The Lord in Psalm 142 inspired David to say, “I cry out to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord I make my supplication. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my trouble” (v 1-2). The scriptures exhort us to pray; example, Paul in I Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing.” Our Lord said in Luke 18:1, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint...” (Not to give up). Prayer is the Christian breath. Pray the scriptures. The more our devotions are governed by the Word the more our prayers will come forth from the Word. How vital is secret prayer to the Church, and most vital in the Christian home. But how do we approach a Holy God? We approach Him by an evidence of the reality of our absolute dependence upon our Intercessor Jesus Christ; and a genuine fear of the Lord (that is reverence, respect, awe) in the soul. Until we see God in the light of His attributes we cannot worship Him in spirit and in truth (prayer is worship). We may utter prayers in public or in private, written or unwritten, taught in childhood or learned in age, repeated from memory or suggested at the moment; and yet, if we have never seen God in the light of His holiness we have never prayed to Him. Some may have had family prayers, or prayed at prayer meetings, and been so pleased with their own gift and the applause of empty professors as to think themselves a prayer warrior. What advantage have you reaped by your fleshly prayers? Are you nearer to heaven or more acceptable to God? No! instead of pleasing God you have offended Him; instead of worshipping you have mocked Him. He says in Isaiah 1:14-15, “Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth, they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear.” And in Matthew 23:14, “Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers, therefore you shall receive the greater damnation.” The only cure for this awful presumption and hypocrisy is the fear of God planted by His own divine hand in the soul. He that is blessed with godly fear as an internal abiding principle cannot mock God. He cannot offer Him the dead sacrifice, the stinking carcass of formality, superstition, tradition, hypocrisy and self-righteousness. He cannot go on to mock the ever-living Jehovah to His face, as thousands do, and by confessing grief for sins for which he never felt conviction for, asking for blessings which he never desired, and thanking God for mercies for which he has no gratitude. His soul will be, more or less deeply, and more or less frequently, penetrated with such an inward reverence, such a holy awe, such a realizing sense of the solemn presence of the great holy God of heaven and earth that he will confess his sins, not out of a prayer book, but out of the depths of a contrite heart; will beg for mercy, not as a child repeats his ABC’s but as a sinking criminal at the bar of judgment and will cry for the light of God’s countenance, not as one mumbles “Hear us good Lord,” but as one whom “The Spirit itself maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered.”
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