Man’s Part, God’s Part

Think about God, Make much of Him,till He broadens and fills the horizon of your faith. Then prayer will come into its marvelous inheritance of wonders. The marvels of prayer are seen when we remember that God's purposes are changed by prayer, God's vengeance is stayed by prayer, and God's penalty is remitted by prayer. The whole range of God's dealing with man is affected by prayer. Here is a force which must be increasingly used, that of prayer, a force to which all the events of life ought to be subjected. To "pray without ceasing," to pray in everything, and to pray everywhere--these commands of continuity are expressive of the sleepless energy of prayer, of the exhaustless possibilities of prayer, and of its exacting necessity. Prayer can do all things. Prayer must do all things. Prayer is asking God for something, and for something which He had promised. Prayer is using the divinely appointed means for obtaining what we need for accomplishing what God proposes to do on earth. Prayer is appointed to convey the blessings God designs to give; Long as they live should Christians pray, they learn to pray when first they live. And prayer brings to us blessings which we need, and which only God can give, and which prayer can alone convey to us. In their broadest fullness, the possibilities of prayer are to be found in the very nature of prayer. This service of prayer is not a mere rite, a ceremony through which we go, a sort of performance. Prayer is going to God for something needed and desired. Prayer is simply asking God to do for us what He has promised us He will do if we ask Him. The answer is a part of prayer and is God's part of it. God's doing the thing asked for is as much a part of the prayer as asking of the thing is prayer. Asking is man's part. Giving is God's part. The prayer belongs to us. The answer belongs to God.