Our Saviour represents God’s own elect as crying day and night to him, Luke 18:7. Sore temptations, soul-burdens, Satan’s buffetings, are peculiarly felt by them. Their crying under them is a proof of spiritual life, their crying to the Lord only is an evidence of the faith of God’s elect, their entreaties to be delivered from them show the sanctified holy disposition of their souls. Thus the Lord draws out into exercise the graces of his children. His eyes are ever upon them, his ears open to their prayers, and his almighty power and grace sufficient to deliver them. But ‘he that believeth, must not make haste.’ We must tarry the Lord’s leisure, and be strong in hope: his time is best. It is God’s…

Faith in the heart excites prayer from the lips. Thus the faith of God’s elect manifests itself, that it cometh from the Lord the Spirit. By it the soul is led to Jesus the mediator, and by him to God the Father. So each person in the Godhead is known, worshipped, and glorified by believing souls. While we see and feel nothing of our misery and wants, no marvel that prayer is an irksome task. From a sight of ourselves, and the knowledge of Jesus, we come to him daily with simplicity of heart. Master, teach us to pray, it is the highest honour, the sweetest privilege, the most blessed exercise of the soul to draw nigh to God. What greater on earth than to…

Strange! What, James and John, two disciples of a despised and rejected Master, who had not where to lay his head, yet dreaming of earthly pomp and worldly grandeur, and petitioning for the highest pitch of worldly glory? Yes, nothing less than the right hand of pre-eminence, and the left hand of power, would suit them. Human nature, how earthly, carnal, and selfish! How low are we fallen, yet how lofty in pride! What are the best of men, when left to their own spirits? Truly, we know not what to pray for as we ought. Jesus, Master, instruct us what to do. Teach us what to pray for. Let thy word, ‘my kingdom is not of this world,’ be ever uppermost in our minds.