Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep
your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Php 4:6-7

Spreading Our Cares Before God

These two verses contain a great deal of wisdom, and inner content, that could take weeks to study. Some teachings and studies have been chosen, and posted below that touch on some important points-and expand on these verses to give the reader deeper perspective - in hopes to cause you to turn to God for every care and every need, openly and without reservation. He desires our fellowship, and honest sincere dialogue. I'm still learning this, and the answers to many of my prayers, have brought the fruit of peace, and stability. When God is our refuge, there is no place for anxiety, or fear. As we are told-God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. I know this to be true. God keeps His word.

Paul in these words bids the Christians of Philippi to carry all their sorrows and fears to the throne of Christ. He specially bids them remember the nearness of our Lord and the freedom we may use in speaking to Him; and in so doing he has taught us a great and blessed truth, needful for all men in all ages; I mean that a life of prayer is a life of peace.

​Paul here tells us, first of all, that there is One ever near us who can fulfil all our desire and overrule all things in our behalf: "The Lord is at hand." How soon He may reveal Himself in person we know not; but, soon or late, it is certain that, although unseen, He is ever near us. His presence departed not from the Church when He ascended into heaven. He is withdrawn from the eyes of our flesh, but in the sight of our hearts He is always visible; though He be at the right hand of God, yet He is in the Church and in our secret chamber; He is both able and willing to fulfil all our hearts’ desires, and nothing is hid from His sight.

​Paul tells us further that we may make all our desires known unto God; we may speak with Him as a man speaks with his friend. We all know the relief of unburdening ourselves and opening our hidden cares even to an earthly companion; we seem to have laid off a weight when we have told our sorrow: and yet there is a point beyond which we do not reveal ourselves to our fastest and nearest friend. But from God not only is it impossible to conceal, but we do not desire to hide, anything. Though He be the Holy One, and His eyes as a flame of fire, so piercing and so pure, yet we do not shrink from making all known to Him, for though He be perfect in purity, He is likewise perfect in compassion; He is as pitiful as He is holy. Though unworthy to ask the least blessing, yet we may make our requests known unto Him by silent humiliation and by secret appeal to His perfect knowledge. We shall not indeed always have what we ask; but if we ask in faith, we shall always have peace.

Of this we shall never fail--
(1) first, because whatsoever we ask which is truly for our good, that He will give us freely. No father so much delights to give the very thing his children ask for, as our Father in heaven. Whatsoever we desire that is in harmony with the eternal will, with the love of our Redeemer, and with the mind of the Holy Ghost—those things we shall without fail receive. All good things, all good, eternal and created, all blessing, grace, and truth, all the benedictions of. the kingdom of God, all the promises of the Gospel, and all the pledged mercies of redemption—all these we may ask importunately, and shall assuredly receive.
(2) Whatsoever we ask that is not for our good, He will keep it back from us. In this entangled twilight state of probation, where the confines of good and ill so nearly approach and almost seem to intermingle, there needs a keen and strong spiritual eye to discern and know the nature and properties of all things which encompass us about. How awful would be our lot if our wishes should straightway pass into realities.
(3) We know certainly that if God refuse us anything, it is only to give us something better.  (H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 240)

The Apostle speaks of certain things which hinder the ideal peace, and the practical thing for us is to understand these hindrances and remove them.

The evil that he would prohibit is care—over-anxiety about the things of life. The care condemned is an overanxious solicitude about material things; a restless, wearing, fretting anxiety, that cannot let us do our best, and then leave issues in the hands of God’s providence. Exercises of faith are more easy in spiritual things than they are in temporal things. The slightest derangement of our business plans, the least check in our business prosperity, is often too much for our faith. We give way to despondency; every experience seems a presage of evil, every road tangled and rough; we receive no gift of God with joy, we offer no prayer with thanksgiving; we fret ourselves, and perhaps charge God foolishly.

There are things that we have no right to care about at all, things of sheer envy and covetousness. How our cares would be lessened were they limited to things fairly belonging to us. They, too, who are always foreboding evil, always looking on the dark side of things, and if there be a disastrous possibility anticipate it, make cares for themselves. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Every anxiety about duty has its limits, overpassing which it becomes a disqualifying burden, presses down the springs of action, and disables the judgment. I may be so afraid of doing wrong that I never do right.

It is difficult to distinguish between the measure of legitimate desire which is right and the excess of it, which is wrong. Two or three suggestions may help us. The legitimate measure of even lawful care is exceeded when religious trust in God is disabled; when our spirit is so disquieted and absorbed that we cannot pray, save in the utterances of imperious desires; when the care intrudes at all times and overpowers all feelings, so that we absolutely cannot leave the issue with God. Undue care is one of the most inveterate forms of unbelief. It wears out physical energies, takes the vital spirit out of a man; instead of a sound mind in a healthy body, he has to contend with a disordered mind in a body nervously unstrung; he can neither work by day nor sleep by night; full of morbid activity, he does nothing; his over-anxiety has defeated itself.

How is this great hindrance to peace to be counteracted? The strong man armed can be cast out only by a stronger than he; we cannot cast out the evil spirit and leave an empty heart—swept and garnished. Natural human feeling must have something whereon to rest. It rests upon its misfortune and fear; the true remedy is to rest on God. Pray, and the peace of God shall guard your heart and mind.  (H. Allon, The Indwelling Christ, p. 107)

​Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. He is launched on the storm-tossed sea of life. He is a reed which grows up to be shaken of the wind. The pleasantest paths are not without their sorrows. The rose, however sweet it is, has its thorns. What then shall we do with our sorrows?

​1. It is impossible to eradicate them, for in the very resistance we find a new cause of suffering. As the fabled Hydra of old, with one head severed from his body, sprang forward with a hundred in its place, so shall our resisted troubles be.
2. It is folly to resist them; as idiotic a task as Don Quixote’s against the windmills.
3. Shall we suffer, then? We could if we were as strong as Atlas, who bore the world on his shoulders; but we are not Atlases.
4. Take them quickly, then, to the Divine Burden bearer. This is the panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to.

Be careful for nothing.
1. Because there are higher considerations. Here we spend no end of time and thought on things which are not worth it, and neglect matters which deserve our most earnest attention. “The life is more than meat,” and the soul than life. The doctor’s bell and knocker never seem at rest; nor are the poor patients to be blamed for their importunity; but how is it that the body casket is so cared for and the soul jewel so neglected. Men are careful even to madness about their money, but utterly careless about eternal riches.
2. Because those necessary trifles about which we are obliged to think in some degree are all seen to and arranged by God. Cast, then, “all your care upon Him; He careth for you.”
3. Because the smallest affairs of life are entirely beyond our control. Man can do a great deal—he can flash a message round the world, and through the microphone hear the footstep of a fly, but he cannot add one cubit to his stature.
4. Because nothing is too small for God to arrange for. We are ready to believe that nothing is too great for God to care for, but it is difficult for us to confide in Him in little things. But the God who made the ocean makes the dew drop, and cares for both.

Be prayerful for everything. Some mercies will come unasked for; but those are sweetest which come in answer to prayer.
1. Because of the privilege of prayer. We have not only the care but the heart of God. The blood of God’s dear Son has opened the way to the mercy seat.
2. Because of the power of prayer. It has a soothing effect, as we know from earthly confidences.
3. Because there is no limit to prayer. There is nothing we may not ask Him about. It is His will. “I will be enquired of.”
III. Be thankful for anything.
1. Because we do not deserve anything but wrath.
2. Because ingratitude is one of the worst of sins. We are thankful for the hospitality of earthly friends, and yet though we have so much from God how thankless we are. Thankless hearts are like scentless flowers. (Thomas Spurgeon.)

In everything make your request known unto God, and then be careful for nothing. It is committed into God’s hands, rest and rejoice. These early converts were filled with an overwhelming sense of the blessings with which their lives were crowned. They found it easier to praise than we do.

The principle of deliverance from care is placed by our Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, in a two-fold light.

The things about which we are tempted to be careful are “things that perish.” Their worth is but for a little time, and stretches but a little way. What matters a little more or less of earthly treasure. The soul’s satisfaction is independent of it. The true and enduring riches are within reach. To men who believed in and pined for the heavenly treasure, the appeal was conclusive. What matters the earthly substance which moth and rust are wasting daily, when we have a glorious treasure which defies decay and violence. They believed this and were careful for nothing. We believe less and are consumed with care.

This superiority to earthly things demands a keen discernment, a pure unworldly heart, which are rare. Who is sufficient for these things. The Savior, pitying our infirmity, has another assurance to meet the needs of our trembling apprehensive natures. “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” We are not alone in this great universe, whose awful order, indifferent to our needs, strikes a shivering dread into our hearts. Behind the veil a Father is watching and caring, and by His vigilant providence is adding, in the measure in which He sees we need them, all these things unto us. Be careful for nothing; rest calmly in the care of God.

But we can not only rest but pray. He is no unknown Friend to whom we can commend our cause and then leave it. He is here in the silent sanctuary of our hearts. Perhaps our requests are shortsighted and foolish. Be it so. The best thing that we can do is to take them to God, and lay them before Him. His light will reveal, His fire consume the sensual, selfish element in our petitions; His burning presence will purify our hearts, and make our prayers powerful with Him. Prayer is the channel of communication between the careworn soul and its helper; and it fills its desolation with the sense of a living, loving presence, which charges the very atmosphere with benediction; it quickens a pulse of joy and hope in the numbness of its despair. He who has never known what prayer can do to calm a troubled and uplift a despairing spirit is dead to the deepest, richest experience of life.

But it must be the prayer of faith.
Christians complain bitterly that their prayers are not answered. But they do not understand the conditions. God nowhere binds Himself to answer our shortsighted requests. Did we see more clearly we should tremble lest He should. That would prove His heaviest chastisement. But He binds Himself to answer our prayers, in His own way. No praying soul is sent empty away.

The prayer of faith is the prayer which recognizes God as the supreme and perfect God. No man is in the way of blessing until he understands that in God alone can he be supremely blessed. Until he has made God his portion there is the deepest want of his being unsatisfied. This being recognized his wants fall into their true proportion. They are not extinguished, but they are no more imperative. It is no longer, Give me this or I die; it is, Give me Thyself and I live; and this, Give or withhold at Thy will. I have all, and abound in Thee.

The prayer of faith seeks conformity with the mind of God, without which it is idle to hope or pray for peace. Nine-tenths of our cares grow out of our mad desires for some unreal and delusive good. All cares that eat into the soul arise really from a striving against God. The first request of prayer is, “Show me Thy will, and rule my will by Thine. Root out self-will, tame passion, calm desire, bring me into harmony with Thy pure and perfect mind, and then bestow what Thou seest is for my good.” When a soul has said that, its brooding cares and wearing sorrows have gone as the mists of the morning vanish in the sunlight.

The prayer of faith never leaves out of its account the Hand that is always working for our deliverance, and never so mightily as when the storm gathers, and the great waters seem to overwhelm. And the prayer of faith never fails. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the
​victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God?  (1Jn 5:4-5)

One of the most important points of successful prayer was taught to me by the Holy Spirit early in my salvation- the prayer of proclamation. This is speaking scripture verses of faith, on what God's word tells me concerning the issue I'm praying about, and standing on these verses, using them as weapons of warfare against the powers of Satan to bring down strongholds.

How long you may need to do this, depends on the seriousness of the situation, and how long that stronghold has been allowed to be in power. There's many aspects of this kind of prayer, that will play a part of this kind of spiritual warfare. If it's intercession for nations, regions, etc., your dealing with strong principalities and powers of darkness, rulers in the heavenlies. It took the angel Michael 3 weeks to get through to Daniel to answer his fasting and intercession. We need to constantly be checking our motives, and our approach in this kind of prayer-self must have no place in this realm of prayer, to receive answers, and results.

The victory of proclamation prayer comes from scripture that addresses Christ as risen from the grave-the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and all verses regarding this-spoken directly to the powers of darkness, and the realm of Satan is legal tender. They proclaim him a defeated enemy. All authority in heaven and earth, has been given to Jesus Christ. Satan is here, and roaming the earth to find all who he can devour-but, he is a usurper, and he knows this. He knows his time is short. In the gospels Jesus told his disciples and they tell us who believe-that Jesus has given us the same authority over demons as the disciples, it's up to us to believe this, and use the authority given to us. But, in this we must always check ourselves, to make sure we are walking rightly with the Lord. Repentance, is an ongoing thing throughout the life of the believer. Everyone, no matter who they are, will stumble and say or do something that is wrong, and sin. That is why we have a Savior, a Redeemer. We do not want to sin, but if we do, we run to Him, not from Him-confess it, and receive the cleansing of His blood again, and His forgiveness.

If we are using the prayer of proclamation as a weapon against attacks on our personal life, you need to examine your own inner life, and allow God to deal with you, to see if there's a need for repentance in any area of your life, before you can stand on the scriptures your using, and have the faith and standing with God, to see them work, and the power of God within them, to answer what your proclaiming. The word of God is not magic, it is wielding the sword of the Spirit in the right way, with a right standing with God, that gives you the authority to use it against the powers of Satan. Both God and the devil knows if you are standing in righteousness, or not.

Those who's faith in Christ is unwavering, will seek the scriptures that are appropriate for the battle they are facing, and how to use them, and speak them in prayer-knowing that God will hear, and answer the proclamation. I recommend reading the stories of those in the Old Testament who knew the voice of God, and obeyed what they were told to do, and the victories that were won, because of their faith, and obedience. Moses stood with his staff in his hand, and told to waters to part-and the sea parted and the people crossed over on dry land. Joshua, his men and the people marched seven days in silence, then on the seventh day-the horns were blown and the sound of them brought down the walls of Jericho. David inquired of God when to go into battle, and when not to, and won each one when he heard God say "go up". God's people can learn to hear, and know the voice of the Lord, and use wisdom in our directions and our decisions that will guide us out of the devil's hands, and help us avoid many pitfalls. The more we use the word of God with wisdom, and understanding, we learn how to use a powerful weapon against the forces of evil, in our own lives, and in intercessions for situations in nations.

It's also important to know how to use this source of prayer, and not tell all of what we are doing to those who would not understand, or have the level of faith to believe with you. Unbelief is a poison, and those who live for this world, and have no real desire to know the ways of God, can be a very effective tool to destroy faith, and receiving answers to prayer. I've learned to keep the most important things God's given me to pray for, to myself, unless I'm clearly shown to share it. There's a time for corporate prayer, and with two or three, but, you have to learn the difference and how to discern it, in every situation. 

Over the years, every answered prayer has been fuel to my spirit, that causes me to be drawn more and more to the presence of God, and seeking Him for His mind, His will and answers to the prayers that I'm still placing before Him. Every answered prayer also teaches me another aspect of Him, and a deeper relationship with Him, that cannot be replaced by anything or anyone else.

Below are some added commentary on this subject, to assist the reader in their own walk with the Lord, and your prayer life. May God bless you, and may you find something here to help you in your journey.
Lorna Couillard

The “begotten” children of God are constantly referred to in this Epistle. The word indicates the communication, in regeneration, of the divine nature, of which the first evidence is love. This love is not a weak sentimentality, but a, strong, vigorous response to the motions of the divine love.
God’s life in the soul also manifests itself in our faith; and as faith is the substance of the unseen and eternal world, it overcomes the fascination and glamour of this transient scene. Let your faith entwine around the risen Lord and you will be weaned from all else. Jesus must become all-in-all to you, else you will miss the crown!
We need not only the water of repentance, but also the blood of propitiation. When these two are admitted, the Holy Spirit will bear His secret witness to the soul. God is ever bearing witness to the Son by the eternal life that He gives to and maintains in those who believe. Eternity begins even here for those who have the Son as their indwelling guest.
​(F.B. Meyer)

And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up
from the roots. 
And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the
​fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 
(Mar 11:20-24)

The only mountains faith desires to remove are such as are substantial obstacles in the path of mercy. It is marvelous how many such have been removed,—enormous evils, like the slave-trade of seventy years ago, like slavery in America; degradation and superstition, like those holding the natives of New Guinea; pride and secularity, like that which seemed to make the conversion of the Roman Empire impossible. There is no impossibility to those who can lay hold on God. (R. Glover)

The spirit of doubt is the spirit of weakness.—It cripples the will, so that no life of high resolve is possible to it; it produces unrest and discontent; it looks always at the dark side of the picture; and its prevalence in this age largely accounts for that pessimism which, like a shadow, follows it into all its dreary and desolate places. Trace the social discontent, the destructive tendency of much of our literature, especially in the sphere of philosophy—the socialism, anarchism, and all the grumbling and rebelling against constitutional order and the law of the land,—trace these tendencies of our modern life to their source, and you will find there religious doubt, as one of the essential preconditions accounting to a large extent for what we see amongst a vast class of our population. For I maintain that when a nation or any large community forming part of its organic life loses faith in the verities of religion, when it is given over to the service of selfishness or halts between faith and unbelief, and when this tendency continues for any lengthened period, then there has begun the downward movement of national dismemberment and decay. But, on the other hand, the spirit of faith is the spirit of strength, so that all things are possible to him who believeth. (M. McLellan)

The conditions of effectual prayer. We must pray in truth—that is, we must ask for what we really wish. We must pray in spirit—that is, we must ask for the right thing. We must pray in faith, believing that our prayers will be heard and answered. (J. F. Clarke)

Prayer and its answer. “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe”—not that ye receive them, but “that ye have received them,” or, still more closely, “that ye received them,” “and ye shall have them.” The answer to the prayer is thus declared to be coincident with the prayer itself. The petition is granted at the very moment when it is framed; the blessing for which we look does not follow at some distant time through any outward events, but is given at once, when, with absolute, childlike trust, we lay the thoughts of our hearts open before our Father. Prayer, in a word, is the conscious and glad acceptance of God’s will for us when we have first endeavored to estimate our own wants. (Bishop Westcott)

Confidence in prayer. It is only when the heart is very childlike that its desires are pure and wise enough to be left with God, and faith strong enough to leave them. If there seem but few prayers answered, it only proves that there are few prayers offered. For it is only good prayers that can be really prayed. Many that we “say” do not lift our desires to God and lodge them in His heart. Let this word shew us how great a thing is prayer, and how great are its issues. The time for the answer is not pledged, and the manner of it may differ from what we expected; but if we really pray we shall be heard. (R. Glover)

Faith the substance of things hoped for. He doth not say, “believe that ye shall receive them,” but that you do receive them, which plainly shews what kind of faith it is that He requires of us, even such a faith as is the very “substance of the things we hope for” (Heb_11:1), and gives a present being and substance to them. Faith is also “the evidence of things not seen.” As by it we enjoy what God hath promised, so by it we behold what He hath revealed to us, though never so much above our reason or beyond our sight. (Bishop Beveridge)

The power of believing prayer. Prayer obtains grace, wisdom, strength, self-mastery, peace, all which the soul dares wish for, for time or eternity; but it obtains more—it gains God. O glorious prerogative of the faith of the simple peasant, ignorant of this world’s knowledge, but having access to Divine! O glorious compendium of Divine illumining, whereby, not as in a mirror nor by laborious process, the soul shall have all knowledge, and shall see the secret cause of all created things, in the light of God, in God! Even gifts of God could not satisfy that vast soul of man—no wisdom, no intelligence, nothing which has any bound or end. Prayer fills this void, which all creation, out of God, could not fill. Prayer is “the ascent of the soul to God”; it is the beginning of that blessed converse which shall be the exhaustless fulness of eternal bliss; it is the continuance or renewal of union with God. (E. B. Pusey, D.D)

​And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of
​their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Rev 12:11

In the demonic realm, witches and sorcerers use spells, curses, hexes, and objects such as tarot cards, Ouija boards, etc. to cast spells, and curses on people. This is Satan's counterfeit of the Christians authority in God, who have the spiritual knowledge and experience to use the word of God with skill in prayer when dealing with demonic powers, and evil circumstances that the believer encounters in their life, and know that those attacks come from the powers of darkness. Satan has lost all authority he had in heaven, when he rebelled, and was cast out of heaven to the earth. Now he attempts to counterfeit everything he has lost, and uses this to deceive people because he hates you and I, and wants to destroy us, and mock God in every way he can.

This is the realm of warfare prayer:
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

In the spiritual realm, there are evil forces of demonic powers that rule over entire nations, cities, and communities. The more a Christian grows in their prayer  life, the keener their discernment will become, and they will come to see and know what specific demonic powers are controlling them. The Lord will give direction and guidance in prayer, on coming against these rulers, and how to use the word of God effectively. When you get to this place in intercession-you come to know that you have to maintain a continuous relationship with Christ, and seek Him continually for strength, wisdom, and boldness, in order to be able to see answers to prayer, and know the abiding protection and presence of Jesus. This abiding presence is what brings peace, and destroys all fear. You know the covering of His Hands, and the protection of His shed blood in your life. 

If God allows someone to be harmed or killed, this doesn't mean they've stepped out of God's will. All the disciples but John were killed, and untold numbers since then, to this day. When you step into a realm of deeper service for the Lord, you come to understand that if it's His will for our life to end here-we have won our victory, we've gone home. To be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord. It is possible to come to the place that the fear of death, has lost it's hold on the Christian. In this place, fear has no power over you.

You have to come to the place that you know your God, and have put your full trust in Him, and be fully persuaded that the word of God is the power of God in your mouth-if your using it with faith, and know your position with Christ. If your afraid, or have any doubt that this kind of prayer works, your already defeated. God knows if you believe Him or not, and so does the devil. Also, do not get the idea that this development in prayer will guarantee you a life of ease, or you will be popular with everyone. You can expect just the opposite. The closer you get to the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater the surrender, and the more you will realize His motive for using you, are not for your pleasure, but are for His purposes, and His will to be done. You will learn what it really means, to be a servant. You will learn the road your on, will get narrower, and narrower. Jesus said it would.

Paul teaches on warfare prayer extensively, but will only be touched on here. The scripture verses contained here, and the devotions will give the Christian warrior some good teaching and direction in how to use the word of God in warfare prayer. When they are used with faith, and conviction, it is very effective in defeating the attacks of the devil, and the demonic realm. I'll add-this is a life long service, and never-ending process of learning.

The weapons of our warfare are not of flesh, but of the Spirit of God:
​2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 
2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 

Now, let's go on, and delve into another aspect that is crucial, in this realm of prayer, and warfare in the heavenlies.
Lorna Couillard

I. What is this conquering weapon?

1. The blood of the Lamb signifies, first, the death of the Son of God. The sufferings of Jesus Christ might be set forth by some other figure, but His death on the Cross requires the mention of blood. The death of Christ is the death of sin and the defeat of Satan, and hence it is the life of our hope, and the assurance of His victory. Because He poured out His soul unto the death, He divided the spoil with the strong.
2. Next, by “the blood of the Lamb” we understand our Lord’s death as a substitutionary sacrifice. It is not said that they overcame the arch-enemy by the blood of Jesus, or the blood of Christ, but by the blood of the Lamb; and the words are expressly chosen because, under the figure of a lamb, we have set before us a sacrifice. Sin must be punished; it is punished in Christ’s death. Here is the hope of men.
3. Furthermore, I understand by the expression, “The blood of the Lamb,” that our Lord’s death was effective for the taking away of sin. When John the Baptist first pointed to Jesus, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Our Lord Jesus has actually taken away sin by His death.

II. I have shown you the sword; now I come to speak to the question, how do you use it?

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” When a man gets a sword, you cannot be quite certain how he’ will use it. A gentleman has purchased a very expensive sword with a golden hilt and an elaborate scabbard; he hangs it up in his hall, and exhibits it to his friends. Occasionally he draws it out from the sheath, and he says, “Feel how keen is the edge!” The precious blood of Jesus is not meant for us merely to admire and exhibit. We must not be content to talk about it, and extol it, and do nothing with it; but we are to use it in the great crusade against unholiness and unrighteousness, till it is said of us, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” Let me show you your battle-field. Our first place of conflict is in the heavenlies, and the second is down below on earth.

1. First, then, you who believe in the blood of Jesus, have to do battle with Satan in the heavenlies; and there you must overcome him “by the blood of the Lamb.” “How?” say you. First, you are to regard Satan this day as being already literally and truly overcome through the death of the Lord Jesus. Satan is already a vanquished enemy. By faith grasp your Lord’s victory as your own, since He triumphed in your nature and on your behalf. I would have you overcome Satan in the heavenlies in another sense: you must overcome him as the accuser. At times you hear in your heart a voice arousing memory and startling conscience; a voice which seems in heaven to be a remembrance of your guilt. All comfort drawn from inward feelings or outward works will fall short; but the bleeding wounds of Jesus will plead with overwhelming argument, and answer all. Still further, the believer will have need to overcome the enemy in the heavenly places in reference to access to God. The sacred name of Jesus is one before which he flees. This will drive away his blasphemous suggestions and foul insinuations better than anything that you can invent. We next must overcome the enemy in prayer.

2. It is time that I now showed you how this same fight is carried on on earth. Amongst men in these lower places of conflict saints overcome through the blood of the Lamb by their testimony to that blood. Every believer is to bear witness to the atoning sacrifice and its power to save. He is to tell out the doctrine; he is to emphasise it by earnest faith in it; and he is to support it and prove it by his experience of the effect of it. You can bear witness to the power of the blood of Jesus in your own soul. If you do this, you will overcome men in many ways. First, you will arouse them out of apathy. This age is more indifferent to true religion than almost any other. The sight of the bleeding Savior overcomes obduracy and carelessness. The doctrine of the blood of the Lamb prevents or scatters error. I do not think that by reason we often confute error to any practical purpose. We may confute it rhetorically and doctrinally, but men still stick to it. But the doctrine of the precious blood, when it once gets into the heart, drives error out of it, and sets up the throne of truth. We also overcome men in this way, by softening rebellious hearts. Men stand out against the law of God, and defy the vengeance of God; but the love of God in Christ Jesus disarms them. The Holy Spirit causes men to yield through the softening influence of the Cross. How wonderfully this same blood of the Lamb overcomes despair. Glory be to God, the blood is a universal solvent, and it has dissolved the iron bars of despair, until the poor captive conscience has been able to escape. There is nothing, indeed, which the blood of the Lamb will not overcome; for see how it overcomes vice, and every form of sin. The world is foul with evil. What can cleanse it? What but this matchless stream? Satan makes sin seem pleasure, but the Cross reveals its bitterness. This blood overcomes the natural lethargy of men towards obedience; it stimulates them to holiness. If anything can make a man holy it is a firm faith in the atoning sacrifice. When a man knows that Jesus died for him, he feels that he is not his own, but bought with a price, and therefore he must live unto Him that died for him and rose again.
(C. H. Spurgeon)

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.--

How they conquered the dragon
I. All the blessed ones who are rejoicing in heaven were once warriors and victors here below.
We too often think of the saints that have gone before as if they were men of another race from ourselves, capable of nobler things, endowed with graces which we cannot reach, and adorned with holiness impossible to us. The mediaeval artists were wont to paint the saints with rings of glory about their heads, but indeed they had no such halos; their brows were furrowed with care even as ours, and their hair grew grey with grief. Their light was within, and we may have it; their glory was by grace, and the same grace is available for us.
1. It is clear from our text that every one of the saints in heaven was assailed by Satan. How could there be a victory without a battle?
2. The glorified, in addition to having been attacked, were led to resist the evil one, for nobody overcomes an antagonist without fighting.
3. We find that these warriors all overcame, for heaven is not for those who fight merely, but for those who overcome. “I do fight against my sin,” says one. Brother, do you overcome it? Attack, resistance, and victory must be yours.
4. So, then, in heaven they all rejoice because they have overcome, for the next verse to our text puts it, “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.” It is a theme for gladness in heaven that they did fight and resist and overcome. There is joy among the angels, for they had their conflict when they stood firm against temptation; but ours will be a victory peculiarly sweet, a song especially melodious, because our battle has been peculiarly severe.

II. The victors all fought with the same weapons.
1. First, the blood of the Lamb: it was theirs. The blood of the Lamb will not help us until it becomes our own. It is the blood of the covenant, and it secures all the covenant gifts of God to us. It is the life of our life. So, then, they had the blood of the Lamb, and they possessed the privilege which the blood brings with it.
2. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Now, what is the testimony of the saints? It is a testimony concerning the blood of the Lamb. If ever we are to conquer Satan in the world, we must preach the atoning blood.

III. While they all fought with the same weapons they all fought with the same spirit; for the text says, “they loved not their lives unto the death.”
1. The expression indicates dauntless courage. They were never afraid of the doctrine of a bleeding Saviour. Let us never be ashamed of our hope.
2. These men, in addition to dauntless courage, had unanswering fidelity. They “loved not their lives unto the death.” They thought it better to die than deny the faith.
3. More than that, they were perfect in their consecration. “They loved not their lives unto the death.” They gave themselves up, body soul, and spirit, to the cause of which the precious blood is the symbol, and that consecration led them to perfect self-sacrifice. No Christian of the true type counts anything to be his own. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Note: This additional teaching by Derek Prince will give you clear examples of what this devotion speaks about, and how to appropriate the weapons of warfare we are engaged with in this world.
Casting Down Strongholds | Derek Prince--
https://youtu.be/owF24I04Da4?si=ojwbKMnmRiMyK0Nu

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
​the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. Psa 27:4

What is prayer? It is conversing with God. We converse with our fellow-men, and then we use familiar language, because they are our fellows. We converse with God, and then we use the lowliest, awfullest, calmest,  most concise language we can, because He is God. Prayer then is Divine converse, differing from human as God differs from man. Prayers and praises are the mode of the Christian’s intercourse with the next world, as the conduct of business or recreation is the mode in which this world is carried on in all its separate courses. He who does not pray does not claim his citizenship with heaven, but lives, though an heir of the kingdom, as if he were a child of earth.

Now it is not surprising if that duty or privilege which is the characteristic token of our heavenly inheritance should also have a special influence upon our fitness for claiming it. He who does not pray not only suspends the enjoyment, but is in a way to lose the possession, of his Divine citizenship. The case is like that of a language or style of speaking of this world; we know well a foreigner from a native. Prayer has a natural effect in spiritualizing and elevating the soul. A man is no longer what he was before: gradually, imperceptibly to himself, he has imbibed a new set of ideas, and become imbued with fresh principles. He is as one coming from the King’s courts, with a grace, a delicacy, a dignity, a propriety, a freshness of thought and taste, a clearness and firmness of principle, all his own. As speech is the organ of human society and the means of human civilization, so is prayer the instrument of Divine fellowship and Divine training.

We know how men feel and act when they come to die; they discharge their worldly affairs from their mind, and try to realize the unseen state. They are leaving their goods, their deeds, their sayings, their writings, their names, behind them; and they care not for them, for they wait for Christ. To one thing alone they are alive: His coming; they watch against it, if so be they may then be found without shame. Such is the conduct of dying men. And what all but the very hardened do at the last, if the senses fail not and their powers hold, that does the true Christian all his life long; and therefore day by day he unlearns the love of this world and the desire of its praise: he can bear to belong to the nameless family of God, and to seem to the world strange in it and out of place, for so he is.
(J. H. Newman, Selection from the "Parochial and Plain Sermons" 1878, p. 349 (see also vol. iv., p. 226)

The Believer’s Confidence 

The believer’s confidence is simple and sincere. "One thing have I desired of the Lord." One thought has the mastery in his soul over all other thoughts; one aim gives unity and concentration to all his efforts; one affection draws all other impulses and desires into its swift current. The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, but this singleness of heart gives the life a clear and steadfast aim, binds all its parts into harmonious consistency, inspires it with continuous hope, braces and invigorates it with celestial strength.

This confidence is essentially of a spiritual character. The "one thing" which the Psalmist desired was that he "might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life." Well David knew that a very different lot was appointed him than in the peaceful and cloistered retirement of the Temple; that it would be his one day to sit on the throne of Israel, to go forth as their leader to battle, to do judgment and justice, as the father of his people, in the gate. Set there and thus, he might be as closely encircled by the sense of the Divine presence, and as consciously drawing strength, and happiness, and peace from inward communion with his God, as if he had been keeping perpetual vigil before the altar.

This confidence in God was calm and joyous. It enabled him to say that in the time of trouble God would hide him in His pavilion, and set his feet upon a rock. When things are at the darkest, the believer has a bright outlook into the future, and may be assured that nothing can reach or affect the sources of his confidence. Within the circle of the Divine protection, his life is unassailable. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."   (J. D. Burns, Family Treasury, April, 1863)

Earnestly sought (Psa_27:4). - What? “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord.” Like the priests, he wished to be wholly devoted to God. Like the children of the family, he desired to dwell constantly in his Father’s house. Communion with God was the life of his heart. Such free, affectionate, confiding intercourse with God is greatly to be coveted, and should be sought not as the privilege of special seasons, but as a daily blessing; not as the pleasure of an hour, but as a joy for ever. 2. Why? “To behold the beauty of the Lord.” Luther interprets this of the services of the sanctuary. But it cannot be thus limited. “Beauty” is loveliness. “Beauty of the Lord” is the loveliness of the Lord, all that makes Him an object of admiration and delight. To sinners, the “Beauty of the Lord” is “His glory as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ” “To inquire in His temple.” The deepest instincts of the soul prompt to inquiry. Truth is not born with us, nor can it be obtained irrespective of our own efforts. It must be sought for its own sake. It must be wooed and won, from love, before it can be enjoyed. All right investigation, whether of God’s works or God’s Word, should be conducted as under the eye of God. His temple is wide as the universe. 3. How? With concentration of heart. “One thing.” With constancy of endeavor. “That will I seek after.” When David fled from Absalom, he left behind him his house, his treasures, and all the glory of his crown; but these things were as nothing compared with the worship of God (Psalms 63; 2Sa_15:25). It is only when we make God our Alpha and Omega, the supreme object of our delight and study, that we can hope that He will reveal Himself to us. In our day, there are manifold objects to distract our attention. The claims of the world are constant and oppressive. There is the more need, therefore, for watchfulness and prayer. “Unite my heart to fear Thy name.”
(Preacher's Homiletical)

Beauty at first was conceived of as physical. Probably the earliest admiration of it as a moral quality was in the conception of courage. Then men learned, at a later stage, not only that courage is beautiful, but that suffering and self-sacrifice are beautiful. Everybody understands that love is beautiful. And so, step by step, moral qualities come to be considered beautiful. In general, as beauty rises, it rises from the material towards the spiritual, and in the spiritual it is appreciated in the proportion in which men are themselves developed so as to recognize, to love, to revere, that which is spiritual.

The Old Testament was, in the first place, full of a rapturous admiration of God as presented in nature. Then comes the long period of the development of physical ideas of beauty into spiritual ideas; and this the whole New Testament borrows clear down to the last book. Then comes Revelation and again lifts up the old standard, and fills its mighty chambers with the glory and beauty borrowed from the heaven, from the earth, from time, and from imagined eternity. When at last we are purged from sense and flesh, and rise to behold God as He is, then the beautifulness of God, as well as His graciousness, love, and tender mercy, will fill the soul with admiration for ever and for ever. (H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 1882-3, p. 221)

See Mat 17:1-3, Mark 9:2-13, Luk 9:28-36

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 
Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth
​that I desire beside thee. 
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart,
​and my portion for ever. Psa 73:24-26

This Psalm, is a prayer from a devout man of God, deep in the throws of conflict in his soul. He confirms Gods faithfulness in his life, but is  seeking the depths of himself, to find the God He's known a lifetime, and experienced God's presence. He knows the importance of "sounding the depths" of his troubled soul, until He unites with the God who is waiting there-and then listen to what God would give him, that would quench his longing heart, and strengthen and cleanse him again, to finish his journey here in regained faith.

This Psalm is the work of a believer, and yet it is the expression of a soul who has passed through doubt and experienced all its bitterness.
​
I. Consider what made Asaph doubt. Asaph had seen the course of this world: he had seen the prosperity of the wicked; he had seen those who feared God suffering in desertion and in despair. His soul was troubled; and in a gloomy hour he called in question the righteousness, the wisdom, and also the action of God. The spectacle of this world is a great school for unbelief, a school which makes more impious people than all the books of atheists. If we contemplate the world, our gaze wavers, for we seek in vain there for that law of love and of righteousness which, it seems to us, God should have marked on all His works. As children, we believed we should find it there, for a science had been made for our use. History for us was a drama of which God was the living Hero: if the righteous suffered, it was a transitory trial and soon to be explained; if the wicked triumphed, it was the dazzling flash of a day. Later on our view was enlarged, and God had receded from us. Between Him and us was raised the immense, inexorable wall of fatality.
(1) Fatality in nature, for its smile is deceptive; and when we have seen it shine on a grave in presence of which our heart is torn, it appears to us implacable even in its very beauty. We study it, and everywhere we find a savage law in it, the law of destruction, which pursues its silent work each day and each minute.
(2) Fatality in history. Progress? Where is it in the old world? What plan is there in the history of those races who are sinking today, dragged down by an incurable barbarism, in those lucky strokes of force, in those startling immoralities, which success strengthens and sanctions? Is it consoling to tell us that the blood of the righteous is a fruitful seed? Over how many countries has it not flowed, leaving only the barrenness of the desert!
(3) Fatality in life. Even here the moral law wavers and is often effaced. There is no need to be a philosopher in order to encounter the problems of life; trial, sooner or later, places them before us. For some it is the trial of poverty, for others the trial of ailment; but what excites excessively all these doubts is injustice.

II. For a moment Asaph’s conscience wavered; for a moment giddiness seized him. How is it that he did not fall into the abyss? Asaph believed in God. He could not believe in chance, for in his people’s language there is not even a word to designate chance. Asaph tried to deny God and His action in the world. "I was tempted to say it," he exclaimed, "but I felt that in saying it I should be unbelieving, and should offend against the generation of Thy children." I should offend against my race—that is the thought which withheld him.

III. Notice how God enlightened and strengthened Asaph. In the sanctuary of God light was waiting for him. There he learned "the end of those men." Asaph saw the end of the designs of God. His eyes were opened, and he altered his language. Gratitude has succeeded to his murmuring; instead of the trials beneath whose weight he succumbed, he has seen, he sees always better, the favors which are eternally his inheritance. "Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory."
(E. Bersier, Sermons, vol. i., p. 165)

Psa 73:25
​“Whom have I in heaven but thee?” Thus, then, he turns away from the glitter which fascinated him to the true gold which was his real treasure. He felt that his God was better to him than all the wealth, health, honor, and peace, which he had so much envied in the worldling; yea, He was not only better than all on earth, but more excellent than all in heaven. He bade all things else go, that he might be filled with his God. “And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee,” No longer should his wishes ramble, no other object should tempt them to stray; henceforth, the Everliving One should be his all in all.

Psa_73:26
“My flesh and my heart faileth.” They had failed him already, and he had almost fallen; they would fail him in the hour of death, and, if he relied upon them, they would fail him at once. “But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” His God would not fail him, either as a protection or a joy. His heart would be kept up by divine love, and filled eternally with divine glory. After having been driven far out to sea, Asaph casts anchor in the old port. We shall do well to follow his example. There is nothing desirable save God; let us, then, desire only him. All other things must pass away; let our hearts abide in him, who alone abideth for ever."
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Worship for these troubled days we live in:

THE ARMY OF THE LORD
https://youtu.be/H0Cw6iVJmA4?si=yMwaphyoLIgbr5vV

You Are My Hiding Place
https://youtu.be/hPleCE07xUM?si=Bw6SLe0FkC2EfrA

There Is A Redeemer - Keith Green
https://youtu.be/1Cen-Jt4IPo?si=AfsRrHBrJsBEjx0C

Sweet Beulah Land by Squire Parsons Lyrics
https://youtu.be/I4OTkaNzOoA?si=Qn3Rs0UgCagBQuwH

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing,
ye shall receive. 
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​And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the
elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said,
By what authority doest thou these things?
and who gave thee this authority? 
And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority
I do these things. 
The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? 
But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold
John as a prophet. 
And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. Mat 21:22-27

"One bitter January night, the inhabitants of the old town of Schleswig were thrown into the greatest distress and terror. A hostile army was marching down upon them, and new and fearful reports of the conduct of the lawless soldiery were hourly reaching the place. In one large, commodious cottage dwelt an aged woman with her widow daughter and a grandson. While all hearts quaked with fear, this saintly soul passed her time in crying cut to God that He would “build a wall of defense round about them,” quoting the words of an ancient hymn. Her grandson asked why she prayed for a thing so entirely impossible as that God should build a wall about their house, which should hide it; but she explained that her meaning only was that God should protect them in whatever way seemed to Him best. At midnight the dreaded tramp was heard, and the enemy came pouring in at every avenue, filling the houses to overflowing. But, while most fearful sounds were heard on every side, not even a knock came to their door; at which they were greatly surprised. The morning light cleared up the mystery; for, just beyond the house, the drifted snow had reared such a massive wall that it was impossible to get over it to them. “There!” said the good woman, triumphantly; “do you not see, my son, that God could raise up a wall around us?” (Biblical Illustrator)

"By what authority doest Thou these things? And who gave Thee this authority?" The question was fair enough; and if it had been asked in an earnest spirit Jesus would have given them, as always to the honest inquirer, a kind and satisfying answer. It is not, however, as inquirers, but as cavilers, they approach Him. Again and again, at times and in ways innumerable, by fulfilment of prophecy, by His mighty deeds and by His wondrous words, He had given proof of His Divine authority and established His claim to be the true Messiah. It was not therefore because they lacked evidence of His authority, but because they hated it, because they would not have this man to reign over them, that now they question Him. It was obvious that their only object was to entangle Him; accordingly our Lord showed how in the net they were spreading for Him their own feet were caught.
​
He meets their question with a counter-question, "The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?" The more we examine this question, the more must we admire the consummate wisdom it displays. We see at once how it turns the tables on His critics; but it is far more important to notice how admirably adapted it was to lead them to the answer of their own question, if only they would follow it out. They dared not repudiate the baptism of John; and had not John baptised Jesus, and solemnly borne repeated testimony to His Messiahship? Had he not most emphatically borne that very testimony to a formal deputation sent by themselves? (Joh_1:19-27) Finally, were not the ministry and testimony of John closely associated in prophecy with that very coming of the Lord to His Temple which gave them so deep offence: "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." Our Lord’s counter-question, then, was framed with such exquisite skill as to disappoint their malice, while at the same time it was suited to-guide the earnest inquirer to the truth.

The prolongers of the question were not true men, but hypocrites. A negative answer they could not give. An affirmative they would not give. So when they refused to answer, our Lord replied, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."

The Lord of the Temple now assumes the offensive, and directs against His opponents a series of parables which He holds up to them as a triple mirror in which from different points of view they may see themselves in their true character, and as a set of danger signals to warn them of their impending doom. He presents them with such marvelous skill that He makes the Pharisees their own judges, and constrains them to pass sentence on themselves. In the first parable He constrains them to declare their own guilt; in the second, He makes them decree their own punishment; in the third, He warns them of the impending fate of the people they were leading to destruction.

We have said that in these parables Christ assumes the offensive; but this is true only in a very superficial sense. In the deepest sense He spoke them not against the Pharisees, but for them. His object was to carry home to their hearts the conviction of sin, and to impress them with a sense of their danger before it was too late. This was what above all they needed. It was their only hope of salvation. And how admirably suited for His purpose were these three parables! Their application to themselves was plain enough after it was stated, but not beforehand; the effect of which was that they were put in a position to give an impartial verdict on their own conduct. It was the same method so effectively employed by Nathan in bringing conviction to the conscience of David. Had Christ charged the sin of the Pharisees directly home upon them they would have been at once thrown on the defensive, and it would have been impossible to reach their conscience through the entanglements of prejudice and personal interest.
Christ wishes to disentangle them from all that was darkening their moral vision, and He uses the parable as the most effective means. It is a great mistake, then, to suppose that Jesus contented Himself with turning the tables on them, and carrying the war, so to speak, into the enemy’s country. It was with them a war of words, but not with Him. He was seeking to save these poor lost ones. He wished to give them His best for their worst. They had come to entangle Him in His talk. He does His best to disentangle them from the meshes of self-deception. The tone of all three parables is exceptionally severe; but the spirit of them is love. (Expositor's Bible)

Note: What is the importance of this commentary on the authority of Jesus? That it emphasized Jesus' proclamation in verse Mat. 21:22-that He holds the authority to back up his words. But, it is up to us the individual, to claim his promises by faith and a personal relationship with Him, that should be ongoing, and growing as we walk on with Him in this life.


As we continue to allow Him to mold us and surrender to Him, and desire His will for our lives, we will find that our desires will change and our prayers will change, to conform to His will for our lives. Things we once thought were so important, we come to see how shallow, selfish and unimportant they really are, and we are able to see the wisdom of the times when our prayers received a "no", and we were shown we needed to be willing to believe that it was for our best, even if we didn't understand it at the time. This is how maturity and a deeper walk with Jesus develops, if we will allow Him to be God, and not continue on in stubborn disobedience. God does love us, but, like children we have to learn sometimes that God can see what's ahead for us, and can see when we've taken a wrong turn, or made a wrong choice, and what that's going to mean for us in the future, if we demand our own way.

Many of people's sorrows and troubles, come from the wrong choices, and wrong relationships we get involved in, but are blind and unable to see the truth of it, until it's too late. I've learned these lessons, and am still learning them. Most important, I'm continuing to learn, that doing things according to God's word, always turns out for my best. What would this world be like, if everyone chose God’s way for their lives. Only heaven could tell.
​Lorna Couillard

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
​O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 
Psa 63:2  To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee
​in the sanctuary. Psa 63:1-2

​What thirst means in a tropical wilderness none but those who have passed through it can tell. It is an overpowering and a paralysing need. All this the Psalmist had felt. He had wandered in his shepherd days through those vast and gorgeous wildernesses; he had felt what thirst was; and when, in later days, he lay upon his bed, the contrast between the grandeur of that scenery and his unconquerable thirst became to him a parable of life. As in the long marches through the desert sands, in the awful blaze of an Eastern noon, he had sighed for the pasture land and the springs, so life seemed but a dry and weary waste until his soul was satisfied with the sight of God. It is a parable of the life, not of the Psalmist only, but of the world; it is a picture of God’s education of our race. He does not all at once satisfy our mouth with good things. He teaches us through the discipline of thirst and want. He lets each age tread its own path, work out its own problems, cope with its own difficulties, and be brought to Him at last by the constraining force of an unsatisfied desire.

If we look at the first ages of our faith, we see that it did not all at once convince men of its truth, as the sun that rose this morning told all who had eyes to see that a light was shining. Men came by it by many paths, and the greatest of all these paths led them through the splendid scenery of philosophy. To the better sort of men philosophy was a passion; it absorbed all the other interests of life. Side by side with philosophy was superstition. It was not until all other waters had been found to be bitter that the mass of educated men came to drink of the living water which the Christian faith supplied—the water of the knowledge of God in Christ.

The parable is being fulfilled again before our eyes in our own time. Alike from the mountain-tops, and the ravines, and the far-off stars, and from the depths of the deep seas, there shine out splendors upon splendors of new knowledge and new possibilities of knowledge, which seem to lift us into a higher sphere of living than that which to our forefathers was possible. It is splendid scenery, the world has never seen its like, but splendid as it is, there are needs, the deepest needs of the soul, which it does not, which it cannot, satisfy. Consciously or unconsciously, in a thousand different ways, men in our time are thirsting for God.

And that thirst is satisfied. To the simple-minded Psalmist the satisfaction was to appear before the visible symbol of God’s presence at Jerusalem. The soul’s satisfaction is to realize the presence of God. The other name for it is faith. It is the seeing of Him who is invisible.
(E. Hatch, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 40)

In this text there is a prostration, an appropriation, an obedience, and a now.

​It is a great thing to have grand views of God, to get some approach to an idea of the exceeding greatness of God. We go to God too much for what we want to get. We ought to go to God, and meditate upon Him, and worship Him for what He is in Himself—His attributes, His glory.

Important as this is, it is of infinitely more importance to be able to say, "Thou art my God." This is faith. Nature can say, "O God;" but only the believer can say, "My God."

To those who can say that, the last part of David’s words and his firm resolve will come as a very easy and a necessary thing; they cannot help saying it: "Early will I seek Thee." For it is attraction that does it. The secret of all true religion is attraction. As soon as God is "my God," there is a force which compels me to it; I cannot help coming nearer and nearer to Him; it is my necessity; it is my life.

True religion is essentially an early thing. "They that seek Me early shall find Me." It is the spring seeds that make the richest harvests, and a God sought early will be a God found ever.
(J. Vaughan, Sermons, 9th series, p. 189)

Psa 63:1
“O God, thou art my God;” or, O God, thou art my Mighty One. The last Psalm left the echo of power ringing in the ear, and it is here remembered. Strong affiance bids the fugitive poet confess his allegiance to the only living God; and firm faith enables him to claim him as his own. He has no doubts about his possession of his God; and why should other believers have any? The straightforward, clear language of this opening sentence would be far more becoming in Christians than the timorous and doubtful expressions so usual among professors. How sweet is such language! Is there any other word comparable to it for delights? Meus Deus. Can angels say more? “Early will I seek thee.” Possession breeds desire. Full assurance is no hindrance to diligence, but is the mainspring of it. How can I seek another man's God? but it is with ardent desire that I seek after him whom I know to be my own. Observe the eagerness implied in the time mentioned; he will not wait for noon or the cool eventide; he is up at cockcrowing to meet his God. Communion with God is so sweet that the chill of the morning is forgotten, and the luxury of the couch is despised. The morning is the time for dew and freshness, and the Psalmist consecrates it to prayer and devout fellowship. The best of men have been betimes on their knees. The word “early” has not only the sense of early in the morning, but that of eagerness, immediateness. He who truly longs for God longs for him now. Holy desires are among the most powerful influences that stir our inner nature; hence the next sentence, “My soul thirsteth for thee.” Thirst is an insatiable longing after that which is one of the most essential supports of life; there is no reasoning with it, no forgetting it, no despising it, no overcoming it by stoical indifference. Thirst will be heard; the whole man must yield to its power: even thus is it with that divine desire which the grace of God creates in regenerate men; only God himself can satisfy the craving of a soul really aroused by the Holy Spirit. “My flesh longeth for thee;” by the two words “soul” and “flesh,” he denotes the whole of his being. “The flesh,” in the New Testament sense of it, never longs after the Lord, but rather it lusteth against the spirit; David only refers to that sympathy which is sometimes created in our bodily frame by vehement emotions of the soul. Our corporeal nature usually tugs in the other direction, but the spirit when ardent can compel it to throw in what power it has upon the other side. When the wilderness caused David's weariness, discomfort, and thirst, his flesh cried out in unison with the desire of his soul. “In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” A weary place and a weary heart make the presence of God the more desirable; if there be nothing below and nothing within to cheer, it is a thousand mercies that we may look up and find all we need. How frequently have believers traversed in their experience this “dry and thirsty land,” where spiritual joys are things forgotten! and how truly can they testify that the only true necessity of that country is the near presence of their God! The absence of outward comforts can be borne with serenity when we walk with God; and the most lavish multiplication of them avails not when he withdraws. Only after God, therefore, let us pant. Let all desires be gathered into one. Seeking first the kingdom of God - all else shall be added unto us.

Psa_63:2
“To see thy power and thy glory, so longed not so much to see the sanctuary as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” He as to see his God; he looked through the veil of ceremonies to the invisible One. Often had his heart been gladdened by communion with God in the outward ordinances, and for this great blessing he sighs again; as well he might, for it is the weightiest of all earth's sorrows for a Christian man to lose the conscious presence of his covenant God. He remembers and mentions the two attributes which had most impressed themselves upon his mind when he had been rapt in adoration in the holy place; upon these his mind had dwelt in the preceding Psalm, and the say our of that contemplation is evidently upon his heart when in the wilderness: these he desires to behold again in the place of his banishment. It is a precious thought that the divine power and glory are not confined in their manifestation to any places or localities; they are to be heard above the roaring of the sea, seen amid the glare of the tempest, felt in the forest and the prairie, and enjoyed wherever there is a heart that longs and thirsts to behold them. Our misery is that we thirst so little for these sublime things, and so much for the mocking trifles of time and sense. We are in very truth always in a weary land, for this is not our rest; and it is marvelous that believers do not more continuously thirst after their portion far beyond the river where they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more but shall see the face of their God, and his name shall be in their foreheads. David did not thirst for water or any earthly thing, but only for spiritual manifestations. The sight of God was enough but nothing short of that would content him. How great a friend is he, for him, the very Sight of whom is consolation. Oh, my soul, imitate the Psalmist, and let all thy desires ascend towards the highest good; longing here to see God, and having no higher joy even for eternity.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward. 
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth
in secret shall reward thee openly. 
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things
​ye have need of, before ye ask him. Mat 6:5-8

The original word here is supposed to be derived from the name of a Greek poet, who made long and weary verses, declaring by many forms and endless repetitions the same sentiment. Hence, it means to repeat a thing often; to say the same thing in different words, or to repeat the same words, as though God did not hear at first. An example of this we have in 1Ki_18:26; “They called on Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us!” It may serve to illustrate this passage, and to show how true is the description here of prevailing modes of prayer, to refer to the forms and modes of devotion still practiced in Palestine by the Muslims. Dr. Thomson (“The Land and the Book”) gives the following description of what actually occurs: “See those men on that elevated terrace. One has spread his cloak, other their Persian rugs toward the south. They are Muslims, preparing to say prayers - rather perform them, in this most public place, and in the midst of all this noise and confusion.

“Let us stop and watch the ceremony as it goes on. That man next us raises his open hands until the thumbs touch the ears, exclaiming aloud, “Allah-hu-akbar” - ‘God is great.’ After uttering mentally a few short petitions, the hands are brought down and folded Together near the girdle, while he recites the first chapter of the Koran, and two or three other brief passages from the same book. And now he bends forward, rests his hands upon his knees, and repeats three times a formula of praise to ‘God most great.’ Then, standing erect, he cries “Allah-hu-akbar,” as at the beginning. Then see him drop upon his knees, and bend forward until his nose and forehead touch the ground directly between his expanded hands. This he repeats three times, muttering all the while the same short formulas of prayer and praise. The next move will bring him to his knees, and then, settling back upon his heels, he will mumble over various small petitions, with sundry grunts and exclamations, according to taste and habit. He has now gone through one regular Rek'ah; and, standing up as at the first, and on exactly the same spot, he will perform a second, and even a third, if specially devout, with precisely the same genuflections.
​
“They are obliged to repeat some expressions thirty times, others many hundred times. Would that these remarks did not apply to nominal Christians in this land as well as to Muslims!”

The heathen do - The original word is that which is commonly translated “Gentile.” The world was divided into two parts, the Jews and the Gentiles; that is, in the original, the “nations,” the nations destitute of the true religion. Christ does not fix the length of our prayers. He says that we should not repeat the same thing, as though God did not hear; and it is not improbable that he intended to condemn the practice of long prayers. His own supplications were remarkably short. (Albert Barnes)

An example from Acts: Act 19:33  And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defense unto the people. 
Act 19:34  But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

​The failure of his attempt. No sooner had he opened his mouth in defense of his countrymen, having first beckoned to the multitude with his hand for a hearing, than “with a divine irony of fate similar to that which was manifested before Gallio’s tribunal” (Zöckler), they, the multitude, recognizing him for a Jew, drowned his words in a volley of frenzied exclamations, shouting, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” as Demetrius and his workmen had done, and keeping up the outcry for a space of two hours. (Compare 1Ki_18:26; and see Mat_6:7.) “The Mahommedan monks in India at the present time often practice such repetitions for entire days together” (Hackett). (Preacher's Homiletical)

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore
​let thy words be few. Ecc 5:2

‘Let thy words be few.’ The heathen ‘think that they shall be heard for much speaking.’ It needs not to tell our wants in many words to One who knows them altogether, any more than a child needs many when speaking to a father or mother. But ‘few’ must be measured by the number of needs and desires. The shortest prayer, which is not animated by a consciousness of need and a throb of desire, is too long; the longest, which is vitalized by these, is short enough. What becomes of the enormous percentage of public and private prayers, which are mere repetitions, said because they are the right thing to say, because everybody always has said them, and not because the man praying really wants the things he asks for, or expects to get them any the more for asking? (Alexander MacLaren)

Related: ​Isa 55:8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 
Isa 55:9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 
And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 
Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 
And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 
So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. 
And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. 1Ki 1-7

From my first year of salvation the Lord has had me come to the life of Elijah, and how God directed him, and used him. I've continued to learn and gain new insight, every time I read the events he was involved in, and how he allowed the Lord to move him, and direct him. 

His prayer and dialogue with God was always clear, direct, and to the point. He was honest when he was discouraged, but quick to allow God to correct him, and give Him direction in his service to the Lord. I've noted several things about Elijah's life and his prayers:

1. He never asked for personal gain, it's conspicuous in it's absence. 
2. God answered Elijah's prayers-but he didn't send him into a life of ease. God supplied his needs, but not personal wants. He was fed at the brook by ravens, through the drought. A lesson for the believer in their own life.
3. Through the difficulty-Elijah's faith didn't waiver, nor did he balk at being told to lower himself, and become totally dependent on God during this time of great distress in the country.
4. He has taught me the necessity of being completely surrendered to the will of God-regardless of outward circumstances. Just because your in a place of great trouble, doesn't mean your in sin, or disobedient. You have to know yourself honestly, and know where you are in God, and be able and willing to endure hardships-and know even in this, God is with you.
​Many martyrs are testimony to this.
5. Elijah's life has taught me the importance of being very keen in listening in my spirit-deep within. The Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts and spirits-and that is where He speaks to us-in our spirits, in the inner most parts of our belly. God's guidance and leading comes through circumstances, open and closed doors in those circumstances, verification by His word, and the still small voice of the Holy Spirit within. This guidance is an ongoing learning experience, throughout our life.
​Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 
Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 
​1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 
1Co 2:11  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 
​Pro 20:27  The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. 

More could be said about Elijah's life, but this is enough for this post. I will add in closing that I believe his life is a representation of the believer's life in the end of days, which we are in. His life and obedience regardless of his hardships and trials is a testimony for us today, in standing in faith, and believing God for our needs, and to see the hand of God in every circumstance. God doesn't guarantee a life of ease, but that in every situation he is there, and He's working through them. It's important to note, Elijah was taken to heaven, and is there now, not seeing death, as Enoch was taken. This also I believe is a sign to the end-time believer, and like Elijah, we are to be looking for the coming of Christ, just as he watched and waited to be taken. We are to always to be ready, for we do not know the day nor the hour, but we do know the signs-and they are upon us now.
Lorna Couillard

Now a devotion, and commentary will be added below-for greater insight into Elijah's life, and his walk with God.

​Week after week, with unfaltering and steadfast spirit, Elijah watched that dwindling brook; often tempted to stagger through unbelief, but refusing to allow his circumstances to come between himself and God. Unbelief sees God through circumstances, as we sometimes see the sun shorn of his rays through smoky air; but faith puts God between itself and circumstances, and looks at them through Him. And so the dwindling brook became a silver thread; and the silver thread stood presently in pools at the foot of the largest boulders; and the pools shrank. The birds fled; the wild creatures of field and forest came no more to drink; the brook was dry. Only then to his patient and unwavering spirit, "the word of the Lord came, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath."
Most of us would have gotten anxious and worn with planning long before that. We should have ceased our songs as soon as the streamlet caroled less musically over its rocky bed; and with harps swinging on the willows, we should have paced to and fro upon the withering grass, lost in pensive thought. And probably, long ere the brook was dry, we should have devised some plan, and asking God’s blessing on it, would have started off elsewhere.
God often does extricate us, because His mercy endureth forever; but if we had only waited first to see the unfolding of His plans, we should never have found ourselves landed in such an inextricable labyrinth; and we should never have been compelled to retrace our steps with so many tears of shame. Wait, patiently wait! -- (F. B. Meyer)

​We have in our theme a suggestion of the Divine guidance. The word of the Lord as a guide comes to the man of prayer. I suppose Elijah was greatly disappointed at the message which came to him. He had the heart of a soldier, and he grieved at the idolatry which he saw everywhere. But it was the best thing for Elijah and for the cause. We have a case like it in the New Testament where Philip, who was a very popular preacher and was enjoying great success, was suddenly instructed by word of the Lord to leave where he was and go away into the desert, It must have been a great disappointment to Philip, a severe cross for him to bear. But Philip obeyed, and it was on that journey that the treasurer of Queen Candace came driving by, and the word of the Lord again indicated to Philip his duty. Then Philip knew why the word of the Lord had guided him as it had. So Elijah’s great soul was burning to tear down the idols of Baal and Ashtaroth; but the time was not yet ripe, and God was saving the prophet’s life and giving the bold message he had uttered time to work by guiding him away into the wilderness. God went with Elijah into the wilderness, and long afterwards he knew the wisdom of Heaven. The word of the Lord, if we are obedient to it, will work while we are hidden. No doubt Elijah, if he had used his own judgment, would have backed up the Lord’s message day after day with his own big body and his own ringing voice. But it was not the time for that. God used Elijah for His message, and he delivered it well. He acted promptly and faithfully, and with perfect courage, and then, against his own judgment, he followed the word of the Lord and went into hiding and into silence. (L. A. Banks, D. D.)

​​And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. Mat 6:5-8

​ ​No Pretense

​"When thou prayest," the Lord says, "thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men." Neither the synagogues nor the streets were the appointed places of prayer. But a custom had risen, since the days of Daniel the prophet, to pray seven times a day, at certain appointed hours; and when these hours came the Pharisee turned at once to his devotions. Very probably the iniquity of the Pharisee grew up in a very natural way, beginning with a scrupulous but honest observance of religious forms, and gradually sliding into a pretentious and hypocritical display as he found himself a growing object of respect and esteem among men. We also have need to be on our guard, and to watch and pray, and pray and watch, against this snare.
​
Our Lord enjoins that His people, when they pray, should enter into their closet, and shut to the door, and pray to the Father which seeth in secret. The true idea of prayer lies in the shutting of the door. You may make a closet for yourself out of the varied crowd, provided you shut out the world from your thoughts and lift up your soul to God alone.

We are not to be like the heathen, who think they shall be heard for their much speaking. With them prayer was a kind of bodily and mechanical process, supposed to be efficacious just in proportion to the number of times they could repeat the same cry. Christ says that theirs is not true prayer such as becomes His children, and that we are not to do as they do, for our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him.

When we pray, we should come believing in the unseen Father, and trusting in His gracious disposition. True prayer is just the cry of children to their Father, and it is the childlike feeling of trust in Him which gives to their prayer all its efficacy. (W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 178)

​Secret Prayer

​Every Jewish house had a place for secret devotion. The roofs of their houses were flat places, well adapted for walking, conversation, and meditation. See the notes at Mat_9:2. Professor Hackett (“Illustrations of Scripture,” p. 82) says: “On the roof of the house in which I lodged at Damascus were chambers and rooms along the side and at the corners of the open space or terrace, which constitutes often a sort of upper story. I observed the same thing in connection with other houses.” Over the porch, or entrance of the house, there was frequently a small room of the size of the porch, raised a story above the rest of the house, expressly appropriated for the place of retirement. Here, in secrecy and solitude, the pious Jew might offer his prayers, unseen by any but the Searcher of hearts. To this place, or to some similar place, our Savior directed his disciples to repair when they wished to hold communion with God. This is the place commonly mentioned in the New Testament as the “upper room,” or the place for secret prayer.

The meaning of the Savior is, that there should be some place where we may be in secret - where we may be alone with God. There should be some “place” to which we may resort where no ear will hear us but “His” ear, and no eye can see us but His eye. Unless there is such a place, secret prayer will not be long or strictly maintained. It is often said that we have no such place, and can secure none. We are away from home; we are traveling; we are among strangers; we are in stages and steamboats, and how can we find such places of retirement? I answer, the desire to pray, and the love of prayer, will create such places in abundance. The Savior had all the difficulties which we can have, but yet he lived in the practice of secret prayer. To be alone, he rose up “a great while before day,” and went into a solitary place and prayed, Mar_1:35. With him a grove, a mountain, a garden, furnished such a place, and, though a traveler, and among strangers, and without a house, he lived in the habit of secret prayer. What excuse can they have for not praying who have a home, and who spend the precious hours of the morning in sleep, and who will practice no self-denial that they may be alone with God? O Christian! thy Savior would have broken in upon these hours, and would have trod his solitary way to the mountain or the grove that he might pray. He did do it. He did it to pray for thee, too indolent and too unconcerned about thy own salvation and that of the world to practice the least self-denial in order to commune with God! How can religion live thus? How can such a soul be saved?

The Savior does not specify the times when we should pray in secret. He does not say how often it should be done. The reasons may have been:
(1) That he designed that his religion should be “voluntary,” and there is not a better “test” of true piety than a disposition to engage often in secret prayer. He intended to leave it to his people to show attachment to him by coming to God often, and as often as they chose.

(2) An attempt to specify the times when this should be done would tend to make religion formal and heartless. Mohammed undertook to regulate this, and the consequence is a cold and formal prostration at the appointed hours of prayer all over the land where his religion has spread.

(3) The periods are so numerous, and the seasons for secret prayer vary so much, that it would nor be easy to fix rules when this should be done.

Yet without giving rules, where the Savior has given none, we may suggest the following as times when secret prayer is proper:
In the morning. Nothing can be more appropriate when we have been preserved through the night, and when we are about to enter upon the duties and dangers of another day, than to render to our great Preserver thanks, and to commit ourselves to His fatherly care.

In the evening. When the day has closed, what would be more natural than to offer thanksgiving for the mercies of the day, and to implore forgiveness for what we have said or done amiss? And when about to lie down again to sleep, not knowing but it may be our last sleep and that we may awake in eternity, what more proper than to commend ourselves to the care of Him “who never slumbers nor sleeps?”

We should pray in times of embarrassment and perplexity. Such times occur in every man’s life, and it is then a privilege and a duty to go to God and seek his direction. In the most difficult and embarrassed time of the American Revolution, Washington was seen to retire to a grove in the vicinity of the camp at Valley Forge. Curiosity led a man to observe him, and the father of his country was seen on his knees supplicating the God of hosts in prayer. Who can tell how much the liberty of this nation is owing to the answer to the secret prayer of Washington?

We should pray when we are beset with strong temptations. So the Savior prayed in the garden of Gethsemane (compare Heb_5:7-8), and so we should pray when we are tempted.

We should pray when the Spirit prompts us to pray; when nothing can satisfy the soul but prayer. Such times occur in the life of every Christian, (and they are “spring-times” of piety - favorable gales to waft us on to heaven. Prayer to the Christian, at such times, is just as congenial as conversation with a friend when the bosom is filled with love; as the society of father, mother, sister, child is, when the heart glows with attachment; as the strains of sweet music are to the ear best attuned to the love of harmony; as the most exquisite poetry is to the heart enamored with the muses; and as the most delicious banquet is to the hungry.

Prayer, then, is the element of being - the breath the vital air; and, then, the Christian must and should pray. He is the most eminent Christian who is most favored with such strong emotions urging him to prayer. The heart is then full; the soul is tender; the sun of glory shines with unusual splendor; no cloud intervenes; the Christian rises above the world, and pants for glory. then we may go to be alone with God. We may enter the closet, and breathe forth our warm desires into his ever-open ear, and He who sees in secret will reward us openly. (Sword Bible Commentary)

​Use Not Vain Repetitions

​The original word here is supposed to be derived from the name of a Greek poet, who made long and weary verses, declaring by many forms and endless repetitions the same sentiment. Hence, it means to repeat a thing often; to say the same thing in different words, or to repeat the same words, as though God did not hear at first. An example of this we have in 1Ki_18:26; “They called on Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us!” It may serve to illustrate this passage, and to show how true is the description here of prevailing modes of prayer, to refer to the forms and modes of devotion still practiced in Palestine by the Muslims. Dr. Thomson (“The Land and the Book”) gives the following description of what actually occurs: “See those men on that elevated terrace. One has spread his cloak, other their Persian rugs toward the south. They are Muslims, preparing to say prayers - rather perform them, in this most public place, and in the midst of all this noise and confusion.
​
“Let us stop and watch the ceremony as it goes on. That man next us raises his open hands until the thumbs touch the ears, exclaiming aloud, “Allah-hu-akbar” - ‘God is great.’ After uttering mentally a few short petitions, the hands are brought down and folded Together near the girdle, while he recites the first chapter of the Koran, and two or three other brief passages from the same book. And now he bends forward, rests his hands upon his knees, and repeats three times a formula of praise to ‘God most great.’ Then, standing erect, he cries “Allah-hu-akbar,” as at the beginning. Then see him drop upon his knees, and bend forward until his nose and forehead touch the ground directly between his expanded hands. This he repeats three times, muttering all the while the same short formulas of prayer and praise. The next move will bring him to his knees, and then, settling back upon his heels, he will mumble over various small petitions, with sundry grunts and exclamations, according to taste and habit. He has now gone through one regular Rek'ah; and, standing up as at the first, and on exactly the same spot, he will perform a second, and even a third, if specially devout, with precisely the same genuflections.

“They are obliged to repeat some expressions thirty times, others many hundred times. Would that these remarks did not apply to nominal Christians in this land as well as to Muslims!”

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do"

​The original word is that which is commonly translated “Gentile.” The world was divided into two parts, the Jews and the Gentiles; that is, in the original, the “nations,” the nations destitute of the true religion. Christ does not fix the length of our prayers. He says that we should not repeat the same thing, as though God did not hear; and it is not improbable that he intended to condemn the practice of long prayers. His own supplications were remarkably short. (Sword Bible Commentary)

CONCLUSION:
On reflection of these verses, and the comments given on them, what answers come to mind, when you ask these questions of yourself:

1. Is your care for this world daily placed in the hands of God-and can you go on in life at rest within your own heart, and with God? No matter what the condition of the world, and it's chaos, or the difficulties we face in our lives, secret prayer and dialogue with the Father, unburdens our hearts, and we find rest in Him. His word gives comfort and reminds us of His faithfulness in His care for us, not matter what's going on in the world.

2. Has your heart and mind found it's resting place in Him, and opened your heart for the strength His word gives, to help you face the challenges of your life, and open your heart to hear His direction on the issues you are facing? God wants to guide us and give direction, but, this only happens when we develop a relationship with Him, and come to know Him, for who He is, and find that He answers prayer, and, He keeps his word. If we come to know His word, and His promises, our prayer life expands, and we learn what our privileges are in Him, and His people.

3. During your time of secret prayer, have you opened your heart to allow the Lord to perhaps correct you, and show you where you've fallen into a sin, or wrong behavior, that you need to repent of, and ask for His help and strength to change and come back into right relationship with Him? Our walk with Him, is just as any child-we do things sometimes that are wrong, and we need to confess it, and ask for forgiveness, and cleansing of our souls with His precious blood-which is ever available. He wants us to come openly, and just confess the wrong, and turn from it. Then, our walk with Him goes on, when He forgives, He forgets. Jesus love for us isn't like the world. He's faithful, to us, and to His own word.

When we receive His forgiveness, the door of heaven is open, and we can expect answers to our prayers, and can come to know Jesus' manifest presence in our lives-which is more precious than gold.
Lorna Couillard

​1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. ​