Pray, always pray

At that day you shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from God. John 16:26-27

To ask anything of God does not require that you should use a set form of words. The children in your family do not read a petition to you when they need any favor at your hands. They state their need in childish language, you understand them and grant their request, if it is a right and proper one and compliance with it is within your power. Act in just the same way with your God. 

We are often far too careful about picking and choosing the phrases that we use in prayer. Do you think that God is pleased with a display of oratory, or that He takes notice of your elocution when you come to the throne of grace? It may suit a teacher of English composition to criticize your sentences, but God thinks much more of your desires than of the words in which they are expressed. It may be natural for a scholar to consider the accuracy of your terms, but God especially marks the earnestness of your soul. There is no other place where the heart should be so free as before the mercy seat. There, you may talk out your very soul, for that is the best prayer that you can present. Ask not for what some tell you that you should ask, but for that which you feel the need of—that which the Holy Spirit has made you to hunger and to thirst for, ask you for that. 

Ask always. Your whole life should be spent in asking. When the morning breaks, ask for the mercy needed during the day. And when the day has closed its eyelids and you go to your bed, ask for the protection and rest that you need during the night. Ask when your voice can be heard only by your God in secret. And ask when your tongue may not be able to move, but only your spirit whispers into the ear of God. Never hesitate to ask because of the greatness of the blessing you desire. The Lord is a great God though you are so little, and He delights to give great things to those who ask them at His hands. 

And be not backward to ask because of your unworthiness. You can never have any worthiness of your own, therefore, if a sense of unworthiness would check your prayer now, it might always hinder you from praying. Yet the Lord bids you pray, so it must be right for you to pray. Ask when you have fought for something and cannot win it. Ask when you have toiled for it and cannot gain it, ask and have it. Come before your God in all the rags of your sinfulness and conscious ill-desert and ask, for that is all you have to do. “Ask, and you shall receive,” is the message that shines out with heavenly radiance over the mercy seat. Read it and obey it, open your mouth wide, for God will fill it. 

Pray, Always Pray, Sermon 2800 - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Photo credit: By Claire Curran (Dana Meadow Tarn at Sunrise) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons