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Listen while you read: "Holy Spirit Truth Divine"1 (Lyrics) |
"I'm supposed to bring a plate to the hockey banquet next week," my young son announced.
"Bring a plate? What do you mean, Stephen?" I asked him, perplexed.
"That's what the coach said."
I wasn't familiar with the idiom "bring a plate", so Stephen took an empty plate to the dinner, but he was supposed to bring a plate full of goodies to share! Whether it was not explained to him, or he only heard part of the message, I never found out. All I know is that there was a disconnect in communication.
In the early 1990s, I taught a learning-to-read programme in Grade One in Slovakia. Instruction was in English as much as possible, but I worked with a Slovak teacher who would translate the daily phonics story as I read it.
One weekend, our family was to leave the school early to visit relatives. The normal schedule was lunch in the cafeteria, outside playtime, and then back to class for a short afternoon, an hour at the most. The pastor had given us permission to leave right after we ate. I carefully explained to Mira that we were leaving after lunch, and that she would be in charge.
As we edged towards the door, backpacks and all, she was startled. "Where are you going?"
"Remember, we were leaving after lunch," I repeated. I'm sure that the previous conversation was in English, but somehow the Czech-Slovak mindset confused the issue. "After lunch" is po obědě in Czech (that's what I was thinking), but in Slovak po obede means "in the afternoon". That's what Mira was thinking. Another communication disconnect.
Matthew 10:30 – And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. (NLT)
Psalm 139:4 – You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. (NLT)
Unlike the confusing conversations that frequently occur and cause disconnects, God knows everything, and He knows us intimately. He even knows our thoughts. He is never confused by our jumbled words in prayer. We may not know every ramification of our problem, but He does.
Romans 8:26 – In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words. (AMP)
The Holy Spirit guides our prayers through the words that He inspires us to speak. We may not understand the situation fully, or be able to explain ourselves, or use the right words. We may be emotional when we pray. When words fail us, we can pray in the Spirit. We can even ask Him for our own prayer language that enables our spirit to have direct access to God, through His Holy Spirit.
Prayer: Thank You so much, Lord, that You know us so well that You even know our thoughts. Thank You that You want us to express these thoughts to You. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, and give us our own prayer language, so that we can be in perfect communication with You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
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Thank you.
Amen Alice.
Thanks for sharing, Alice.
Thank you, Alice, for sharing your life and God’s truth.
Thank you for sharing this encouraging devotional with us. Blessings.
Greetings Alice and many thanks for another of your special devotionals and the reassuring words that the Lord understands and knows our words no matter how muddled we may be at times. We are so fortunate to have a loving Lord ever watching over us and ready to serve us always. Blessings for your writings.
Good morning Alice,
How true it is that we have disconnects in conversations and many times do not even realize that there has been a misunderstanding at the time.
It is great news that we don’t have to worry about disconnects with God because he knows all and the Holy Spirit is there for guidance also.
One of the words that goes disconnect for many is the use of “next” and a day of the week. Some people think of it as the one that is coming now and another person thinks of it as the one in the next week. Using exact dates can help eliminate this disconnect.
May we celebrate that God is always connecting with us and wants to have that communication. Blessings.
Great point to make, Alice. Memorable illustrations!
We pray that the Holy Spirit will guide our prayers and our actions.
Good afternoon, Alice
As a person who worked and lived in different countries I can relate to the confusion about some words. On our first trip to the market in Austria we were looking for hamburger to use for our spaghetti. We did not know the word for this ground meat. We knew hamburger, gehakt (which is Dutch) but not the German word. We looked everywhere and finally found a shop that sold it. We bought a pound. I made spaghetti, it was terrible. It turned out to be ground chicken. I wondered at the time why there was nothing but chicken products in that shop. Then I knew, that’s all they sold.
It is a good job the Lord does not get confused about our jumbled words.
Thank you for reminding us.
Good morning Alice. I can so relate. Some nights when I fall into bed, my prayers don’t always come out coherently. Knowing the Holy Spirit interceded is comforting.
Thank you for your Devotional.
Blessings.