Prayer

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 9
The counterpart of praise; the one being the outflowing of the fullness of the heart, the other the expression of want and need. They are often happily combined. Prayer is the precious privilege of the child of God, and may be said to be of three sorts. The one we get in Luke 18 is the constant cry to God wherever there is a sense of need pressing on the soul, especially in distressing or painful circumstances, when no comforter is found, and the only resource is to cry to God. The prayer in Phil. 4 is of a different order, and is a presenting to God of whatever is on my mind, in prayer, and having the sense that He has heard me; then truly leaving my burden with Him to be answered in His good time, my heart is kept filled with His peace. In this case there often is not the persistence of Luke 18, but there is the blessed sense of being heard and waiting God’s time. The third order is in 1 John 5:14, 1514And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (1 John 5:14‑15), when the prayer is in faith according to God’s will, so that we not only know that He hears us, but that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. This is the highest sort of prayer. The first expresses need, and owns God’s power and love, the second confidence in God, and a trust that He will do what is right, the result being peace of heart; but the third is an intelligent understanding of His will as that what we ask is in faith, and according to it. This is the most blessed, only we must not wait till we have it before we pray, but in everything, with prayer and supplication, make our requests known unto God.