October 8

"But in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." PHR. 4:6.

THIS is a simple and pleasing account of prayer; it is the making of our requests known unto God. He indeed knows them perfectly before we express them. But he will know them from us, that we may be properly affected with our own wants, and prepared for the displays of his goodness and grace. And the apostle reminds us of three things very worthy of our attention with regard to prayer.

First, it is the prevention and cure of care. "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." All feel anxiety to be a galling load. But the question is, how are we to disencumber ourselves of the burden? All acknowledge the disorder, and many remedies have been prescribed for the cure. But if some of them affect the paroxysm of the complaint, none of them reach the root of the malady. The commonness of the case, the brevity of time, the uselessness of giving way to solicitude, and the injurious effects of it—all these are true and proper, but they do not go far enough. The fact is, if we are not to be careful, some one must care for us. And the thing is, and nothing less than this can tranquillize the mind, to be under the management of Him who loves us better than we love ourselves, knows unerringly what is good for us, and is able to make every thing conduce to our welfare—"casting all our care on him; for he careth for us." And this is done by prayer. Hezekiah took the letter, and went and spread it before the Lord. Hannah poured out her heart before God, and her countenance was no more sad. In whatever has befallen or foreboded him, every believer has made the trial, and is able to say, with Asaph, "But it is good for me to draw near to God."

Secondly, it is to be very extensively, yea, universally performed. Not in some things or in many things, but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, we are to make our requests known unto God. Some only pray when God's chastening hand is upon them. In their affliction they seek him early. And this, as far as it goes, is not to be censured. Many, like Manasseh, have first sought God in trouble. Prayer is peculiarly seasonable in distress. But though prayer may commence in affliction, it is not to cease with it. It is not to be confined to it. Prayer is equally needful to preserve and sanctify us in prosperity. It is not praying on extraordinary occasions, but on common ones, that evinees a pious frame of mind. Do we delight ourselves in the Almighty? Do we always call upon God? In all thy ways, says Solomon, acknowledge him. It is thus alone we give God the glory of his universal providence—not thinking, with the Assyrians, that he is the God of the hills only, but also of the valleys, and that a sparrow falleth not to the ground without our heavenly Father, and that the very hairs of our head are all numbered. Some imagine that many things are too little to be the subjects of prayer. A distinction is indeed to be made between the particularity and minuteness of private and public prayer. But let us remember that we are not to consider any thing too little to bring before God, that God does not deem beneath his notice; and also that it is difficult, if not impossible, for us in many cases to ascertain what is little. Events the most important often hinge on circumstances apparently the most trivial. Joseph's going to inquire after the welfare of his brethren on the plain seemed a slight thing. Yet he that morning took leave of his father for more than twenty-one years, and went a way by which he never returned. Saul sought his father's asses—a thing that seemed devoid of consequence; but perhaps he perished owing to it; for then began his prosperity, which destroyed him—when Samuel met him, and anointed him king over Israel. You go out, not knowing what a day may bring forth as to your happiness or misery. Before the evening you may meet accidentally with a connection that shall prove a source of joy or suffering through life. "Why, this is enough to make one live and move in constant trembling." This is not the design of it; but it is designed to induce you in every thing to commit your way and your works unto the Lord.

Thirdly, it is to be always attended with a pleasing companion. "But in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." And does not this imply that we can never approach God without having cause for gratitude? Hence it is said, "In every thing give thanks." Whatever be our condition, we have much more to be grateful for than to complain of. Complain! What can ever justify complaint? "Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" Let our losses and afflictions be what they may, he has not dealt with us after our desert, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity. Yea, the trials themselves are the effects of love, and designed to work together for our highest welfare.

And does it not teach us that whenever we go to God to ask for fresh favors, we should be sure to acknowledge the reception of former ones? How seldom is this the case! How much selfishness is there even in our devotions! How much more of our worship is occupied in petition than in praise! Urged by our necessities, we go and call upon God in prayer; but when we have succeeded, we forget to return to give him the glory that is due unto his holy name. "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?" Where is even Hezekiah? "He rendered not according to the benefit done him."