Romans 8:26

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Likewise the Spirit also helps our weakness: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Verse 25 Read Chapter 8 Verse 27

Ambrosiaster

AD 400

Our prayers are weak because they ask for things contrary to reason, and for this reason Paul shows that this weakness in us is helped by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. The Holy Spirit helps because he does not allow anything we ask for before the proper time or against God’s wishes to happen. Paul says that the Spirit intercedes for us not with human words but according to his own nature. For when what comes from God speaks with God, it is obvious that he will speak in the same way as the one from whom he comes speaks. For the Spirit given to us overflows with our prayers in order to make up for our inadequacy and lack of foresight by his actions and to ask God for the things which will be of benefit to us. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.

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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430

It is clear from what follows that Paul is speaking here about the Holy Spirit…. “We do not know how to pray as we ought” for two reasons. First, it is not yet clear what future we are hoping for or where we are heading, and second, many things in this life may seem positive but are in fact negative, and vice versa. Tribulation, for example, when it comes to a servant of God in order to test or correct him may seem futile to those who have less understanding…. But God often helps us through tribulation, and prosperity, which may be negative if it traps the soul with delight and the love of this life, is sought after in vain. The Spirit sighs by making us sigh, arousing in us by his love a desire for the future life. “The Lord your God tempts you so that he might know whether you love him,” that is, to make you know, for nothing escapes God’s notice.

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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430

The Spirit that intercedes is nothing but the same charity which the Spirit has wrought in you…. Charity itself groans in prayer, and he who gave it cannot shut his ears to its voice. Cast away care, let charity make request, and the ears of God are ready to listen. The answer comes—not what you want but what is to your advantage.

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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430

The Holy Spirit, who intercedes with God on behalf of the saints, does not groan as if he were in need and experiencing distress. Rather he moves us to pray when we groan, and thus he is said to do what we do when he moves us. .

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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430

We must not deduce from this that either the apostle or those to whom he spoke were unacquainted with the Lord’s Prayer. We think that the reason Paul says that we do not know how we should pray … was because temporal trials and troubles are often useful for curing the swelling of pride or for proving and testing our patience, and by this proving and testing winning for it a more glorious and precious reward; or for chastising and wiping out certain sins, while we, ignorant of these benefits, wish to be delivered from all trouble.

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Clement Of Alexandria

AD 215

If he but form the thought in the secret chamber of his soul, and call on the Father "with unspoken groanings"

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John Chrysostom

AD 407

It is not possible, says Paul, for us human beings to have a precise knowledge of everything. So we ought to yield to the Creator of our nature and with joy and great relish accept those things which he has decided on and have an eye not to the appearance of events but to the decisions of the Lord. After all, he knows better than we do what is for our benefit, and he also knows what steps must be taken for our salvation.

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John Chrysostom

AD 407

The Spirit is always there to help us and to do his part…. Since we are ignorant of much that is profitable for us and we ask for things which are not profitable, the gift of prayer used to come into one person in the church, and he would be the person set aside to ask God for the things which would benefit them all. Here the word Spirit is the name which Paul gives to the kind of grace and to the soul who receives it and intercedes with God on our behalf. The one who was counted worthy of such a grace as this would stand with great attention, and with many mental groanings he would fall before God, asking the things which were profitable for all. Nowadays, the deacon is a symbol of this, when he offers up the prayers for the people.

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Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220

Herein also you ought to recognise the Paraclete in His character of Comforter, in that He excuses your infirmity

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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20