HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY
WITH GOD
by Matthew Henry, an
abridgement from Works, 1.198–213 [Baker, 1979]
Being the first of three discourses entitled “Directions for Daily Communion
with God”
Part 1 of 2
“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning,
O LORD;
in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”
(Psalm 5:3)
To the end that your daily worship may become more and more easy, and, if I may
so say, in a manner natural to you, I would recommend to you holy David’s
example in the text. David, having resolved in general (verse 2) that he would
abound in the duty of prayer, and abide by it (“unto thee will I pray”), here
fixes one proper time for it, and that is the morning: “My voice shalt thou
hear in the morning.” Not in the morning only. David solemnly addressed himself
to the duty of prayer three times a day, as Daniel did; “Evening, and morning,
and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud” (Ps 55:17). Nay, he does not think that
enough, but “seven times a day do I praise thee” (Ps 119:164). But particularly
in the morning. This, therefore, is the doctrine of our text: It is our wisdom
and duty, to begin every day with God.
Let us observe in it,
(a) The good work itself that we are to do. God must hear our voice, we must
direct our prayer to Him, and we must look up.
(b) The special time appointed, and observed for the doing of this good work;
and that it in the morning,—and again in the morning,—that is, every morning,
as duly as the morning comes.
The Good Work of Prayer
For the first, the good work which, by the example of David we are
here taught to do, is in one word, to pray;—a duty dictated by the light and
law of nature, which plainly and loudly speaks, “Should not a people seek unto
their God?” but which the gospel of Christ gives us much better instruction in,
and encouragement to, than any that nature furnishes us with, for it tells us
what we must pray for,—in whose name we must pray, and by whose assistance,—and
invites us to come boldly to the throne of grace, and to “enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Heb 10:19). This work we are to do not on the
morning only, but at all times. We read of preaching the Word out of season,
but we do not read of praying out of season, for that is never out of season;
the throne of grace is always open, and humble supplicants are always welcome,
and cannot come unseasonably.
But let us see how David here expresses his pious resolution to abide by this
duty.
A. “My voice shalt thou hear”
Two ways David may here be understood: Either,
(a) As promising himself a gracious acceptance with God. Thou shalt (i.e., thou
wilt) hear my voice, when in the morning I direct my prayer to Thee. He had
prayed, “Give ear to my words, O LORD” (v. 1); and “Hearken unto the voice of
my cry” (v. 2); and here he receives an answer to that prayer, “Thou wilt
hear”; I doubt not but Thou wilt; and though I have not presently a grant of
thing I prayed for, yet I am sure my prayer is heard, is accepted, and comes up
for a memorial, as the prayer of Cornelius did.
We may be sure of this, and we must pray in the assurance of it,—in a full
assurance of this faith, that wherever God finds a praying heart, He will be
found a prayer-hearing God. Though the voice of prayer be a low voice,—a weak
voice, yet if it comes from an upright heart, it is a voice that God will
hear,—that He will hear with pleasure,—it is His delight, and He will return a
gracious answer to; He hath heard your prayers, He hath seen your tears. When
we come to God by prayer, if we come aright we may be confident of this, that
notwithstanding the distance between heaven and earth, and our great
unworthiness to have any notice taken of us, or any favour showed us, yet God
does hear our voice, and will not turn away our prayer, or His mercy. Or,
(b) It is rather to be taken, as David’s promising God a constant attendance on
Him, in the way He has appointed. “My voice shalt thou hear,” i.e., I will
speak to Thee. Because Thou hast inclined Thine ear unto me many a time, even
to the end of my time. Not a day shall pass but Thou shalt be sure to hear from
me. Not that the voice is the thing that God regards, as they seemed to think,
who in prayer made their voice to be heard on high (Isa 58:4). Hannah prayed
and prevailed, when her voice was not heard; but it is the voice of the heart
that is here meant. God said to Moses, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” when we
do not find that he said one word (Ex 14:15). Praying is lifting up the soul to
God, and pouring out the heart before Him: yet as far as the expressing of the
devout affections of the heart by words may be of use to fix the thoughts, and
to excite and quicken the desires, it is good to draw near to God, not only
with a pure heart, but with a humble voice; so must we “render the calves of
our lips” (Hos 14:2).
However, God understands the language of the heart, and that is the language in
which we must speak to God. David prays here, not only “give ear to my words”
(v. 1), but “consider my meditation,” and “Let the words of my mouth,
[proceeding from] the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight” (Ps
19:14).
This therefore we have to do in every prayer, we must speak to God, we must
write to Him. We say we hear from a friend from whom we receive a letter; we
must see to it that God hears from us daily.
This must be so, for:
God Expects and Requires us to Pray
(1) He expects and requires it. Though He has no need of
us, or our services, nor can be benefited by them, yet He has obliged us to
offer the sacrifice of prayer and praise to Him continually.
(a) Thus He will keep up His authority over us, and keep us continually in mind
of our subjection to Him, which we are apt to forget. He requires that by
prayer we solemnly pay our homage to Him, and give honour to His name, that by
this act and deed of our own, thus frequently repeated, we may strengthen the
obligations we lie under to observe His statutes and keep His laws, and be more
and more sensible of the weight of them. “He is thy LORD, and worship thou him”
(Ps 45:11), that by frequent humble adorations of His perfections, you may make
a constant humble compliance with His will the more easy to thee. By doing
obeisance, we are learning obedience.
(b) Thus He will testify His love and compassion towards us. It would have been
an abundant evidence of His concern for us, and His goodness to us, if He had
only said, “Let me hear from you as often as there is occasion; call upon me in
the time of trouble or want, and that is enough.” But to show His complacency
to us, as a father shows his affection to his child when he is sending him
abroad, he gives us this charge, let me hear from you every day, by every post,
though you have no particular business; which shows, that the prayer of the
upright is His delight; it is music in His ears. Christ says to His dove, “Let
me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy
countenance is comely” (Song 2:14). And it is to the spouse the church that
Christ speaks in the close of that Song of Songs, “Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
(in the original it is feminine) the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me
to hear it” (8:13). What a shame is this to us, that God is more willing to be
prayed to, and more ready to hear prayer, than we are to pray.
We have Much to Pray
(2) We have something to say to God everyday. Many are not
sensible of this, and it is their sin and misery. They live without God in the
world, are not sensible of their dependence upon Him, and their obligations to
Him, and therefore for their parts they have nothing to say to Him. He never
hears from them, no more than the father did from his prodigal son, when He was
upon the ramble, from one week’s end to another. They ask scornfully, What can
the Almighty do for them? And then no marvel if they ask next, “What profit
shall we have if we pray unto Him?” And the result is, they say to the
Almighty, “Depart from us,” and so shall their doom be. But I hope better
things of you my brethren, and that you are not one of those who cast off fear,
and restrain prayer before God. You are all ready to own that there is a great
deal that the Almighty can do for you, and that there is profit in praying to
Him. Therefore resolve to draw nigh to God, that He may draw nigh to you. We
have something to say to God daily.
(a) As to a friend we love and have freedom with; such a friend we cannot go by
without calling on, and never lack something to say to, though we have no
particular business with Him. To such a friend we unbosom ourselves, we profess
our love and esteem, and with pleasure communicate our thoughts. Abraham is
called the friend of God, and this honour have all the saints. “I have not
called you servants,” says Christ, “but friends.” His secret is with the
righteous. We are invited to acquaint ourselves with Him, and to walk with Him
as one friend walks with another. The fellowship of believers is said to be
“with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ,” and have we nothing to say to
Him then? Have we not a great deal to say to Him in acknowledgment of His infinite
perfection and of His condescending grace and favour to us, in manifesting
Himself to us and not to the world?
God hath something to say to us as a friend every day, by the written Word, by
His providences, and by our own consciences. And He hearkens and hears whether
we have any thing to say to Him by way of reply, and we are very unfriendly if
we have not. When He saith to us, “Seek ye my face,” should not our hearts
answer as to one we love, “Thy face, Lord, we will seek”? When He saith to us,
“Return ye backsliding children,” should not we readily reply, “Behold we come
unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God”? If He speaks to us by way of
conviction and reproof, ought not we to return an answer by way of confession
and submission? If He speaks to us by way of comfort, ought not we to reply in
praise? If you love God, you will not need to seek for something to say to
Him,—something for your hearts to pour out before Him, which His grace has
already put there.
(b) As to a master we serve, and have business with. Think how numerous and
important the concerns are that lie between us and God, and you will readily
acknowledge that you have a great dealt to say to Him. We have a constant
dependence upon Him. All our expectation is from Him;—we have constant dealings
with Him;—He is God with whom we have to do (Heb 4:13).
Do we not know that our happiness is bound up in His favour; it is life, the
life of our souls, it is better than life, than the life of our bodies? And
have we not business with God to seek His favour, to entreat it with our whole
hearts, to beg as for our lives that He would lift up the light of His
countenance upon us, and to plead Christ’s righteousness, as that only through
which we can hope to obtain God’s loving kindness?
Do we not know that we have offended God, that by sin we have made ourselves
obnoxious to His wrath and curse, and that we are daily contracting guilt? And
have we not then business enough with Him to confess our fault and folly, to
ask for pardon in the blood of Christ, and in Him who is our piece to make our
peace with God, and renew our covenants with Him in His own strength to go and
sin no more?
Do we not know that we have daily work to do for God, and our own souls, the
work of the day that is to be done in its day? And have we not then business
with God to beg of Him to show us what He would have us to, to direct us in it,
and strengthen us for it? To seek to Him for assistance and acceptance, that He
will work in us both to will and to do that which is good, and then countenance
and own His own work? Such business as this the servant has with his master.
Do we not know that we are continually in danger? Our bodies are so, and their
lives and comforts, we are continually surrounded with diseases and deaths, whose
arrows fly at mid-night and noon-day; and have we not then business with God
going out and coming in, lying down and rising up, to put ourselves under the
protection of His providence, to be the charge of His holy angels? Our souls
much more are so, and their lives and comforts; it is those our adversary the
devil, a strong and subtle adversary, wars against, and seeks to devour; and
have we not then business with God to put ourselves under the protection of His
grace, and clad ourselves with His armour, that we may be able to stand against
the wiles and violence of Satan; so as we may neither be surprised into sin by
a sudden temptation, nor overpowered by a strong one.
Do we not know that we are dying daily, that death is working in us, and
hastening towards us, and that death fetches us to judgment, and judgment fixes
us in our everlasting state? And have we not then something to say to God in
preparation for what is before us? Shall we not say, “Lord make us to know our
end! Lord teach us to number our days!”? Have we not business with God to judge
ourselves that we may not be judged, and to see that our matters be right and
good? Do we not know that we are members of that body whereof Christ is the
head, and are we not concerned to approve ourselves living members? Have we not
then business with God upon the public account to make intercession for His
Church? Have we nothing to say for Zion? Nothing in behalf of Jerusalem’s
ruined walls? Nothing for the peace and welfare of the land of our nativity? Are
we not of the family, or but babes in it, that we concern not ourselves in the
concerns of it?
Have we not relations, no friends, that are dear to us, whose joys and griefs
we share in? And have we nothing to say to God for them? No complaints to make,
no requests to make known? Are none of them sick or in distress? None of them
tempted or disconsolate? And have we not errands at the throne of grace, to beg
relief and succour of them?
Now lay all this together, and then consider whether you have not something to
say to God every day; and particularly in days of trouble, when it is meet to
be said unto God, “I have bourn chastisement”; and when if you have any sense
of things, you will say unto God, “Do not condemn me.”
No Hindrance to Prayer is too Great
(3) If you have all this to say to God, what should hinder
you from saying it? From saying it every day? Why should not He hear your
voice, when you have so many errands to Him?
(a) Let not distance hinder you from saying it. You have occasion to speak with
a friend, but he is a great way off, you cannot reach him, you know not where
to find him, nor how to get a letter to him, and therefore our business with
him is undone; but this needs not keep you from speaking to God, for though it
is true God is in heaven, and we are upon earth, yet He is nigh to His praying
people in all that they call upon Him for, He hears their voice wherever they
are. “Out of the depths I have cried unto thee,” says David (Ps 130:1). “From
the end of the earth will I cry unto thee” (Ps 61:2). Nay, Jonah says, “Out of
the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice” (2:2). In all places we
may find a way open heavenward. Thanks to Him who by His own blood has
consecrated for us a new and living way into the holiest, and settled a
correspondence between heaven and earth.
(b) Let not fear hinder you from saying what you have to say to God. You have
business with a great man it may be, but he is far above you, or so stern and
severe towards all his inferiors, that you are afraid to speak to him, and you
have none to introduce you, or speak a good word for you, and therefore you
choose rather to drop your cause; but there is no occasion for your being thus
discouraged in speaking to God; you may come boldly to the throne of His grace,
you have there a liberty of speech, leave to pour out your whole souls. And
such are His compassions to humble supplicants, that even His terror need not
make them afraid. Nor is this all, we have one advocate with the Father. Did
ever children need an advocate with a father? But that by those two immutable
things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong
consolation, we have not only the relation of a Father to depend upon, but the
interest and intercession of an advocate; a High Priest over the house of God,
in whom we have access with confidence.
(c) Let not His knowing what your business is, and what you have to say to Him
hinder you, you have business with such a friend, but you think you need not
put yourselves to any trouble about it, for He is already apprised for it. He
knows what you want and what your desire is before God, He knows your wants and
burdens, but He will know them from you. He hath promised your relief; but His
promise must be put to suit, and He will for this be inquired of by the house
of Israel to do it for them (Ezek 36:37). Though we cannot by prayers give Him
any information, yet we must by our prayers give Him honour. It is true,
nothing we can say can have any influence upon Him, or move Him to show us
mercy, but it may have an influence upon ourselves, and help to put us into a
frame fit to receive mercy. It is a very easy and reasonable condition of His
favours, Ask, and it shall be given you. It was to teach us the necessity of
praying, in order to receiving our favour, that Christ put that strange
question to the blind men, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” (Mk
10:51). He knew what they would have, but those that touch the top of the
golden sceptre must be ready to tell, what is their petition and what is their
request?
(d) Let not any other business hinder our saying what we have to say to God. We
have business with a friend perhaps, but we cannot do it because we have no
leisure; we have something else to do, which we think more needful; but we
cannot say so concerning the business we have to do with God; for that is
without doubt the one thing needful, to which everything else must be made to
truckle and give way. It is not all necessary to our happiness that we should
be great in the world, or raise estates to such a pitch. But it is absolutely
necessary that we make peace with God, that we obtain His favour, and keep
ourselves with His love. Therefore no business for the world will serve to
excuse our attendance upon God, but, on the contrary, the more important our
worldly business is, the more need we have to apply ourselves to God by prayer
for His blessing upon it, and so take Him along with us in it. The closer we
keep to prayer, and to God in prayer, the more will all our affairs prosper.
Shall I prevail with you now to let God frequently to hear from you; let Him
hear your voice, though it be a voice of breathing (Lam 3:56) that is a sign of
life; though it be a voice of your groanings, and those so weak that it cannot
be uttered (Rom 8:26). Speak to Him, though it may be in broken language, as
Hezekiah did; “Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter” (Isa 38:14). Speak
often to Him, He is always within hearing. Hear Him speaking to you and have an
eye to that in every thing you say to Him: as when you write an answer to a
business letter, you lay it before you; God’s Word must be the guide of your
desires, and the ground of your expectations in prayer, nor can you expect He
should give a gracious ear to what you say to Him, if you turn a deaf ear to
what He says to you.
You see you have frequent occasions to speak with God, and therefore are
concerned to grow in your acquaintance with Him, to take heed of doing any
thing to displease Him; and to strengthen your interest in the Lord Jesus,
through whom alone it is that you have access with boldness to Him. Keep your
voice in tune for prayer, and let your language be pure language, that you may
be fit to call on the name of the Lord (Zep 3:9). And in every prayer remember
you are speaking to God, and make it appear that you have an awe of Him upon
your spirits; let us not be rash with our mouth, nor hasty to utter any thing
before God, but let every word be well weighed because “God is in heaven, and
[we] upon earth” (Ecc 5:2). And if He had not invited and encouraged us to do
it, it had been unpardonable presumption for such sinful worms as we are to
speak to the Lord of glory (Gen 18:27). And we are concerned to speak from the
heart heartily, for it is our lives and for the lives of our souls that we are
speaking to Him.
B. We must direct our prayer unto God
He must not only hear our voice, but we must in deliberation and design address
ourselves to Him. In the original it is no more than “I will direct unto thee,”
but our translation supplies it very well, “I will direct my prayer unto thee.”
That is,
Our Prayers must be Focused
(1) When I pray to Thee I will direct my prayers. This
notes a fixedness of thoughts, and a close application of mind, to the duty of
prayer. We must go about it solemnly, as those that have something of moment
much at heart, and much in view therein, and therefore dare not trifle in it.
When we go to prayer, we must not give the sacrifice of fools, that think not
what it is to be done, or what is to be gained, but speak the words of the
wise, who aim at some good end at what they say, and suit it to that end, we
must have in our eye God’s glory and our own true happiness, for so well
ordered is our covenant of grace, that God has been pleased therein to twist
interests with us, so that in seeking His glory, we really and effectually seek
our own true interests. This is directing the prayer, as he that shoots an
arrow directs it, and with a fixed eye and steady hand takes aim aright. This
is engaging the heart to approach to God, and in order to that disengaging it
from everything else. He that takes aim with one eye shuts the other; if we
would direct a prayer to God, we must look off all other things, must gather in
all our wandering thoughts, must summon them all to draw near and give their
attendance, for here is work to be done that needs them all, and is well worthy
of them all. Thus we must be able to say with the psalmist, “My heart is fixed,
O God, my heart is fixed” (Ps 57:7).
Our Prayers must be Directed to God
(2) When I direct my prayer, I will direct it to Thee. This
speaks of the sincerity of our habitual intention in prayer. We must not direct
our prayer to men, that we may gain praise and applause with them as the
Pharisees did, who proclaimed their devotions as they did their alms, that they
might gain a reputation. Men commend them: “Verily… They have their reward” (Mt
6:2), but God abhors their pride and hypocrisy. Let not self, carnal self, be
the spring and centre of your prayers, but God. Let the eye of the soul be
fixed upon Him as your highest end in your application to Him. Let this be the
habitual disposition of your souls, to be to your God for a name and a praise.
And let this be the design in all your desires, that God may be glorified, and
by this let them be directed, determined, sanctified, and when need is,
over-ruled. Our Saviour hath plainly taught us this, in the first petition of
the Lord’s prayer; which is, “Hallowed be thy name,” in which we are taught
that all our prayers must be directed to the glory of God, in all that whereby
He has made Himself known. A habitual aim at God’s glory is that sincerity
which is our gospel perfection. That single eye, which where it is, the whole
body, the whole soul is full of light. Thus the prayer is directed to God.
Directions on Directing our Prayers
(3) When I direct my prayer, I will direct it to Thee,
speaks also of the steadiness of our actual regard to God in prayer. In our
prayers, we must continually think of Him, as one with whom we have to do in
prayer. We must direct our prayer, as we direct our speech to the person we
have business with. The Bible is a letter God hath sent to us, prayer is a
letter we send to Him; now you know it is essential to a letter that it be
directed, and material that it be directed right; if it be not, it is in danger
of miscarrying: which may be of ill consequence. You pray daily, and therein
send letters to God; you know not what you lose, if your letters miscarry. Will
you therefore take instructions how to direct to Him?
(a) Give Him His titles as you do when you direct to a person of honour;
address yourselves to Him as the great Jehovah, God over all, blessed for
evermore; King of kings, and Lord of lords; as the Lord God gracious and
merciful; let your hearts and mouths be filled with holy adorings and admirings
of Him, and fasten upon those titles of His, which are proper to strike a holy
awe of Him upon your minds, that you may worship Him with reverence and godly
fear. Direct your prayer to Him as the God of glory, with whom is terrible
majesty, and whose greatness is unsearchable, that you may not dare to trifle
with Him, or mock Him what you say to Him.
(b) Take notice of your relation to Him, as His children, and let not that be
overlooked and lost in your awful adorations of His glories. I have been told
of a good man, whose journal, discovered after his death, records that at a
certain time in secret prayer, his heart at the beginning of the duty was much
enlarged in giving to God those titles which are awful and tremendous, in
calling Him “the Great,” “the Mighty,” and “the Terrible God,” but going on
thus, he checked himself with this thought, “and why not my Father”? Christ
hath both by His precepts and by His pattern, taught us to address ourselves to
God as our Father; and the spirit of adoption teaches us to cry, “Abba,
Father.” A son, though a prodigal, when he returns and repents, may go to his
father, and to say unto him, “Father, I have sinned”; and though no more worthy
to be called a son, yet humbly bold to call him father. When Ephraim bemoans
himself as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, God bemoans him as a dear son,
as a pleasant child (Jer 31:18–20). And if God is not ashamed, let us not be
afraid to own the relation.
(c) Direct your prayer to Him in heaven; this our Saviour has taught us in the
preface to the Lord’s prayer, “Our Father which art in heaven.” Not that He is
confined to the heavens, or as if the heaven, or heaven of heavens, could
contain Him, but there He is said to have prepared His throne,—not only His
throne of government by which His kingdom rules over all,—but His throne of
grace to which we must by faith draw near. We must eye Him as God in heaven, in
opposition to the God of the heathen, which dwelt in temples made with hands.
Heaven is a high place, so we must address ourselves to Him as a God infinitely
above us. Heaven is the fountain of light, so to Him we must address ourselves
as the Father of lights. Heaven is a place of prospect, so we must see His eye
upon us, from thence beholding all the children of men. Heaven is a place of
purity, and so we must in prayer eye Him as a holy God, and give thanks as the
remembrance of His holiness. Heaven is the firmament of God’s power, and so we
must depend upon Him as one to whom power belongs. When our Lord Jesus prayed,
He lifted up His hands and eyes to heaven, to direct us whence to expect the
blessings we need.
(d) Direct this letter to be left with the Lord Jesus, the only Mediator
between God and men; it will certainly miscarry if it be not put into His hand,
who is that other angel that puts incense to the prayers of the saints, and so
perfumed presents them to the Father (Rev 8:3). What we ask of the Father must
be by His hand, for He is the High Priest of our profession, that is ordained
for men to offer their gifts (Heb 5:1). Direct the letter to be left with Him,
and He will deliver it with care and speed, and will make our service
acceptable.
C. We must look up
(1) We must look up in our prayers, as those that speak to one above us,
infinitely above us, the high and holy one that inhabits eternity, as those
that expect every good and perfect gift to come from above, from the Father of
lights, as those that desire in prayer to enter into the holiest, and draw near
with a true heart. With an eye of faith we must look above the world and
everything in it, must look beyond the things of time. What is this world, and
all things here below, to one that knows how to put a due estimate upon
spiritual blessings in heavenly things by Jesus Christ? The spirit of man at
death goes upward (Ecc 3:21); for it returns to God who gave it and therefore
as mindful of its origin, it must in every prayer look upwards, towards its
God, towards its home, as having set its affections on things above, wherein it
has laid up its treasure. Let us therefore, in prayer, lift up our hearts with
our hands unto God in the heavens (Lam 3:41).
(2) We must look up after our prayers.
(a) We must look up with an eye of satisfaction and pleasure. Looking up is a
sign of cheerfulness; as a down look is a melancholy one. We must look up as
those that having by prayer referred ourselves to God, are easy and well
pleased, and, with an entire confidence in His wisdom and goodness, patiently
expect the issue. Hannah, when she had prayed, looked up, looked pleasant; she
went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad (1 Sam 1:18).
Prayer is heart’s ease to a good Christian; and when we have prayed, we should
look up as those that through grace have found it so.
(b) We must look up with an eye of observation, to see what returns God makes
to our prayers. We must look up as one that has shot an arrow looks after it to
see how near it comes to the mark. We must look within us, and observe what the
frame of our spirit is after we have been at prayer, how well satisfied they
are in the will of God, and how well disposed to accommodate themselves to it.
We must look about us, and observe how providence works concerning us, that if our
prayers be answered, we may return to give thanks; if not, we may remove what
hinders, and may continue waiting. Thus we must set ourselves upon our
watchtower to see what God will say unto us (Hab 2:1), and must be ready to
hear it (Ps 85:8), expecting that God will give us an answer of peace, and
resolving that we will return no more to folly. Thus we must keep our communion
with God; hoping that whenever we lift our hearts to Him, He will lift up the
lights of His countenance upon us. Sometimes the answer is quick, while they
are yet speaking I will hear; quicker than the return of any posts. But if it
be not, when we have prayed we must wait.
Let us learn thus to direct our prayers, and thus to look up; and be inward
with God in every duty, to make heart-work of it, or we make nothing of it. Let
us not worship in the outward court, when we are commanded and encouraged to
enter within the veil.
Part 2 of 2