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| January 26, 2002 |
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| "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." Matthew 6:7-8 Much that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the "answer" to our prayers. We pray for patience and God sends tribulation, for tribulation produces patience. We pray for submission, and God sends suffering, for we learn obedience by suffering. We pray for unselfishness, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking on the things of others. We pray for victory, and the things of the world sweep down upon us in a storm of temptation, for "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." We pray for strength and humility, and some messenger of Satan torments us till we lie in the dust, crying to God for its removal. We pray for union with Christ, and God severs natural ties, and lets our best friends misunderstand us and seem indifferent to us. We pray for love, and God sends peculiar suffering, and puts us with apparently unlovely people. He lets them say things which rack our nerves and lacerate our heart, for "love suffereth long, and is kind." There is all the difference in the world between saying prayers and praying. Many pray who are not religious in the sense that the word is ordinarily employed. All aspiration is prayer and all real prayer is the spontaneous expression of the soul's hunger. Prayer is a kind of door to the treasure house of God, and it is of infinite importance that we should know how to open that door and enter into possession of the wealth of God. May you be blessed with a wonderful day as you remember, prayer is something more than simply talking to God. It is not only getting but giving; not only speaking but listening. |