If we had the Good Things Without Asking for Them, We Would Think of Them as Mundane Things

Tip! God’s people do not have authorization to demand the Savior’s promise of, “...Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,” in order to gain something very special for themselves.

Ezekiel 36:37 (KJV) Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

Prayer is the excess of mercy. Give notice to sacred accouts and you will realize that hardly ever did a wonderful mercy come to the human race with no prayer to God the Father.

Have you not determined this to be correct in your own private experience? Has not God given you many an spontaneous favor, nevertheless great prayer has continuously been the prelude of great mercy for you? How about the time when you first discovered peace through the blood of the cross, where you had been praying so much, and intently begging with God that He would eliminate your doubts, and carry you from your griefs. Was it not your guarantee that was the consequence of prayer? Think about it; has it not been during the times that you have had high and triumphant happinesses that you have been required to look on them as responses to your prayers. When you have had great rescues out of painful dilemmas and Almighty support in great perils, you have been able to say, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." To God be the glory great things He has done!

Prayer is continuously the preface to good things. It goes before the good things as the blessing's silhouette. When God loads up a hill of mercies, He Himself shines after them, and He throws on our thoughts the silhouette of prayer, so that we may rest in no doubt, if we are completely in prayer, our sincere pleadings are the silhouette of mercy. Or, to use another example, when the sunbeams of God's mercies climb up on our necessities, it will cast the silhouette of prayer far down on the plain.

Prayer is consequently joined with the good things to show to us the importance of it. If we had the good things without requesting for them, we would think of them as mundane things; but through prayer it makes our mercies more priceless than diamonds. The things we request are priceless, but would we grasp their worth if we sought after them without intense prayer? I do not think so.

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Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? explores the mysterious intersection where you and God meet and relate. Writing as a fellow pilgrim, Yancey explores the questions surrounding prayer that you may wonder about but not know how to express. Above all, Yancey shows you how to pray to a God who sees what lies ahead of you, knows what lies within you, and who invites you into an eternal partnership with Him---through prayer.

Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Philip Yancey

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