{"id":2769,"date":"2016-03-07T09:59:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T14:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=2769"},"modified":"2016-03-07T10:00:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T15:00:54","slug":"how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html","title":{"rendered":"How To Pray When You’re Speechless"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don\u2019t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.\u201d (Romans 8:26)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When all’s said and done, all will be done when all is said. God had the first word; he will have the last. He speaks. He IS the WORD.<\/p>\n

And God has created us humans in his image. He created us by a word, and his image is carried in us by our capacity, unique among all creatures, to speak words. Other animals communicate, but humans alone have the ability for self-awareness\u00a0and other awareness expressed in language. Words are a wonder, and as much as anything a proof of God\u2019s existence and his present and active love.<\/p>\n

We pray in words, as we should. God listens and answers our prayers, quite often by returning words back to us. Words matter; words mean things.<\/p>\n

But sometimes words come up short and our communication with God needs to go deeper than human language can express. We know from human communication studies that non-verbal signals cover a wider portion of what we say than what we \u201csay\u201d in vocabulary. \u201cBody language\u201d and tone of voice superimpose\u00a0meaning atop our words.<\/p>\n

Prayer can also have a non-verbal expressing. The Bible mentions all kinds of body language postures for prayer: kneeling, raising hands, clapping, shouting, lying face down\u2026 There are dozens of examples. In those times when I don\u2019t know what to say to God, I can resort to something beyond language, and let other expressions do my talking.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s promises meet me however I express myself. When I\u2019m speechless, I am never alone. As Paul says above, the Spirit of God comes to coach and coax me to express\u00a0what I can\u2019t express. Sometimes all I can do is muster a \u201cgroaning too deep for words.\u201d That can actually be the Spirit uttering expression through me.<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps today all you can muster is a \u201cgroan\u201d or a sigh in prayer. Maybe you just need to kneel and be still and quiet. Maybe you need to go out into the woods and shout! Well and good! God can leverage our wordless expressions and turn them into a genuine and complete appeal. We may not understand but he certainly does.<\/p>\n

Response<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, try praying somehow without a word. Kneel. Dance. Shout. Sketch a picture… Enough said. You can experiment in prayer in a way deeper than words.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don\u2019t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.\u201d (Romans 8:26) When all’s said and done, all will be done when all is said. God had the first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,7,4,25,3,1],"tags":[1630,599,1628,1629,1632,1631],"class_list":["post-2769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-groaning-too-deep-for-words","tag-praying-in-the-holy-spirit","tag-praying-without-words","tag-speechless-prayer","tag-the-helper","tag-the-holy-spirit"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Pray When You're Speechless<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Pray When You're Speechless\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cAnd the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don\u2019t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.\u201d (Romans 8:26) When all’s said and done, all will be done when all is said. God had the first…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-07T14:59:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-07T15:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How To Pray When You're Speechless","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How To Pray When You're Speechless","og_description":"\u201cAnd the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don\u2019t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.\u201d (Romans 8:26) When all’s said and done, all will be done when all is said. God had the first…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2016-03-07T14:59:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-03-07T15:00:54+00:00","author":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html","name":"How To Pray When You're Speechless","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-03-07T14:59:38+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-07T15:00:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/03\/how-to-pray-when-youre-speechless.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How To Pray When You’re Speechless"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf","name":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","caption":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw and their four children have been ministering in their local church since 1990. Jill is an accomplished worship leader and recording artist with several CDs in Target stores\u2019 \u201cLifescapes\u201d collection. Mark is the former pastor of the 7,000 member North Heights Lutheran Church. He holds a Ph.D. in leadership from Regent University, is the author of three books and a recognized conference speaker.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2769"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2773,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2769\/revisions\/2773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}