The Privilege Of Prayer - Steps To Christ, Chapter 10

Welcome to The Privilege Of Prayer chapter of Steps To Christ eBook

In Short:

• Prayer is to open your heart to God as to a friend

• There are certain conditions upon which God will hear and answer our prayers

Prayer brings us up to God. In order to commune with Him we must have something to say concerning our actual life.

Jesus taught his disciples:

• how to pray

• to present their daily needs before God

• to cast all their care upon Him

• that their petitions will be heard.

The assurance He gave them is assurance also to us. Jesus is our example in all things. He made prayer necessity and privilege.

The heart must be open to the influence of God's Spirit

I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. Isaiah 44:3.

Do you:

• feel your need of help from Christ

• hunger and thirst after righteousness

• long after God

• regard iniquity in your heart

• cling to any known sin

• take Him at His Word?

He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6.

What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24.

We come to God, feeling helpless and dependent, as we really are. 

Moreover, in humble, trusting faith we make known our wants to Him whose knowledge is infinite and who governs everything by His will and word.

Furthermore, we believe He can and will attend to our cry, and will let light shine into our hearts. Thus through sincere prayer we are brought into connection with the mind of the Infinite.

We may have no remarkable evidence at the time that the face of our Redeemer is bending over us in compassion and love, but this is even so.

Moreover, we may not feel His visible touch, but His hand is upon us in love and pitying tenderness.

Perseverance in prayer has been made a condition of receiving

We must:

• be instant in prayer - Romans 12:12

• continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving - Colossians 4:2

• be sober, and watch unto prayer - 1 Peter 4:7

• In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6.

Unceasing prayer is the unbroken union of the soul with God. Thus life from God flows into our life and from our life, purity and holiness flow back to God.

Above all we must not neglect secret prayer when the soul is free from surrounding influences and excitement. Calmly, yet fervently it will reach out after God.

By simple faith, the soul holds communion with God.

God is our tower of strength. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children.

The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:11.

His heart of love is touched by our sorrows. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind because:

• nothing is too great for Him to bear or too small to notice

• there is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read

• no calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul

• no joy and sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our Heavenly Father is unobservant or takes no immediate interest.

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. Psalm 147:3.

The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.