Drawing Nigh to God...series

Drawing Nigh to God

by

Minnie E. Dauphinee

The Connecting Link...The Key to All Prayer

"Our Father" - these words are the key to all prayer. It is our faith in God's father love and in His willingness to hear and help that leads us to come to Him with our requests. One of the conditions upon which we may expect the fulfillment of the promise "Ask, and it shall be given you" is that constantly there shall be a loving relationship between us and our heavenly Father.

 

This relationship is to be so real and personal that it will be natural for us to talk to Him about everything- as natural as it is to talk to our dearest earthly friend. And because we love Him, we will love to do His will. Of course, we can readily understand that if we treat our heavenly Father as some disobedient, ungrateful children treat their earthly father; if we express our love for Him only when we need something, and think of prayer merely as a power to get good gifts from heaven, we shall be disappointed. Of such the Lord says, "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer"

(Proverbs 1:28).

 

When we call God "Our Father," we recognize all of His other children as our brothers and sisters. How do we treat the members of our own family? We take pleasure in being kind to them; we do not criticize them; neither do we expose their faults to the eyes of friends. Once when Alexander the Great was having his portrait painted, the artist was perplexed to know what to do about an ugly scar on the forehead. A happy thought occurred to him; he would have the emperor rest his head on his hand so that the scar would be covered by his finger. This illustrates the way we treat the defects and scars in the character of our natural brothers and sisters. We cover them with our love.

 

 

Do we treat in the same kindly way the defects in our brothers and sisters in the family of God? Or do we find it easy to expose their faults and criticize them? If we have been unkind to any, if we have been guilty of criticizing and fault finding, we should humbly confess our sin. This is absolutely necessary if we are to have power in prayer. "God reads our character in our prayers."