often are we like that in our lives? We feel discontent, loneliness, or
no sense of purpose. We stumble around mentally, trying to figure out what
is missing or why our lives are unfulfilling. We would go to God and ask
him, but since we can't figure it out ourselves, how can we approach God?

Unlike us who have a family member who is a dog, God never has to wonder
what the problem is or what we need. He knows everything about us, but that
does not mean we should not try and put our needs into words to the Father.
The scripture clearly tells us that talk to God about everything and all
times. God has however provided a way for us to communicate when we are
tongue tied or just don't know how to express our selves.

Paul tells us in Romans 8: 26-28 "And the Holy Spirit helps us in our
weakness. For example, sometimes we don't know what to pray for in the right
way. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be
expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the
Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with
God's own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for
the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for
them."

All of this is to say simply, trust God to give you what you need, even if
you need (at times) to be hand fed.

Russ Lawson