Law: prayer from the heart

Monday, February 9, 2026
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
    —Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    No vice can harbor in you, no infirmity take any root, no good desire can languish, when once your heart is in this method of prayer; never beginning to pray, till you first see how matters stand with you; asking your heart what it wants, and having nothing in your prayers, but what the known state of your heart puts you upon demanding, saying, or offering, unto God. A quarter of an hour of this prayer, brings you out of your closet a new man; your heart feels the good of it; and every return of such a prayer, gives new life and growth to all your virtues, with more certainty, than the dew refreshes the herbs of the field: whereas, overlooking this true prayer of your own heart, and only at certain times taking a prayer that you find in a book, you have nothing to wonder at, if you are every day praying, and yet every day sinking farther and farther under all your infirmities. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 161 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:7-8; Eph. 2:18; Heb. 10:19-22; 1 John 3:21-22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I seek You, for I am broken. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the inward prayerbook

Sunday, February 8, 2026
Meditation:
    And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
    —Philippians 4:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    The way to be a man of prayer, and be governed by its spirit, is not to get a book full of prayers; but the best help you can have from a book, is to read one full of such truths, instructions, and awakening informations, as force you to see and know who, and what, and where you are; that God is your all; and that all is misery, but a heart and life devoted to him. This is the best outward prayer-book you can have, as it will turn you to an inward book, and spirit of prayer in your heart, which is a continual longing desire of the heart after God, his divine life, and Holy Spirit. When, for the sake of this inward prayer, you retire at any time of the day, never begin till you know and feel, why and wherefore you are going to pray; and let this why and wherefore, form and direct everything that comes from you, whether it be in thought or in word. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 160 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 4:19; Ps. 73:28; Eph. 3:12-15; Heb. 4:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I pray with confidence before You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: if you can't pray about it...

Saturday, February 7, 2026
Meditation:
    The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
    —Matthew 12:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Consider yourself as always wrong, as having gone aside, and lost your right path, when any delight, desire, or trouble, is suffered to live in you, that cannot be made a part of this prayer of the heart to God. For nothing so infallibly shows us the true state of our heart, as that which gives us either delight or trouble; for as our delight and trouble is, so is the state of our heart: if therefore you are carried away with any trouble or delight, that has not an immediate relation to your progress in the divine life, you may be assured your heart is not in its right state of prayer to God... [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 159 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 12:35; 1 Cor. 13:1; Gal. 5:22,23; Heb. 9:11-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Cleanse my heart and life, that I might pray before You, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Robertson: hypocrisy

Friday, February 6, 2026
Meditation:
    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
    —Matthew 23:27-28
Quotation:
    I will tell you what to hate. Hate hypocrisy—hate cant—hate intolerance, oppression, injustice—hate Pharisaism. Hate them as Christ hated them, with a deep, living, godlike hatred.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons, v. II, Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1861, p. 253 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 23:27-28; Ps. 51;6; Jer. 17:9-10; Matt. 6:1-7; 23:5; Luke 16:15; 20:47; Phil. 2:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me not to hate the person but only the sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Herbert: practicing what we pray

Thursday, February 5, 2026
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597
Meditation:
    Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
    —John 9:31 (KJV)
Quotation:
    If I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, surely I am bound, so far as it is in my power, to practise what I pray for.
    ... George Herbert (1593-1633), The Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Herbert and Sanderson, Izaak Walton, London: Ingram, Cooke, and Co., 1853, p. 77 (see the book)
    See also John 9:31; Ps. 39:4; Matt. 6:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, extinguish the vanity in my prayers. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Mackey: receiving the word of truth

Wednesday, February 4, 2026
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
    —James 1:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The secular university is scandalized by the claims of revelation. Those who have, for whatever historical reasons, become seekers-on-principle, cannot tolerate the allegation that truth is a gift. To have to receive offends those who have determined to take.
    ... Louis Mackey (1926-2004)
    See also Jas. 1:17; Matt. 11:25; 16:15-17; Mark 5:36; Luke 2:26; 10:21; 24:45; Phil. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people receive Your gift of truth with joy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bradley: devotional poetry

Tuesday, February 3, 2026
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
    Praise our God, O peoples,
        let the sound of his praise be heard;
    he has preserved our lives
        and kept our feet from slipping.
    —Psalm 66:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Devotional poetry... has to do with devotedness, with trust merged into faith, with love’s steadfastness. It finds men’s worthwhileness deep laid in relationship to God’s worthwhileness, and this devotion is expressed in communication. It finds this world precious insofar as it... symbolizes God’s love and therefore it runs counter to our national sin of distrust in God. (And yet, how can we trust Him without knowing and living unto Him and loving Him?)
    ... Samuel Bradley
    See also Ps. 66:8-9; Rom. 9:33; 15:13; Col. 3:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to live unto You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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