When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are, in a measure, shutting tomorrow out of our prayer. We do not live in tomorrow but in today. We do not seek tomorrow’s grace or tomorrow’s bread. They thrive best, and get most out of life, who live in the living present. They pray best who pray for today’s needs, not for tomorrow’s, which may render our prayers unnecessary and redundant by not existing at all! (Adapted from E.M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer)
Those who let God be Father always and in everything, who live their whole lives in the Father’s presence and love, who allow God in all the greatness of His love to be a Father to them, they will experience most gloriously that a life in God’s infinite Fatherliness and continual answers to prayer are inseparable. (Adapted from Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer)
Certain sins, sadly, are found in one generation after another within a family. Sins like drunkenness, dishonesty, rebellion against God, adultery, and many others. If such a sin is evident, the only recourse – the only way to achieve true freedom from this cycle – is to turn to Christ and ask Him, by the indwelling power of His Holy Spirit, to break the chains of iniquity so that they will bind and enslave no more.
There are now still many to whom the Lord puts the same question, and who cannot, until it has been answered, get the aid requested. Our prayers must not be a vague appeal to His mercy, an indefinite cry for blessing, but the distinct expression of definite need. Not that His loving heart does not understand our cry, or is not ready to hear. But He desires it for our own sakes. Such definite prayer teaches us to know our own needs better. It demands time, and thought, and self-scrutiny to find out what really is our greatest need. It searches us and puts us to the test as to whether our desires are honest and real, such as we are ready to persevere in. It leads us to judge whether our desires are according to God’s Word, and whether we really believe that we shall receive the things we ask. It helps us to wait for the special answer, and to mark it when it comes. (Adapted from Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer)
Notice the close of this passage. Despite his circumstances, Jonah is thankful to be alive. He knows that his sins deserve death but he acknowledges God’s saving grace. He also knows that God is able and willing to deliver us from the direst circumstances – even those we bring upon ourselves.
Prayer must be clothed with fervency, strength and power. It is the force which, centered on God, determines the outlay of Himself for earthly good. Those who are fervent in spirit are bent on attaining to righteousness, truth, grace, and all other sublime and powerful graces which adorn the character of the authentic, unquestioned child of God. (Adapted from E.M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer)
It is not in our power, perhaps, to create fervency of spirit at will, but we can pray God to implant it. It is ours, then, to nourish and cherish it, to guard it against extinction, to prevent its abatement or decline. The process of personal salvation is not only to pray, to express our desires to God, but to acquire a fervent spirit and seek, by all proper means, to cultivate it. It is never out of place to pray God to beget within us, and to keep alive the spirit of fervent prayer (Adapted from E.M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer)