Sighs Too Deep For Words

“Give heed to my sighing…” Psalm 5:1

Have you ever been in a place where you had no words to describe your distress and when you tried to pray – it came out as a…sigh? Prayer is not trying to strong arm God with fancy words. It’s not way to cut good deals with God or harness divine favor. In fact, we don’t need words at all. Prayer is not so much the words we say as it is the heart’s reach for God. This is especially true when words cannot express the depth and breadth of that reach. In times of distress we choose then to hold it instead of even talking it through; offering it instead of fixing it by words and ideas. Thomas Merton said it well: “Silence is the language of God—all else is poor translation.” This also gives reality to the verse from Romans 8:26 promising that “…the spirit prays in us with sighs too deep for words.” I think these are our deepest and truest prayers. This isn’t to say that we suddenly have right understanding, only that we express what is most real in us…and God meets us there.