Magnificent Prayer #292
Magnificent Prayer #292
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Luke 5:16
Almost anything associated with the ministry may be learned with an average amount of intelligent application. It is not hard to preach or manage church affairs or pay a social call…
But prayer—that is another matter…There the lonely man of God must wrestle it out alone, sometimes in fasting and tears and weariness untold. There every man must be an original, for true prayer cannot be imitated.
A. W. TOZER
Pray About It: One problem many of us face in private prayer is the loneliness of the practice. There, shut up in our prayer closets, we can do nothing but pray. We see no one, we speak to no other human being, nor do we hear another human voice. Maybe that’s why we’re so quick to be finished with our devotions. We want the companionship of another human being. We want to begin our day, see our friends, get about our work.
And yet the promise of prayer is a companionship unachievable by any other earthly endeavor. Jesus knew the joy to be found only in the “lonely places.” When we’re finally finished with our restlessness before God and settle down, it’s then and only then that we’re able to know Him intimately and individually.
It’s then that prayer becomes its own reward.
God makes all His best people in loneliness.
LEONARD RAVENHILL
From the book
