Concerning Prayer

It is good to be self-reliant and to feel we have the power to shape our lives and to make our living. But it is well also to feel with certainty the presence of a Higher Help when life has dealt roughly with us and destroyed some of our cherished plans and frustrated our best efforts. And at such times, men who have learned to pray ⎯ and who have made a daily practice of prayer ⎯ find comfort and strength in quiet approach to the Father of us all. But the manner of man’s petitioning the Lord may not well be a prayer of contradiction. That which will give me gain and do my neighbor injury, is not worthy to be asked. That which will please my vanity and destroy my humility is not a thing to be sought. “Thy will, not mine be done” is the spirit of a worthy prayer, and it is of those who pray in such manner that the Lord has said: “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear.” But without prayer life would be much less ⎯ and it would be easy to feel lost and lonely. Thank God for the assurance of His mindfulness for us ⎯ for faith in the power of prayer.