The New Life

Prayer.
whether you can pray at all ; come, because the
Father is there, and there looks upon you. Set yourself
beneath the light of His eye. Believe in His
tender fatherly love, and out of this faith prayer will
be born. ^
Count certainly upon aft answer : that is the third
point in the word of Jesus. "Your Father will
recompense you openly," There is nothing about
which the Ivord Jesus has spoken so positively as
the certainty of an answer to prayer. Pray, review
the promises.^ Observe how constantly in the
Psalms, that prayer-book of God's saints, God is
called upon as the God who hears prayer and gives
answers.^
It may be that there is much in you that prevents
the answer. Delay in the answer is a very blessed
discipline. It leads to self-searching as to whether
we are praying amiss, and whether our life is truly in
harmony with our prayer. It rouses to a purer exercise
of faith.* It conducts to a closer and more persistent
converse with God. The sure confidence of
an answer is the secret of powerful praying. Let
this always be with us the chief thing in prayer.
When you pray, stop in the midst of your prayer to
ask, Do I believe that I am receiving what I pray for?
1 Matt. vi. 8, vii. ii.
9 Matt. V. 1, 7, 8, xi. 24 ; I,uke xviii. 8 ;
John xiv. 13, 14, xv. 7,
16, xvi. 23, 24.
3 Ps. iii. 5, iv. 4, vi. 10, x. 17, xvii. 6, 22, 25, xx. 2, 7, 10, xxxiv. 5,
7, 18, xxxviii. 16, xl. 2, Ixv. 3, Ixvi. 19.
< Josh. vii. 12 , I Sam. viii. 18, xiv. 37, 38, xxviii. 6, 15 ;
Prov,
xxi. 13 ; Isa. i. 15 ;
Mic. iii. 4 Hag. ; i. 9 Jas. i. 6, iv.
; 3, v. 16.
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