Wordless Prayers

February 2, 2020

Sometimes when I pray, I can’t seem to focus;; words don’t come, my mind is in a whirl. Actually, it’s more than sometimes; it’s most times. I suspect it’s not mere confusion, early onset of dementia, or anything of the sort. At least part of it I believe is spiritual warfare. The Enemy of our souls fears our prayers and will do most anything to keep us prayerless.

Recently, I came across a quote from St. Basil the Great, the 4th Century bishop of Cappadocia. “This is how you pray continually—not by offering your prayer in words, but by joining yourself to God through your whole way of life, so that your life becomes one continuous and uninterrupted prayer.” I grew up learning that Scripture is how God talks to us, and prayer is how we talk to God. Note the emphasis on words. For over fifty years (Yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary of my first sermon as a pastor. I still have the manuscript and can quote the text I used), I made my living with words. They are not unimportant; after all, the apostle John said of Jesus Christ that he is the living Word of God. 

I am thankful however, that prayer is not totally dependent on words. St. Paul even wrote that God hears wordless prayers: “the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:26). There are plenty of times for one reason or another that words fail me in prayer. When that happens, the Holy Spirit scoops up the heartache and anguish, the longings and intercessions we feel, but cannot express, and translates them into heavenly language heard by the Father. How cool is that?