Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

:
BIBLE
TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
with the quiet hour. The early disciples continued in prayer,
secretly and publicly pleading for omnipotent help. Prayer
should be considered the highest exercise in which we can
engage, and the greatest privilege. Nothing else can be done
to atone for the lack of prayer.
When we pray, two things should be kept in mind
1. The need of faith. Prayers offered minus faith are spoken
into the air. They mean nothing, and bring nothing. It is
simply a matter of saying prayers—not praying. If the creature
prays to the Creator in faith, the answer 'will come. The faith
of many is so small, that should their prayers be answered, none
would be more surprised than they.
2. The limitation of prayer. Every prayer is answered, but
not always in the way the petitioner wishes. "They that seek
the Lord shall not want any good thing" (Ps. 34: 10). No evil,
however much desired, will be given. "Ye ask, and receive not,
because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures"
(Jas. 4:3). We should pray so much that our wishes become
merged into the will of God.
Let these conditions be observed, and greater achievements
shall
be wrought through prayer than ever were dreamed of.
645. The greatest of all things we can do is to pray. Jesus
lived a life of prayer. All that He did and said grew out of
His prayer. There is no way of knowing exactly how far it
was so. But the more I study His life, the stronger grows the
impression that His teaching and activity, which form the greater
part of these Gospel pages, were actually less than His praying.
He seems to have put prayer first. All the rest was an outgrowth
of it. He was on a world-winning errand. And this was what
. . .
He thought of prayer. The emphasis of Jesus' personal habit
was laid upon prayer. The greatest thing each one of us
can do is to pray. If we can go personally to some distant land,
still we have gone to only one place. But our field is the
world. It is impossible for us to reach our whole field personally.
But it can be reached, and reached effectually, by prayer. The
place where you and I are sent, whether at home or abroad, is
simply our base of action. It is our field for personal touch.
And that means very much. But it is more than that. It is only
a small part of our field of activity. It is more significant as