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Pray Silently, Continually, January 15
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His
strength; seek His face evermore!
1 Chronicles 16:10, 11
, NKJV.
Prayer is not understood as it should be. Our prayers are not to inform God of
something He does not know. The Lord is acquainted with the secrets of every soul.
Our prayers need not be long and loud. God reads the hidden thoughts. We may
pray in secret, and He who sees in secret will hear, and will reward us openly.
The prayers that are offered to God to tell Him of all our wretchedness, when
we do not feel wretched at all, are the prayers of hypocrisy. It is the contrite prayer
that the Lord regards. “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart
of the contrite ones.”
Prayer is not intended to work any change in God; it brings us into harmony
with God. It does not take the place of duty. Prayer offered ever so often and ever
so earnestly will never be accepted by God in the place of our tithe. Prayer will not
pay our debts to God....
The strength acquired in prayer to God will prepare us for our daily duties. The
temptations to which we are daily exposed make prayer a necessity. In order that
we may be kept by the power of God through faith, the desires of the mind should
be continually ascending in silent prayer.
When we are surrounded by influences calculated to lead us away from God, our
petitions for help and strength must be unwearied. Unless this is so, we shall never
be successful in breaking down pride and overcoming the power of temptation to
sinful indulgences which keep us from the Savior. The light of truth, sanctifying the
life, will discover to the receiver the sinful passions of the heart which are striving
for the mastery, and which make it necessary ... to stretch every nerve and exert
all the powers to resist Satan that he or she may conquer through the merits of
Christ.—
Messages to Young People, 247, 248
.
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