November 4

Possibility of prayer

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).
“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17)
Prayer has many, many times brought opportune supplies, and cleared away serious difficulties. I know that faith can fill a purse, provide a meal, change a hard heart, procure a site for a building, heal sickness, quiet insubordination, and stay an epidemic. Like money in the worldling’s hand, faith in the hand of the man of God “answereth all things.” All things in Heaven, and earth, and under the earth, answer to the command of prayer. Faith is not to be imitated by a quack, nor simulated by a hypocrite, but where it is real, and can grasp a divine promise with a firm grip, it is a great wonderworker.

How I wish that my reader would so believe in God as to lean upon Him in all the concerns of his life! This would lead him into a new world, and bring to him such confirmatory evidence as to the truth of our holy faith that he would laugh skeptics to scorn. Childlike faith in God provides sincere hearts with a practical prudence, which I am inclined to call sanctified common sense. The simpleminded believer, though laughed at as an idiot, has a wisdom about him which cometh from above, and effectually baffles the cunning of the wicked. Nothing puzzles a malicious enemy like the straightforward unguardedness of an out-and-out believer.
—C. H. Spurgeon.

Prayer can obtain everything. It can open the window of Heaven, and shut the gates of hell. It can put a restraint upon God, and detain an angel till he leave a blessing. It can open the treasures of rain, and soften the iron ribs of rock till they melt into a flowing river. It can unclasp the girdles of the North; it can arrest the sun in its course and the winds upon their errand. What may not the saints have for asking?
—Jeremy Taylor.

I trust the Lord, and He replies,
In things both great and small.
He honors faith with prompt supplies;
Faith honors Him in all.

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