Our Daily Homily By F.B. Meyer
Psalm 116:4
“Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.”
WHAT could we do without the resource of prayer? When compassed with the cords of death, and held by trouble and sorrow, what help would there be for us who eschew the methods of self-deliverance which the men of the world do not scruple to employ, if we might not betake ourselves to our knees?
“Nay, but much rather let me late returning,
Bruised of my brethren, wounded from within,
Stoop with sad countenance and blushes burning,
Bitter with weariness and sick with sin.
“Straight to thy presence get me and reveal it,
Nothing ashamed of tears upon thy feet;
Show the sore wound, and beg thine hand to heal it;
Pour Thee the bitter, pray Thee for the sweet.”
Only let us never forget the immense importance of those five great “ifs”:—
John 15:7
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
which touches our life in Him, and His in us, in unremitting fellowship.
Matthew 18:19
if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
which touches our life with others, that must be clear as crystal.
Matthew 17:20
If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
which concerns the vigor and health of our own soul-life.
1 John 5:14–15
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
which demands that we know God well.
John 14:14
If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
which winnows out from prayer all that is inconsistent with the name of Jesus.
Oh for the deep-dwelling life, spent in the secret place, where earth’s voices grow faint, and God’s clear. Such a life is a perpetual appeal to God’s nature for succor — an appeal which awakens an instant response. “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:3)