Magnificent Prayer #300
Magnificent Prayer #300
I am the Almighty God—El Shaddai—walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Genesis 17:1 KJV
We must never make the blunder of trying to forecast the way God is going to answer our prayer. When God made a tremendous promise to Abraham, Abraham thought of the best way to help God fulfill His promise and did the wisest thing he knew according to flesh and blood common sense reasoning. But God refused to speak to him for thirteen years, until every possibility of his relying on his own intelligent understanding was at an end. Then God came to him and said, “I am the Almighty God”—El Shaddai—“walk before me, and be thou perfect.”
OSWALD CHAMBERS
Pray About It: At all costs, we must resist the urge to help God answer our prayers. Abraham suffered terribly trying to help God fulfill His promise. What we’re really saying is “God, I really don’t think You can do it unless I prime the pump for You and get things started.” Nor should we try to guess what God’s going to do. Let Him do it in His way and in His time.
El Shaddai means “the all-sufficient one.” The imagery actually conveyed is “the double-breasted one,” as in a mother’s bosom. Today, be nourished and let Him be El Shaddai—let Him be all-sufficient.
Thou hast El Shaddai to be thine. Thy power to be holy will much depend upon thy grasping with all the intensity of thy faith the cheering fact that this God is thy God for ever and ever, thy daily portion, thine all-sufficient consolation. Thou dares not, canst not, wilt not, wander into the ways of sin when thou knowest that such a God is thy shepherd and guide.
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
From the book
