And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying as he pleads for us in harmony with God’s own will. 28 And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and fit into his plans. Romans 8:27-28 I tend to overthink things. I tend to spend too much time trying to reason the way things should work. I am a person of faith, but I like to have my world nicely tied up in a pretty bow to know what to expect in the future. Most people tend to overthink things. It appears I am in a growing group in the U.S. Research in the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy shows that overthinking is a “national epidemic” among young and middle-aged adults. Still, it is a little rarer among older people: 73 percent of 25–35-year-olds overthink compared to 52 percent of 45–55-year-olds and just 20 percent of 65–75-year-olds. It makes me wonder if overthinking has a direct result on faith formation. Do we overthink our faith to the point that we think God out of our lives? Perhaps the passage Paul gave us in the letter to the Romans will help answer the question of overthinking and under praying. Paul assures us that the Holy Spirit is the intermediary between us and the focus of our prayers. The Holy Spirit searches each person as they pray to God and brings the full measure and meaning to God. Prayers cannot be misunderstood or misinterpreted by God because they are carried from us directly to God. Over the next few weeks, I will explore a variety of forms of prayer and meditation. Each prayer type carries a particular emphasis on God on our behalf. The reality may be that prayer is less dependent on what we are trying to convey to God and more on the Holy Spirit searching the depths of our souls to bring the most fervent prayer to God. I am usually very focused on my prayer time and what I want to convey to God. Paul reminds us that there may be times when we are just not connecting to God in the way we want. The Holy Spirit moves beyond our fears, frustrations, and frail feelings and finds the essence of what we wish to convey to God. When we communicate our needs, the Holy Spirit searches our inner beings and brings our deepest desires, dreams, and despairs to God. The Epistle from Paul is comforting news to a chronic over-thinker. I doubt if the two verses from Paul will alter my thought patterns very much, but I can at least rest assured that God can work beyond the world I create in my mind. While I am overthinking yet another situation, the Holy Spirit can carry my deepest prayers directly to God the Father. Hopefully, over these past several weeks, you have grown in understanding prayer as part of the spiritual disciplines. Thank you all for your supportive comments. They affirm that I am on track with some of my readers. I will be moving forward to write about other spiritual disciplines. Unfortunately, I have a whole week to overthink which discipline I will share with you. God gave us different prayer types and searches our souls to ensure our prayers are complete.