October 7
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeTwelfth Monday after Trinity
In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6.
IT is certain that the prayer of faith is always heard and answered of God, and he that prays in faith comes sooner or later to feel assured of this, and to know that his prayer is answered; it may be not in the way which he first desired and thought of, yet doubtless in the best of all ways. Add therefore thanksgiving to prayer; thanksgiving for the past as well as requests for future mercies are but the expression of true faith. Thanksgiving for past blessings is the best pledge and plea we can offer for future hopes. Thanksgiving opens and disposes the heart to God, and by acknowledging Him as the Author of all the good we have received, induces us to look to Him the more in prayer. And thus it is that in the Psalms prayers and thanksgivings are so blended together. This of itself shows the effect of prayer, how it disposes us to lose ourselves in the sense of God's goodness.
My Shepherd is the Lord; I know No care or craving need.
He leads me where the waters glide, The waters soft and still, And homeward He will gently guide My wandering heart and will.
He brings me on the righteous path, E'en for His Name's dear sake.
I fear no ill, for Thou, O God, With me for ever art; Thy shepherd's staff, Thy quieting rod, 'Tis they console my heart.
O nought but love and mercy wait Through all my life on me, And I within my Father's gate For long bright years shall be.