September 20

Ephesians 6:18
 
THE Holy Spirit is the power for prayer. We can only pray in the Spirit as we walk in the Spirit. This explains why the prayer-life is with many, so unsatisfactory, and answers to prayer are so seldom known. When the Spirit of God is grieved by our self-will or disobedience, there will be no liberty in prayer. When we present our bodies unto God as living sacrifices, determined that He shall have His way in all things, we will find the Spirit free to enlarge our hearts, illumine our minds, and lead out our thoughts in prayer in a way previously unknown.
“Until I learned to trust,
I never learned to pray,
And I did not learn to fully trust
Till sorrows came my way.
Until I felt my weakness.
His strength I never knew;
Nor dreamed till I was stricken,
That He could see me through.
Who deepest drinks of sorrow
Drinks deepest too of grace;
He sends the storm so He Himself
Can be our hiding-place.
His heart, that seeks our highest good,
Knows well when things annoy;
We would not long for Heaven,
If earth held only joy.”
—Barbara Cornet Ryberg.