Magnificent Prayer #144

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

Psalm 34:5

Would you like to be a radiant Christian? You may be. Spend time in prayer. You cannot be a radiant Christian in any other way. Why is it that prayer in the Name of Christ makes one radiantly happy? It is because prayer makes God real. The gladdest thing upon earth is to have a real God!

I would rather give up anything I have in the world, or anything I ever may have, than give up my faith in God.

You cannot have vital faith in God if you give all your time to the world and to secular affairs, to reading the newspapers, and to reading literature, no matter how good it is.

Unless you take time for fellowship with God, you cannot have a real God. If you do take time for prayer you will have a real, living God, and if you have a living God you will have a radiant life.

R. A. TORREY

See there He sits, in heaven, He has led captivity captive, and now sits at the right hand of God, forever making intercession for us. Can your faith picture Him there? Like a great high priest of old, He stands with outstretched arms: there is majesty in His demeanor, for He is no mean cringing suppliant. He does not beat His breast, nor cast His eyes upon the ground, but with authority He pleads enthroned in glory now.

There on His head is the bright shining miter of His priesthood, and look, on His breast are glittering the precious stones whereon the names of his elect are everlastingly engraved; hear Him as He pleads. Can you hear what it is? It is your very prayer that He is mentioning before the throne. The prayer that this morning you offered, Christ is now offering before His Father’s throne. The vow which just now you uttered when you said, “Have pity and have mercy,”—he is now uttering there. He is the Altar and the Priest, and with His own sacrifice He perfumes our prayers.

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON