October 17

Importance of prayer

“And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray” (Mark 6:46).
“But so much more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed” (Luke 5:15-16).

The struggle to maintain a quiet time alone is great, and the godliest people have been most aware of it. Satan opposes a true prayer life more than any other spiritual activity. Andrew Bonar aptly pictures this struggle:
“Satan, like the lapwing, drew me away from the real object (prayer and fellowship with God) by suggesting every now and then something about some other part of my work . . . and so the best hours of yesterday were in a great measure lost, so far as ‘prayer and transfiguration’ might have been.”

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