The just shall live by faith.
Prayer is the channel of your soul’s communion with God. Through it your faith ascends to God and His blessings descend to you. The prayers of the saints ascend as incense before God. They actually come into His presence. Ps. 141:2; Rev. 5:8; 8:3, 4. Prayer is the index of the soul’s spirituality. There is “the prayer of faith,” spoken of by James, and there is also the wavering prayer, mentioned by James. There is “the effectual, fervent prayer,” which “availeth much,” and there is also the cold, formal prayer, which avails nothing. Your prayers show the exact measure of your spirituality.
By faith, the effectual prayer takes hold on the word of God. Faith not only believes that God is, but that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Heb. 11:6. It is not offered formally, but with a sense of need; not doubtingly nor despairingly, but with full confidence that it is heard, and will receive an answer in due time.
The effectual prayer is not argumentative, for it is not your place to argue with God. Its statements are not for the purpose of conveying information to God, or of persuading Him to do what He had not intended to do. The arguments and appeals of a finite person cannot change the mind of the Omniscient. You will not in faith plead with God for any such purpose. You will not want to persuade God to work in your way, for you believe God’s statement that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than your ways. Your constant prayer is, Your will, not mine, be done.
What is prayer and what is the purpose for which it is offered? It is the expression of your consent to what God is willing and waiting to do for you. It is expressing to God your willingness to let Him do for you what He wants to. It is not left for you to instruct the Lord in regard to what you need. “Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” He knows what you need much better than you know yourself. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.” Rom. 8:26.
God knows all the needs that you have, and is ready and anxious to supply them; but He waits for you to realize your need of Him. He cannot consistently, with the infinitely wise principles by which He works, bestow on you spiritual blessings that you would not appreciate. He cannot work for you without your cooperation. Your heart must be in a condition to receive an appropriate gift before it can be bestowed. And when it is in that condition, you will feel an earnest longing that will naturally take the form of prayer. And when this longing is felt, when your soul feels an intense desire for the help that God alone can give, when the language of your soul is, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God,” the effect is to open the channel between God and your soul. Then the flood of blessings can descend which God was already waiting to pour out. And it is the intensity of your desire that determines how wide the door will be opened.
You need to more clearly realize the great truth that God sees and knows everything that you need and has every provision made for all your wants. He knows them even before you have thought of those wants yourself. Your work is not to determine what must be done to relieve your wants, but to place yourself in a position where God can relieve them by the means which He has provided. You want to move according to His plans, and not set about the fruitless task of trying to make Him work for you according to some plans of your own.
Living By Faith- E.J.W., and E.T.Jones
Maranatha