The act of prayer teaches us our unworthiness, which is a very salutary lesson for such proud beings as we are. If God gave us favors without constraining us to pray for them we should never know how poor we are, but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalog of necessities, a revelation of hidden poverty. While it is an application to divine wealth, it is a confession of human emptiness. The most healthy state of a Christian is to be always empty in self and constantly depending upon the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in self and rich in Jesus; weak as water personally, but mighty through God to do great exploits; and hence the use of prayer, because, while it adores God, it lays the creature where it should be, in the very dust.
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Prayer puts on human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives troubled mortals the peace of God. We don't know what prayer cannot do!
-Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, October 11
Feeling at the end of myself and wondering why God wasn't taking away the source of my trial (sickness in our home). I was asking him to. Should I stop asking? But there's more than just taking away the difficult thing. He is trying to give me something good. Faith. Selfless perspective. Glimpses of glory and joy in pain. It's worth it, but in my weakness to grasp it and open my eyes, I needed encouragement. Thank you Lord for these timely words to encourage me to keep asking humbly and trying to open my eyes in the midst of it.
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