Occasionally we find ourselves in situations for which we have no words. Sometimes our words are inadequate for the circumstances, such as when we try to comfort a person who has lost a beloved. At other times, we don’t understand a situation well enough to describe it clearly, or we aren’t comfortable with how our words will be received by others.

In our passage this week, we enjoyed reading that the Holy Spirit will speak our wordless thoughts for us. Too often we have the idea that we need to meet some magic prayer number or speak the right prayer formula to persuade God in our behalf. This isn’t the case. He is looking for hearts inclined toward Him, not the perfect prayer.

We also explored the idea of all things working toward good for those who love God. A key point here is that God, who honors free will, is in the business of redemption, not prevention. He allows mankind to make terrible mistakes, but He will redeem all things. If we incline our hearts toward Him, we will experience the joy and encouragement of seeing many of His redemptions take place.

Continuing on, we also realized that terrible things like famine, persecution and sword cannot separate us from the love of Christ, even though we might suffer these terrible things like “sheep to be slaughtered.” We pondered it this way: Picture the person whom you love the most in your life. Would poverty or famine or even death remove your love from that person? No, of course not! We might not have the best words to comfort our beloved in those situations, and our prayers may seem futile, but our love remains fervent. This is all the more true with Christ.

The only real hindrance we experience in such situations is if a beloved turns away from us and tells us our love is not shared. Our love remains, but we cannot express it well to one who chooses to reject it. BUT for loved ones who KNOW we love them, even in financial ruin, broken relationships or cancer, how much strength and encouragement does our love give them to help overcome the situation? Much, indeed! This is all the more true when we read that because of Christ’s love for us, we “overwhelmingly conquer” the tribulations of this life. May we not only experience that powerful Christ-love, but also pour it out upon those around us. Amen.