Morning By Morning #145

Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer.

Psalm 66:20

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Upon reviewing the content of our prayers, if we do so honestly, we should be filled with awe that God has ever answered them. There may be some people who think their prayers are worthy of acceptance—just as the Pharisees did—but a true Christian, more spiritually aware in their review, weeps over his prayers, and if it were possible for him to retrace his steps would desire to pray more earnestly.

Remember, dear Christian, how cold your prayers have been. When in your prayer closet you should have wrestled as Jacob did, but instead your petitions have been faint and few, far removed from that humble, believing, persevering faith that cries out, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Gen. 32:26). However, isn’t it amazing that God has not only heard your prayers but has also answered them!

Reflect on how infrequently you have prayed unless you have been in some difficulty. At those times you often go to God’s “mercy seat” (Ex. 25:17 KJV), but once He has delivered you, what happens to your continual, earnest supplication? Yet even though you have ceased to pray as before, God has not ceased to bless. When you have neglected His “mercy seat,” He has not deserted it, for the bright light of His Shekinah glory has always remained visible between the wings of the cherubim.

Oh, how marvelous that the Lord even considers our intermittent, annoying spasms of prayer that come only when we have needs! What an amazing God He is to hear the prayers of those who come to Him when they have pressing needs and wants, but who neglect Him once they have received a blessing; those who approach Him only when they feel forced to do so, but nearly forget to speak with Him when their blessings are plentiful and their sorrows are few.

May His gracious kindness in hearing such prayers so touch our hearts that from this point forward we may continually “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Eph. 6:18).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

The story of King Jehoshaphat is an amazing story of confidently crying out to God, expecting to be heard by Him. He prayed, “We will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us…For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (2 Chron. 20:9, 12). What followed was the greatest victory on the face of the whole earth! From a human standpoint the odds were “everyone” against “no one.” In other words, God fought the battle for Israel and gave them victory.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).

“O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief” (Ps. 143:1).