An Application to Divine Wealth

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. - Phi 4:6

Any who know me, know that I have grappled with prayer most of my Christian life. Its not that I have devalued it or questioned it. Its more that as I sought to grasp it so I could rightly practice it, I've continually realized that prayer is much bigger, much more dynamic, and much more intrinsic to our walk with Christ than I realized. And this "unfolding mystery" of prayer simply keeps coming at me.

A few days ago, I was blessed to read in CH Spurgeon's Morning by Morning devotional the following:

The act of prayer teaches us our unworthiness, which is a very salutary lesson for such proud beings as we are. If God gave us favours without constraining us to pray for them we should never know how poor we are, but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalogue of necessities, a revelation of hidden poverty. While it is an application to divine wealth, it is a confession of human emptiness. The most healthy state of a Christian is to be always empty in self and constantly depending upon the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in self and rich in Jesus; weak as water personally, but mighty through God to do great exploits; and hence the use of prayer, because, while it adores God, it lays the creature where it should be, in the very dust.

This perspective on prayer, while maybe not new, is certainly not what is usually in the forefront of my mind. It is great reminder and prayer is a great reminder, that we are the utterly dependent ones and that God is the only sufficient One. Oh, how I need this reminder, day after day!

To God Alone be the Glory