Prayer

This morning's devotional reading

was on the subject of prayer.

Prayer.

Supplication with my Heavenly Father.

Before I go on, I will share the reading with you here:

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"Behold, he prayeth." Acts 9:11

Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven.

The moment Saul began to pray the Lord heard him.

Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul.

Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his knee,

but can only utter his wailing in the language of sighs and tears;

yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music;

that tear has been caught by God

and treasured in the lachrymatory of heaven.

"Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle,"

implies that they are caught as they flow.

The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words,

will be well understood by the Most High.

He may only look up with misty eye;

but"prayer is the falling of a tear."

Tears are the diamonds of heaven;

sighs are a part of the music of Jehovah's court,

and are numbered with"the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high."

Think not that your prayer,

however weak or trembling,

will be unregarded.

Jacob's ladder is lofty,

but our prayers shall lean upon the Angel of the covenant

and so climb its starry rounds.

Our God not only hears prayer but also loves to hear it.

"He forgetteth not the cry of the humble."

True, he regards not high looks and lofty words;

he cares not for the pomp and pageantry of kings;

he listens not to the swell of martial music;

he regards not the triumph and pride of man;

but wherever there

is a heart big with sorrow,

or a lip quivering with agony,

or a deep groan,

or a penitential sigh,

the heart of Jehovah is open;

he marks it down in the registry of his memory;

he puts our prayers, like rose leaves,

between the pages of his book of remembrance,

and when the volume is opened at last,

there shall be a precious fragrance springing up there from.

"Faith asks no signal from the skies,

To show that prayers accepted rise,

Our Priest is in his holy place,

And answers from the throne of grace."

*Quoted from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening"

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What encouragement!

You see, after "one of those days" -

(which I endured not so long ago)

I found myself at His feet in prayer,

eyes averted,

shoulders bent, burdened with the weight of wrong attitudes

I had carried about through the day,

heart heavy with my failures.

I felt completely unworthy of daring to enter

into the presence of Most High God.

Yet, this morning, as I read these words,

I am comforted by the asurance that

my Saviour knows my struggles -

He knows my downfalls -

He knows...me - this broken, weak one.

And when words fail me

and all that escapes my fainting heart are spirit groanings

of the wretched sinner, that I am -

how reassuring to know that...

I am still regarded in His eyes with

gentleness,

forgiveness

and an everlasting love -
a love which I can never begin to understand.

And I am restored.

Praise Him for His everlasting goodness!

His mercy endures throughout all generations!