Brooks: Prayer's foreground and background

Saturday, March 18, 2017
Meditation:
    And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
    —Matthew 26:39 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Every true prayer has its background and its foreground. The foreground of prayer is the intense, immediate desire for a certain blessing which seems to be absolutely necessary for the soul to have; the background of prayer is the quiet, earnest desire that the will of God, whatever it may be, should be done. What a picture is the perfect prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane! In front burns the strong desire to escape death and to live; but, behind there stands, calm and strong, the craving of the whole life for the doing of the will of God... Leave out the foreground—let there be no expression of the wish of Him who prays—and there is left a pure submission which is almost fatalism. Leave out the background—let there be no acceptance of the will of God—and the prayer is only an expression of self-will, a petulant claiming of the uncorrected choice of Him who prays. Only when the two, foreground and background, are there together,—the special desire resting on the universal submission, the universal submission opening into the special desire,—only then is the picture perfect and the prayer complete!
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Light of the World, and Other Sermons, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1904, p. 120-121 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 26:39,42; 20:22; John 6:38; 10:17-18; 12:27; 18:11; Rom. 15:1-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the faith to know that You hear my prayers and make Your will known. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: talk less and pray more

Friday, March 17, 2017
    Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460
Meditation:
Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry!
    Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
    —Psalm 17:1 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world; at least, we should be better enabled to bear them.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. VI-IX [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. IV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 319 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 17:1; 28:1,2; 70:5; Dan. 9:3; Luke 18:1-7; Acts 4:29-31; Jas. 5:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my heart listens for Your voice. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Jones: prayer

Thursday, March 16, 2017
Meditation:
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
    beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
    my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
    in your name I will lift up my hands.
    —Psalm 63:1-4 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is co-operation with God. It is the purest exercise of the faculties God has given us—an exercise that links these faculties with the Maker to work out the intentions He had in mind in their creation. Prayer is aligning ourselves with the purposes of God...
    Prayer is commitment. We don’t merely co-operate with God with certain things held back within... We, the total person, co-operate. This means that co-operation equals commitment. Prayer means that the total you is praying... Your whole being reaches out to God, and God ... reaches down to you...
    Prayer is communion. Prayer is a means, but often it is an end in itself... There are times when your own wants and the needs of others drop away and you want just to look on His face and tell Him how much you love Him...
    Prayer is commission. Out of the quietness with God, power is generated that turns the spiritual machinery of the world. When you pray, you begin to feel the sense of being sent, that the divine compulsion is upon you.
    ... E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Growing Spiritually, New York: Abingdon, 1953, p. 290,295,296,298 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 63:1-4; Matt. 26:36-39; Luke 6:12; 9:28; 1 Cor. 3:9; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 6:18; Jas. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hear Your voice in the silence of my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Fenelon: Teach me to pray

Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Meditation:
    In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
    —John 16:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee; Thou only knowest what we need; Thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself. O Father! give to Thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask... Teach me to pray; pray Thyself in me.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Selections from Fénelon, ed. Mary Wilder Tileston, Boston: Roberts Bros., 1879, p. 192 (see the book)
    See also John 16:23-24; Matt. 6:6-8,31-32; Luke 11:11-13; 12:28-30; Rom. 8:26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only Your Presence in me enables me to pray. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Church: the House of Prayer

Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Meditation:
Come and hear, all you who fear God,
    and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
    —Psalm 66:16 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Here [in His holy House of Prayer] we may come on our day of rest, and be safe, if we will, from any thoughts but those of the world to come. Here we gather together for no earthly business, but for a purpose of one sort only; and that purpose is the same for which saints and angels are met together in that innumerable company before the throne of God. If there is a place on earth which, however faintly and dimly, shadows out the courts of God on high, surely it is where His people are met together, in all their weakness and ignorance and sin, in their poor and low estate, yet with humble and faithful hearts, in His House of Prayer.
    ... R. W. Church (1815-1890), Village Sermons, New York: Macmillan Company, 1897, p. 111 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 66:16; 84:2,10; 100:4; Acts 1:13-14; 20:7; Rom. 16:3-5; Eph. 3:14-15; Heb. 10:25
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am not worthy to be heard in Your courts, but in Your grace, receive my prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: the living memorial

Monday, March 13, 2017
Meditation:
    For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
    —1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (ESV)
Quotation:
    God in His providence has not allowed the survival of actual physical objects. But we have infinitely more than this, for instead of dead relics, however “authentic” and well preserved, we have a living life-line, stretching unbroken to Christ Himself. We have all the comfort and security that comes from historic tradition, but instead of being given the sad nostalgia of looking at an object and saying, “Look, how wonderful! This is what He touched then,” we are given an evergreen memorial [in communion] which says, “This is what He touches now.”
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Appointment with God, New York, Macmillan, 1954, p. 8-9 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Jer. 31:31-34; Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 10:3-4,16-17; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Tit. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I receive Your body and blood. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Packer: justification by faith

Sunday, March 12, 2017
Meditation:
    The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
    —Galatians 3:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Martin Luther described the doctrine of justification by faith as ... the article of faith that decides whether the church is standing or falling. By this he meant that when this doctrine is understood, believed, and preached, as it was in New Testament times, the church stands in the grace of God and is alive; but where it is neglected, overlaid, or denied, ... the church falls from grace and its life drains away, leaving it in a state of darkness and death.
    ... James I. Packer (b. 1926), introductory essay to The Doctrine of Justification [1867], James Buchanan, London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1961, p. vii (see the book)
    See also Gal. 3:8; Gen. 18:18; 22:18; 16:4; 28:14; Rom. 1:16-17; 3:21-24,29-30; 9:30; Gal. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, let faith reign in my heart, through Your promised blessing. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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