Lesson 4: Purpose of suffering – faith in Him (part 1)
Romans 8:26-39 (ESV) - www.bible.com/bible/59/rom.8
26 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.
27 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.

For the next three lessons we will study God’s purpose for suffering as it is given to us in this passage. Please read all the verses even though only two are copied into this message.

Our faith does not grow much in good times; we learn faith in the bad times. In the first verse above, we are promised that God’s Spirit helps us in our weakness. We rarely think of asking for help when everything is going well – but this promise is for when we are weak because of suffering.

If we look closely at the rest of this verse, we see that the Spirit is sharing in our suffering (as we learned the value of sharing in the last lesson). He knows what we feel, so He intercedes for us with God the Father in those times.


Have you ever felt, when you’re suffering, that you don’t know what to ask for? Sometimes it feels like it would be better if we could just die, for then our suffering would be over. Yet, we see those around us who love us and are suffering too, who want us to live and be whole again – and we don’t know how to pray. But God’s Spirit knows, for He knows God’s plan for our life. Have you ever said to the Spirit of God in you, “I don’t know what to pray for, but You do because You know God’s plan, so You pray for God’s plan to be worked out in me, and whatever You pray I will agree with and follow.”

That’s faith. And God’s Spirit living in us knows our hearts well enough to know when we mean it, and it opens the door to allowing God to work His perfect plan in us as a result.

What’s the next step after allowing God’s Spirit to pray on our behalf? Verse 28 is an incredible promise to us. It’s a promise that can never be accomplished by humans, no matter how hard we might try. But nothing is impossible with God. More on this in the next lesson.

*How have you seen your faith strengthened because of the suffering God has allowed in your life?
*How does the fact God’s Spirit is praying for you encourage you in your time of suffering?