“Prayer is the true gauge of spiritual power. To restrain prayer is a dangerous and deadly tendency. This is a faithful saying: what you are upon your knees, you are really before your God. What the Pharisee and the publican were in prayer was the true criterion of their spiritual state [Luke 18: 10-14]. You may maintain a decent repute among men, but it is a small matter to be judged of man’s judgment, for men see only the surface, while the Lord’s eyes pry into the recesses of the soul. If He sees that you are prayerless, He makes small account of your attendance at religious meetings or your loud spiritual words. If your are a man of earnest prayer–and especially if the spirit of prayer is in you so that your heart habitually talks with God–things are right with you. But if this is not the case and your prayers are hindered, there is something in your spiritual system that needs to be ejected or something lacking that needs to be supplied. ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life’ [Prov. 4:23]; and living prayers are among those issues.”
[Taken from the book The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life, by Charles H. Spurgeon]
A friend of mine has died….she has truly gone to be with the Lord. I say that, because sometimes I look at the notices in the paper, and it seems like almost everyone has died a Christian, and is now “with the Lord.”
But my friend was a wonderful woman….she was a praying woman. She prayed about anything and everything, and she was such a good example to me. How many of us can say that we have a friend who insists on committing everything to the Lord — right away? You might be talking on the phone, and if there is a problem, THAT is the place that you have to pray, and she would pray with you there. Having coffee in the coffee shop? That was no barrier to her, and we would pray together there.
I think I took it for granted that she would always be there — holding a beacon aloft for me, and encouraging me onward. But God has taken her home. The obvious conclusion for me is that myself, and many others that she has helped, are to take up the work that she so ably carried on. That is why this blog post started out with that quote from Spurgeon….he was a man of prayer, and I want to encourage you all to pray much!! Your family depends on you for that….the tenor of your day is affected materially by your prayerfulness or prayerlessness….your husband is counting on your intercession for him….people that need the Lord need you to pray for them.
Be a praying woman!!