O PRAY for me!
That is one of the cries that frequently come to us from the sick and
the dying--sometimes because they have not themselves learned how to
pray in the days that passed, but always with the consciousness that
prayer is _needed_.
_Pray!_ sayeth our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is _helpful_ to pray. And
on the background of nearly two thousand years of actual experience His
church responds: Indeed, it is helpful to pray!
"Ask, and it shall be given you ... for everyone that asketh
receiveth.... Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread,
will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a
serpent? 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?" (Mat. 7, 7, etc.)
The prayer is a _gain_ to us since we have such a generous Father who
will not refuse us anything good, and who has it in His power to give
us all.
But the prayer also is a _protection_. "Watch and pray, that ye enter
not into temptation" (Mat. 26, 41). The ability to be absorbed in
prayer is a protection against temptations, and in the prayer strength
and fortitude are secured with which to resist the temptations.
In complete realization of this the Apostles continuously implore us to
pray.
Make the prayer a regular and constant feature of your daily life.
Don't let it be a matter of chance whether you offer a prayer or not.
Don't let every insignificant hindrance prevent you from saying your
prayer. Many of the ancient leaders in the church of the Lord set aside
several hours a day, parts of their most propitious working time, for
praying--and considered that a gain. Thus Luther often devoted three or
four hours a day to constant prayer. You may not accomplish anything
like that, but you are able, nevertheless, to give the prayer a fixed
and constant place on your schedule for every day, and then you will
experience that it is a gain and a protection; for "prayer brings down
from Heaven the peace of God; it brings down the strength to love and
revere Him; it brings down from Above relief in the hour of distress,
and it brings infinite comfort at the moment of death."