Spurgeon: February AM
* 02/19/AM
"Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by
the house of Israel, to do it for them."
--Ezekiel 36:37
Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history,
and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to
this world unheralded by supplication. You have found this true
in your own personal experience. God has given you many an
unsolicited favour, but still great prayer has always been the
prelude of great mercy with you. When you first found peace
through the blood of the cross, you had been praying much, and
earnestly interceding with God that He would remove your doubts,
and deliver you from your distresses. Your assurance was the
result of prayer. When at any time you have had high and
rapturous joys, you have been obliged to look upon them as
answers to your prayers. When you have had great deliverances
out of sore troubles, and mighty helps in great dangers, you
have been able to say, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and
delivered me from all my fears." Prayer is always the preface to
blessing. It goes before the blessing as the blessing's
shadow . When the sunlight of God's mercies rises upon our
necessities, it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the
plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God piles up a hill
of mercies, He Himself shines behind them, and He casts on our
spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may rest certain, if we
are much in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy.
Prayer is thus connected with the blessing to show us the value
of it . If we had the blessings without asking for them, we
should think them common things; but prayer makes our mercies
more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are precious,
but we do not realize their preciousness until we have sought
for them earnestly.
"Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love;
Brings every blessing from above."