What Prayer Can Do

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? <br/><br/>Psalm 24 says he who has clean hands and a pure heart. Who do we want as leaders in government and in positions of authority? The same, not those who are false and deceitful.<br/><br/>As we pray for our nations government, let&#8217;s ask for the clean and pure.<br/><br/>Prayer Insights &#8230; from C.H. Spurgeon<br/><br/>Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in heaven. &#8212;&#8201;Lamentations 3:41<br/><br/>The act of prayer teaches us our unworthiness, which is a very salutary lesson for such proud beings as we are. If God gave us favors without constraining us to pray for them we should never know how poor we are, but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalog of necessities, a revelation of hidden poverty. <br/><br/>While it is an application to divine wealth, it is a confession of human emptiness. The most healthy state of a Christian is to be always empty in self and constantly depending upon the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in self and rich in Jesus; weak as water personally, but mighty through God to do great exploits; and hence the use of prayer, because, while it adores God, it lays the creature where it should be, in the very dust. <br/><br/>Prayer is in itself, apart from the answer which it brings, a great benefit to the Christian. As the runner gains strength for the race by daily exercise, so for the great race of life we acquire energy by the hallowed labor of prayer. Prayer plumes the wings of God's young eaglets, that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer girds the loins of God's warriors, and sends them forth to combat with their sinews braced and their muscles firm. An earnest pleader comes out of his closet, even as the sun arises from the chambers of the east, rejoicing like a strong man to run his race. Prayer is that uplifted hand of Moses which routs the Amalekites more than the sword of Joshua; it is the arrow shot from the chamber of the prophet foreboding defeat to the Syrians. Prayer supplies human wea