Thoughts for Life: #27 Praying to Thy Father which is in Secret

Samuel Chadwick: The heavens cannot contain God our Father, but He dwells in the inner chamber of the soul. He is in secret, and seeth in secret He waits and watches for the opening of the sanctuary door.

It is holy ground, and must be approached with reverence. The soul must summon all its powers for this its holiest exercise. Here the mind must be at its best, that it may think of God and life. (Google image, Personal prayer)

Thought of God is more than thinking of our thoughts about Him. Communion is deeper than theology. Prayer in secret is life finding expression in the realized Presence of God our Father. All pretense is stripped from motive, all hypocrisy from desire, all dissimulation from speech.

A season of silence is the best preparation for speech with God. Infinite glory finds new value when interpreted in terms of Fatherhood, and prayer finds new horizons in the majesty of our Father in heaven.

If God be Father we may pray, but if He is such a Father why need we pray?

"When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen
do: for they think that they shall be heard for their
much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them:
for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of,
before ye ask Him" (Matt. 6:7-8)

Then what need is there to ask? We do not pray to inform God. Neither do we pray to persuade him, for His love needs neither to be induced nor coaxed. No father answers his son's prayer for bread with a stone or the request for a fish with a scorpion.

Wisdom and love combine to answer need, and not to make sport of infirmity. Our earthly fathers, notwithstanding their evil natures, know better than to mock the needs and trust of their children.

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children, how much more shall your
Father which is in heaven give good things to them
that ask Him? Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that
seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be
opened" (Matt. 7:11, 7-8).

"If Ye call on Him as Father"

It is no part of our purpose to discuss the problems of prayer. We are seeking to learn how to pray, and barren speculations have nothing to teach us. No part of the man must be shut out when the man is shut in.

Reason is as truly of God as emotion, and either divorced from the other leaves the soul maimed and incapacitated. Vision comes to love apart from reason, but reason conserves the vision and translates it into life.

Our spiritual life stands in knowledge of God, but it is not a knowledge that is acquired or achieved by the energy of flesh and blood. Love is the bond of fellowship in prayer. Attempts to rationalize love damp its fires, but where reason is dethroned, emotion becomes a conflagration.

The study and the oratory are allies, but the inner chamber is better to be a place apart; then prayer enlightens thinking, and thinking kindles the altar fires of the heart.

God as Father is the key to the problem of prayer. God is more than a Creator. He is our father: heavenly Father, holy Father, righteous Father; the God of Love and still the God of Law.

"The Sabbath was made for man," and the universe of God was made for the family of God.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

THE PATH OF PRAYER
By Samuel Chadwick
(Click on the title to buy)

Used by the permission of

www.cliffcollege.ac.uk
(Emphasis added)

Let's pray-

Father, as the heavens cannot contain You, we are privileged to have You in the inner chamber of our souls. As You see in secret, You wait for us to give you an opening to our sanctuaries.

This holy ground is approached with reverence and summons all our powers for our daily holy exercise. May our minds be at rest, as we think of You and our lives.

As a season of silence is the best preparation for talking with You, may we remember that communion with You is deeper than theology. May we clear our speech from all pretense and hypocrisy of desire, when we come to You in prayer.

Our spiritual life stands in the knowledge of You, and is not a knowledge that is acquired or achieved by our flesh, but is the bond of love in our fellowship in prayer.

Addressing You as our Father is the key to the problem of prayer. You are more than our Creator, but our heavenly, holy and righteous Father; the God of Love and the God of Law.

We ask in Jesus' name, that You help us remember the universe was made with Your family in mind. Amen.

Today's quote-

Dr. Francis J. Sizer- " How utterly ridiculous for us ever to think that our faith consists in what we can do for God. Our faith is in fact totally based on what God does for us. Our faith is not about keeping laws so that we can be nicer people with nicer morals. This would be an insult to God, and tantamount to a prostitution of the good news." (p. 92, POWER ENCOUNTERS)

Did you know?

~ Even though we've done nothing to deserve God's love, He freely gives us His love; for He is Love.

~ Everything we are and have must come under the Lordship of Christ so as to display who our Father is and what His Kingdom is like.

Today's next 5 posts of 100 things Our God Is . . .

71. Our Redeemer Isa. 48:17

72. Our Teacher Matt. 28:18

73. Our Healer Isa. 53:5

74. Our Deliverer Rom. 11:20

75. Our Resurrection John 11:25