Prayer

As I follow the steps of many recovery groups, I come across with the word prayer, like in step 11 of AA, but what exactly is the act of prayer? According to C.H. Spurgeon it 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 is to be always empty in the self & constantly depending on God for supplies, and hence the use of prayer while it adores God, it lays the creature where it should be, in the very dust. As the runner gains strength for the race by daily exercise, so for the great race of life we acquire energy by labor of prayer.

Prayer plumes the wings of God’s young

eaglets, that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer

surrounds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to

troubled mortals the peace of God.

We know not what prayer cannot do. We are not disturbed by doubts and defeats when we make everything a matter of earnest prayer. We enjoy an unbroken fellowship with God when we make our requests known unto Him in daily prayer. He imparts to us the necessary strength to cope with the temptations and trials incident to life in this benighted world when everything relating to life is made known unto Him in prayer. We find it necessary to reveal both our spiritual and our temporal needs unto Him in prayer. There will be times when our feelings will contradict our faith. Sickness can depress our emotions to such an extent that we are disposed to doubt our relationship to God. When we are sick, when our nerves are tense, when we are constantly on the verge of tears, our faith will be submerged by our feelings. In such times of trial it seems that the joy of the Lord has departed, and we are tempted to think that for some unknown reason we are suffering the displeasure of God. The infirmities of the body can cause the imagination to run wild. Sickness can cause many fantastic ideas and strange impressions to disturb and confuse our minds. When a soldier is wounded in battle it is of little use for him to know that there are those at the hospital who can bind up his wounds, and medicines there to ease all the pains which he now suffers: what he needs is to be carried, and to have the remedies applied. The same with our souls, and to meet this need there is but one, He will manifest His love to you, and by His blessed Spirit, will disperse your cares and troubles.