How exactly do you talk about a sometimes awkward topic without it being awkward? For real, how do you do that?

Answer: Just don’t be weird about it.

God’s truth is the truth for every single one of us. God’s not weird, so sharing his truth isn’t weird unless you make it weird. You make it weird when you insert yourself and try to make it about you instead of about God.

Ready for this? We’re going to talk about a sometimes awkward topic today without it being awkward. We’re sharing straight from God’s word and therefore we know it is truth.

Romans 8:26-27, “The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”

We call this praying in the Spirit or speaking in tongues. Most everyone has a personal bad experience with this. Someone made it weird. Someone put on a show, someone made you feel less spiritual, someone made it awkward.

Is speaking in an unknown language prompted by the Holy Spirit real – yes – sometimes. How do we know? Because God’s word tells us it is an example of what the Holy Spirit does for a believer. And let’s be honest, sometimes it’s manufactured nonsense from someone hoping you’ll notice them. That’s awkward. It’s cringey. And God is not impressed.

A few verses in 1 Corinthians 14 explain it like this: “If you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally. If I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying.”

It is not for the benefit of others, it is personal. It shouldn’t be a show. It’s not a sign of spirituality or superiority. Once again, if you’re making it about you, you’re doing it wrong. You’re making it awkward.

The Holy Spirit offers many gifts to a believer. This happens to be one gift we get hung up on unnecessarily. If you don’t speak in tongues and pray in the Spirit, it DOES NOT mean you don’t have the filling of the Spirit of God. It doesn’t mean you’re on a lower level. It doesn’t mean you are spiritually less than anyone else. It means maybe you haven’t opened that gift yet, or maybe you have been offered other gifts. That’s not a bad thing.

When we make it about us, we make it awkward. This isn’t about you – this is about God’s Holy Spirit within you.

Let’s simplify this. The point of praying in tongues is allowing the Holy Spirit to pray for us in alignment with God’s will. You see, maybe there are things we don’t know to pray, things we’re afraid to pray, things we’re holding back on – so when the Spirit prays for us, we’re out of the way and in full agreement with God beyond our own awareness.

It’s a surrender, not a show.

It’s a willingness to agree with God’s will without knowing the details.

It’s signing up for the unknown mission, the mystery assignment, the next scary step all while it is totally unknown.

When you’re praying in a language you don’t understand, you’re agreeing to words and sentences you didn’t orchestrate. Through the spirit praying for you in it’s language, you may have just said, “Send me, I will go.” You may have said, “Change me first.” You may have said, “I’ll walk through this hardship to learn the lesson.” You may have said, “Take it away from me, I can’t be trusted with this.”

So you see, it’s a willing surrender to God’s plan, God’s authority, and God’s love – even though you can’t predict it or control it. This is faith.

Here’s where we take away all the awkwardness. We’re going to take away the tendency to make it about the show and about ourselves, and just allow the Spirit to pray for us, orchestrating words and sentences we can’t control and we don’t understand, but we agree with them in faith. Don’t be nervous – this isn’t going to be weird, I promise.

And, guess what – you already know exactly how to do this. I promise you do – you’ve been doing this since you were a little girl. Now, you just do it with greater meaning and unleash God’s power. I’ll teach you how and you will never forget this. It will be a prayer you pray in your most desperate times. Times when you are stuck. Times when you don’t know what to pray. Times when you’ve run out of your own plans, you’ve run out of time, and you’re about out of hope.

First, let me share a story.

A grandfather was walking through his yard when he heard his granddaughter repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that sounded like prayer. He asked her what she was doing. The little girl explained: “I’m praying, but I can’t think of exactly the right words, so I’m just saying all the letters, and God will put them together for me because He knows what I’m thinking.”

WOW! Pray all the letters and just trust God to put them together for you.

This is a prayer of faith. This is allowing the Spirit to form words on your behalf. That’s not weird, that’s powerful!

Maybe you’ve been praying over the same situation for years and you simply don’t know what else to pray. Let the Spirit pray for you! Let him arrange the letters and put it all together as a prayer that perfectly aligns with God’s will over that situation. If you can do that, you’re showing complete trust and surrender.

I think that’s the whole point. God wants you to trust him so much that you offer every letter that could make up every word there is, to be put together into sentences that could say absolutely anything, and actually MEAN IT because you trust him that much.

The prayer of complete surrender and total faith that begins by saying, “A. B. C. D. ….”, is the prayer that unleashes the will of God and puts you smack dab in the middle of it.

When you don’t know what to pray… When you’re exhausted from praying the same thing over and over again… When you feel like everything you have been praying has been dismissed… This is what you do … you pray your ABC’s over it. All the letters are there, God will put them in order.

This is not a prayer reserved for the super spiritual. This is not a prayer to show a higher level of connection or superiority. This is a humble prayer that allows the Spirit to pray for us without us getting in the way.

Some might think that would be silly. Gosh, even a child can pray their ABC’s. That’s actually the whole point. In Matthew 18:3, Jesus called a little child to him and he said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The MSG translation says it like this, “Unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom.”

Have you ever prayed your ABCs on your knees. Why not do it today? In fact, why not just do it now? With me? Some might think it’s silly, but your Father who is in Heaven is pleased with childlike faith.

What a humbling prayer of childlike faith. Join me on your knees right now if you can.

God, A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. T. U. V. W. X. Y. Z.

Now Lord, put all those letters together in alignment with your will. In the name of Jesus, Amen

You have no idea the power of what you just prayed. He aligned the letters perfectly to create the prayer you didn’t even know to pray.

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