Awaiting Our Demand

[Thompson, Darryl]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for August 21
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Awaiting Our Demand

Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:24.

Prayer is heaven's ordained means of success in the conflict with sin
and the development of Christian character. The divine influences that
come in answer to the prayer of faith will accomplish in the soul of the
suppliant all for which he pleads. For the pardon of sin, for the Holy
Spirit, for a Christlike temper, for wisdom and strength to do His work,
for any gift He has promised, we may ask; and the promise is, "Ye shall
receive."

Jesus is our helper; in Him and through Him we must conquer. . . . The
grace of Christ is waiting your demand upon it. He will give you grace
and strength as you need it if you ask Him. . . . The religion of Christ
will bind and restrain every unholy passion, will stimulate to energy,
to self-discipline, and industry, even in the matters of homely,
everyday life, leading us to learn economy, tact, and self-denial, and
to endure even privation without a murmur. The Spirit of Christ in the
heart will be revealed in the character, will develop noble qualities
and powers. "My grace is sufficient" (2 Cor. 12:9) says Christ.

Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own
soul. . . . We should pray in the family circle, and above all we must
not neglect secret prayer; for this is the life of the soul. It is
impossible for the soul to flourish while prayer is neglected. Family or
public prayer alone is not sufficient. In solitude let the soul be laid
open to the inspecting eye of God. Secret prayer is to be heard only by
the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of such
petitions. In secret prayer the soul is free from surrounding
influences, free from excitement. . . . By calm, simple faith, the soul
holds communion with God, and gathers to itself rays of divine light to
strengthen and sustain it in the conflict with Satan. . . . 

Pray in your closet, and as you go about your daily labor, let your
heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God.
These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of
grace. Satan cannot overcome him whose heart is thus stayed upon God.

>From Devotional: Our Father Cares, pp. 214, 215.