Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/471

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Every prayer is a wish, but wishes are not prayers. In the heart of every prayer is a sense of need, but a sense of need is not prayer. Prayer is asking for a felt need; not asking the Universe, but God. No one can intelligently ask who does not believe that he can and may be heard. No one can perseveringly ask, who thinks that asking will bring nothing. Persons who believe that the whole influence of prayer is simply the effect of their own thoughts upon themselves, never pray. They cannot pray. The mouth may utter right words; the heart is not in them. Some prayers are not prayers, for those who say them do not really wish for the things they mention. But the difficulty with most prayers is that there is no grasp of the idea of God—there is no asking. "Ask, and ye shall receive." —.

There is much seeking for God that does not amount to searching for Him with all the heart. There is much praying, and too little prayer. There are many petitions, but too little expectation. There is too reckless a rushing into the presence of God, and too little patient waiting to hear what He will speak. True prayer has to do directly with the infinitely high and holy God; and true prayer ever finds Him, and in finding Him gets all that Divine wisdom and love can bestow upon the seeker, consistently with God's glory and the creature's highest good —.

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