Did you think to Pray?

Did you think to Pray? 

Ere you left your room this morning,
Did you think to pray?
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Did you sue for loving favor,
As a shield today?

Refrain

O how praying rests the weary!
Prayer will change the night to day;
So when life seems dark and dreary,
Don’t forget to pray.

When you met with great temptation,
Did you think to pray?
By His dying love and merit,
Did you claim the Holy Spirit
As your guide and stay?

When your heart was filled with anger,
Did you think to pray?
Did you plead for grace, my brother,
That you might forgive another
Who had crossed your way?

When sore trials came upon you,
Did you think to pray?
When your soul was bowed in sorrow,
Balm of Gilead did you borrow
At the gates of day?

-M. A. Kidder

I was thinking of this Hymn the past couple of days as I have been convicted on the busyness of my life and how it affects my prayer life.  

Care of Our Feet

Faith's Check Book, Daily Entry

C. H. Spurgeon

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January 24

Care of Our Feet

He will keep the feet of his saints. (1 Samuel 2:9)

The way is slippery and our feet are feeble, but the Lord will keep our feet. If we give ourselves up by obedient faith to be His holy ones, He will Himself be our guardian. Not only will He charge His angels to keep us, but He Himself will preserve our goings.

He will keep our feet from falling so that we do not defile our garments, wound our souls, and cause the enemy to blaspheme.

He will keep our feet from wandering so that we do not go into paths of error, or ways of folly, or courses of the world's custom.

He will keep our feet from swelling through weariness, or blistering because of the roughness and length of the way.

He will keep our feet from wounding: our shoes shall be iron and brass so that even though we tread on the edge of the sword, or on deadly serpents, we shall not bleed or be poisoned.

He will also pluck our feet out of the net. We shall not be entangled by the deceit of our malicious and crafty foes.

With such a promise as this, let us run without weariness and walk without fear. He who keeps our feet will do it effectually.

Encouragement of Desire

"We read the Word, we listen to the Word as an act of worship. It is not really Biblical to say that we are going to do worship and then after worship we are going to have the reading of the Word and preaching because everything is supposed to be worship...When you and I listen, even if we are not comprehending and even if there's a battle raging in our minds in the sense that we are being distracted but every time we are distracted we pull ourselves back to the text and we try to listen that much harder do you realize what you are doing? You are loving God with your mind. You are declaring that yes there is still an aspect of me that is very fallen, yes I struggle through this Christian life but yes because the Holy Spirit has regenerated me I understand these are the Words of life and by faith I am going to fight to keep my mind centered upon on this text that is being read... And when we stand and we read the Word of God we don't allow our minds just to stray unhindered. We pull it back and we say no, I will bring you into subjection, I will bring every thought in subjection to Christ."

~ Paul Washer

The Impossibility of the Christian Life

There are many times when I am in a Church meeting and I am more discouraged by the fact that I am being distracted than I am encouraged by the fact that I get to listen to God's word and that I have a desire to listen to God's word.  It is sometimes hard not to get discouraged by my sin, but the joy and wonder of it is that my sin bothers me! I am a new creation! I DO want to listen to God's word, to read it, to meditate on it.  Yes, my flesh often sneaks in and hinders my mind from really gleaning things from the word, but praise the LORD that I even want to be in the word. Praise Him that I want to pray, that I want to know Him more.  

I shouldn't be discouraged that there's a battle, I should be encouraged that there's a fight against sin!