The Spirit Himself enters into this groaning condition by joining His help to our infirmity (Rom. 8:26). In conditions of trial, sorrow, and uncertainty, our weakness is made fully evident, but that only opens to us more the heart of God and produces in us a healthy dependence upon Him every step of the way. In connection with the Spirit helping our infirmities, prayer is that upon which the apostle dwells. Prayer is the expression of dependence and of the creature-place that we have with God. It is the expression, also, of our confidence in God. Prayer is thus a large part of the Christian life. We often do not know what to pray for as we ought. How blessed to know that here we have a divine Intercessor; as we have Christ before God for us, so we have the Spirit of God in us, and He makes intercession for us according to God. The prayer that He makes is, of course, absolutely according to God; yet as wrought in our hearts it may be on that very account simply a groaning that cannot be uttered intelligibly. It is a wonderful thing to realize that these groanings which are the evidence of our own infirmity may, nevertheless, be the fruit of the Spirit within us, speaking intelligently in the ear of God and in absolute accordance with His mind concerning us, and in complete accordance with His thought and character. While the Spirit’s intercession for us may go beyond our intelligence, how gracious of Him, our Comforter, to come and join His help to our infirmities, and to carry us along the lighted road that leads to God.