To Busy To Pray
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12 NIV
Here are some thoughts on prayer.
In the morning, prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under His protection and safeguard.
“God’s way of answering the Christian’s prayer for more patience, experience, hope, and love is often to put him into the furnace of affliction.”—Richard Cecil (1748–1810)
“Our prayer and God’s mercy are like two buckets in a well; while the one ascends, the other descends.”—Mark Hopkins, American educator (1802–1887)
My longtime friend, that great humanitarian missionary and man of prayer Frank C. Laubuch, said, “Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation—and for me the most important is listening to God’s replies.”
“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”—William Cowper (1731–1800)
G. Campbell Morgan tells the following story:
A father and his young daughter were great friends and much in each other’s company. Then the father noted a change in his daughter. If he went for a walk, she excused herself from going. He grieved about it, but could not understand. When his birthday came, she presented him with a pair of exquisitely worked slippers, saying, “I have made them for you.”
Then he understood what had been the matter for the past three months, and he said, “My darling, I like these slippers very much, but next time buy the slippers and let me have you all the days. I would rather have my child than anything she can make for me.”
Some of us are so busy for the Lord that He cannot get much of us. To us He would say, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, but I miss the first love.” (Revelation 2:2–4)
If there are any tears shed in heaven, they will be over the fact that we prayed so little.
Our Father and our God, forgive this child of Yours for neglecting to talk to You more often. I love You, Father, and I want to be in constant conversation with You. Bless me with a vision of eternity so that I don’t get so mesmerized by the details of today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).