Oswald Chambers' Thoughts on Prayer
Today’s Quote: “We are in God’s hand, brother, not in theirs.” Henry V 3.6.170
I want to share what I read yesterday in “My Utmost For His Highest”.
“Jesus did not say—Dream about thy Father in secret, but pray to the Father in secret. Prayer is an effort of will. After we have entered our secret place and have shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray: we cannot get our minds into working order, and the first thing that conflicts is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is the overcoming of mental woolgathering. We have to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful prayer.”
“We must have a selected place for prayer and when we get there the plague of flies begins—This must be done, and that. “Shut thy door”. A secret silence means to shut the door deliberately on emotions and remember God. God is in secret, and He sees us from the secret place; He does not see us as other people see us, or as we see ourselves. When we live in the secret place it becomes impossible for us to doubt God, we become more sure of Him than of anything else. Your Father, Jesus says, is in secret and nowhere else. Enter the secret place, and right in the centre of the common round you find God there all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.”
This hit me as being exactly correct. The days I start out with prayer go much better than the days that don’t start that way. I like the idea of “dealing with God about everything”. I used to do that very consistently. I need to go back to that “secret place” where God is and live there daily. What about you?
Blessings!
I want to share what I read yesterday in “My Utmost For His Highest”.
“Jesus did not say—Dream about thy Father in secret, but pray to the Father in secret. Prayer is an effort of will. After we have entered our secret place and have shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray: we cannot get our minds into working order, and the first thing that conflicts is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is the overcoming of mental woolgathering. We have to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful prayer.”
“We must have a selected place for prayer and when we get there the plague of flies begins—This must be done, and that. “Shut thy door”. A secret silence means to shut the door deliberately on emotions and remember God. God is in secret, and He sees us from the secret place; He does not see us as other people see us, or as we see ourselves. When we live in the secret place it becomes impossible for us to doubt God, we become more sure of Him than of anything else. Your Father, Jesus says, is in secret and nowhere else. Enter the secret place, and right in the centre of the common round you find God there all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.”
This hit me as being exactly correct. The days I start out with prayer go much better than the days that don’t start that way. I like the idea of “dealing with God about everything”. I used to do that very consistently. I need to go back to that “secret place” where God is and live there daily. What about you?
Blessings!
posted by Susanna @ 8:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home