二月十九日
主耶和华如此说：“我要加增以色列家的人数，多如羊群。他们必为这事向我求问，我要给他们成就。……”（结36:37）
祷告是恩怜的前驱。翻开圣史，那有一种恩怜不先经过祈求就临到这个世界呢？从你个人的经验中也能证实这事。神曾将许多你所未求的恩典给你，但恳切的祷告总是大恩怜的前奏。当你开头藉十字架的宝血得到平安之后，你曾多多、切切祷告过，曾求神挪去你的疑惑，救你脱离忧苦。你得了救乃是祷告的结果。当你满有极大的欢乐时，你不能不觉得那是你祷告的结果。当你脱离极大的困苦，在极危险中得到大救助，你一定能说：“我曾寻求耶和华，他就应允我，救我脱离了一切的恐惧。”福乐之前必先之以祷告，祷告是福乐的影儿。当神恩怜的日光照射在你的需要之上时，就有祷告的影子映在下面。也可以说，神堆起了一座恩怜的山，他自己在山后发出光芒来，便在我们的心灵中映出了祷告的影子，因此好叫我们得到确据，若我们多祷告，我们的祈求就是恩怜的影子。祷告叫我们知道福份的价值。若我们所得的福未曾经过祷告，我们就当把那些看为平常；祷告使我们所得的恩典比金刚石还宝贵。我们所求而得的是宝贵的，但若我们不切切寻求就不会知道它的宝贵。
“祷告驱散了乌云，祷告登上了雅各的天梯；
祷告训练了信心和爱心，带来了天上各样的福气。”
February
19
“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.”
