Have you ever been so confused that you didn’t know what to pray for? Have you ever been so heartbroken that you didn’t even have the strength to pray? Have you ever wondered if God could possibly love someone who had made such a mess of life? Do you feel helpless or hopeless or worthless?

Then today’s passage is good news for you, for it reminds us that salvation is all of God. Are you having trouble in prayer? Trust God, for Romans 8:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit will pray for us, even when we can’t put our prayers into words. Are you heartbroken or confused, wondering why so much suffering or grief has come your way? Trust God, for He not only knows everything about you. He also understands and commands all the circumstances that swirl around all of us. However hopeless we might feel, the good news is that God is in control, and 8:28 says that He is somehow able to put all the broken pieces of our lives together in a way that will ultimately bring good to ourselves and to others, in a way that will bring glory to Him.

Do you feel like you have let go of God? Do you feel like you’re so mixed up and messed up that God couldn’t possible love you? Trust God, for He is the One Who reaches out to the worst, the most rebellious of sinners. Romans 8:30 reminds us that God is the One Who takes the initiative in human salvation. Just as Jesus came into our world unwelcomed and unbidden, just as He died on a cross for people who abandoned Him and denied Him, He still comes to sinners like us. However great the darkness in which we are trapped, He called us into His marvelous light.

And He comes to us and calls us so that He might justify us, so that He might take all our sins upon Himself (Romans 8:3). Instead of condemning us for how far away we have run from Him, He comes to us and wraps all His people in a robe of His own righteousness (Romans 5:19). The amazing truth is that when God looks at His people, He sees the perfection and holiness of Christ. And Christ did all this so that we might be adopted into God’s family (Romans 8:15), so that we might share in God’s own glory.

Do you feel helpless or hopeless or worthless? Trust the God Who knows you. Trust the God Who is in charge of everything that happens to you. Trust the God Who takes the initiative to save even the worst of sinners, reaching out to the lost and binding up the broken. Trust God, and be certain of His love for you.

Romans 8:26-30 (NASB)

26 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.