Word of Encouragement (11/11/2020)

Here are some more:

“14.  When you struggle with prayer, take God’s promises with you as you approach the throne. Having a promise in hand will help you pray with faith as you plead with God on the basis of His own Word; it will help you pray with an expectant heart and an open eye on the horizon of God’s providence; it will keep you humble as you see that all you enjoy is the fruit of God’s gracious promises; it will help you pray with love as you see the abundance of God’s grace toward you; and it will help you pray with fervency as you plead for what God has already promised to give.

“15.  Assure yourself as you pray that ‘God is more ready to hear, than we to ask; to give, than we to receive’ (1 Peter 3:12). [What a beautiful description of God’s loving and abundant heart, which is wide open to us because of Jesus’ death and resurrection! Let us not forget this wonderful truth!]

“16.  Remind yourself that ‘His ears are open, as a kind mother or nurse, which [is used to being] wakeful, that she will hear the child so soon as ever it begins to cry’ (cf. Dan. 10:12; Isa. 65:24).

“17.  Remember that God has assured you that your time of trouble is His set time of audience. By presenting Himself as the Lord whose ears are attentive to your prayers (1 Peter 3:12), He declares that His ear is leaned toward you. He hears every cry or sigh that you utter. [Oh, to think that the almighty God is so attentive to us, even to the softest whimpering of our soul!]

“18.  In prayer, ask, seek, and knock. ‘It is not a simple repetition of the same thing, but a gradation. Ask as a beggar, Seek as with a candle, Knock as one that hath power, with importunity [or, persistence].

“19.  Ask with the mouth, seek with the heart, and knock with the hand, for ‘the Lord will give you temporal things, you shall find spiritual things, and eternal things shall be opened up unto you.” What a wonderful reminder of God’s manifold, multifaceted, multidimensional blessings to us! How rich we are when we are the beneficiaries of such blessings and loved by such a generous God! Have a blessed day!

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