I trust that you will be as challenged by the following quote as I was. I am just beginning to learn this lesson. I wish I could have grasped it when I was a lot younger. It would have saved me lots of pain. Prayer truly is the most important thing that I can be doing as a Christian. If only I could remember this always, I would pray more than I do, worry less than I do, and be much less impatient than I still sometimes am:
Prayer has a distinct relationship to all Christian duties and graces. It is not possible for us to carry out the holy commands of our Lord Jesus unless we are abundant in supplication . . . Paul gives us first the warm antidote—”Rejoicing in hope,” and then he gives us the cool antidote, “Patient in tribulation.” Either of these, or both together, will work wonderfully for the sustaining of the spirit in the hour of affliction; but it is to be observed, that neither of these remedies can be taken into the soul except they be mixed with a draught of prayer. Joy and patience are curative essences, but they must be dropped into a glass full of supplication, and then they will be wonderfully efficient. How can we “rejoice in hope” if we know nothing about prayer to the God of hope? Whenever your hope seems to fail you and your joy begins to sink,—the shortest method is to take to your knees. By remembering the promise in prayer hope will be sustained, and then joy is sure to spring from it, for joy is the first-born child of hope. As for “patience,” how can we be patient if we cannot pray? Have not holy men of old always sustained themselves in their worst times of grief and depression by betaking themselves to prayer? Mind that you do the same. Impatience will be sure to follow prayerlessness, but the endurance of the divine will grows out of communion with God in prayer. (C . H. Spurgeon)
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