An Appointment Not to Be Missed
Don’t pray when you feel
like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on
his knees.—Corrie ten Boom
*
Let the first act on
waking be to place yourself, your heart, mind, faculties, your whole being, in
God’s hands. Ask Him to take entire possession of you, to be the Guide of your
soul, your Life, your Wisdom, your Strength. He wills that we seek Him in all
our needs, that we may both know Him truly and draw closer and closer to Him;
and in prayer we gain an invisible force which will triumph over seemingly
hopeless difficulties.—Sidney Lear
*
Why is it so important
that you are with God and God alone on the mountaintop? It’s important because
it’s the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you
the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you “my beloved
daughter,” “my beloved son,” “my beloved child.” To pray is to let that voice
speak to the centre of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in
your whole being.—Henri J. M. Nouwen
*
My soul yearns for you
in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.—Isaiah 26:91
*
Without prayer we become
deaf to the voice of divine love and become confused by the many competing
voices asking for our attention. When we try to become very still, we often
find ourselves so overwhelmed by our noisy inner voices that we can hardly wait
to get busy and distracted again. Our inner life often looks like a banana tree
full of jumping monkeys! But when we decide not to run away and stay focused,
the monkeys may gradually go away because of lack of attention, and the soft
gentle voice calling us may gradually make itself heard.—Thomas Aquinas
*
Once I was sitting upon
the shore of a lake. As I sat there I noticed some fish who came up to the
surface and opened their mouths. At first I thought they were hungry and that
they were looking for insects, but a fisherman told me afterwards that although
they can breathe quite well under water, they have to come up to the surface
every now and again to inhale deep draughts of fresh air or they would die. It
is the same with us. The world is like an ocean; we can live in it, carry on
our work and all our varied occupations, but from time to time we need to
receive fresh life through prayer. Those Christians who do not set apart quiet
times for prayer have not yet found their true life in Christ.—Sadhu Sundar Singh
*
The moment you wake up each
morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.
And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to
that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger,
stronger, quieter life come flowing in.—C. S. Lewis
*
I ought to pray before
seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is
eleven or twelve o’clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched
system. It is unscriptural. Christ arose before day and went into a solitary
place. David says: “Early will I seek thee,”2 “thou
shalt early hear my voice.”3 Family
prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who
come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not
trimmed. Then, when in secret prayer, the soul is often out of tune. I feel it
is far better to begin with God—to see His face first, to get my soul near Him
before it is near another.—Robert Murray M’Cheyne
*
Early African converts
to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one
reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart
to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if
one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the
others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, “Brother, the grass grows
on your path.”—Author unknown
*
This perpetual hurry of
business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier
hours! I suspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious
exercises, as private devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading,
etc. Hence I am lean and cold and hard. … I have been keeping too late hours,
and hence have had but a hurried half hour in a morning to myself. Surely the experience
of all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of private
devotions, the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through prayer…
almighty prayer, I am ready to say… and why not? For that it is almighty is
only through the gracious ordination of the God of love and truth. O then,
pray!—William Wilberforce
*
Satisfy us in the
morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all
our days.—Psalm 90:144
*
It is not the bee’s
[mere] touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time
upon the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he
that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest and
strongest Christian.—Thomas Brooks
*
Come now, turn aside for
a while from your daily employment, escape for a moment from the tumult of your
thoughts. Put aside your weighty cares, let your burdensome distractions wait,
free yourself for a while for God and rest a while in him. Enter the inner
chamber of your soul, shut out everything except God and that which can help
you in seeking him, and when you have shut the door, seek him. Now, my soul,
say to God, “I seek your face; Lord, it is your face that I seek.” Amen.—Anselm
*
O God,
You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land.
—Psalm 63:16
*
1 NIV.
2 Psalm 63:1.
3 Psalm 5:3.
4 NIV.
5 John 14:27.
6 NKJV.