Prayer

My problem is pride. Either I don't feel I'm worth the friendships I desire, or I'm not good enough to be loved by others, or I think I can fix all my problems myself. The solution to my problem is prayer. I want to learn to pray better. In my previous post I said that I've been hit over the head with examples of asking God. Maybe the asking is not supposed to be my focus.

I think prayer was all I was supposed to see. (Yeah, God. Sometimes You have to knock against my head a few times. But I will learn!)

CS Lewis has an anthology of George MacDonald's work. I've quoted from it before. Here are some that made me cry tonight. I apologize for how many there are. Know there are more that touched my heart tonight that I didn't copy down.

Why Should it be Necessary?
What if He knows Prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God's idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need - the need of Himself?. . . Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion and some need is the motive of that prayer. . . . to bring His child to his knee, God withholds that man may ask.

Small Prayers
In every request, heart and soul and mind ought to supply the low accompaniment, "Thy will be done"; but the making of any request brings us near to Him. . . . Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon: the thought of Him to whom that prayer goes will purify and correct the desire.

Perfected Prayers
And there is communion with God that asks for nothing, yet asks for everything. . . . He who seeks the Father more than anything He can give is likely to have what he asks, for he is not likely to ask amiss.

Why We Must Wait
Perhaps, indeed, the better the gift we pray for, the more time is necessary for its arrival.

Answer
"But how can God bring this about in me?" - Let Him do it and perhaps you will know.

Prayer
Never wait for fitter time or place to talk to Him. To wait till thou go to church or to thy closet is to make Him wait. He will listen as thou walkest.

Creeping Christians
We are and remain such creeping Christians, because we look at ourselves and not at Christ . . . .

And the last is just God telling me yet again - He loves me.

Troubled Soul
Troubled Soul, thou are not bound to feel but thou art bound to arise. God loves thee whether thou feelest or not. . . . Try not to feel good when thou art not good, but cry to Him who is good. He changes not because thou changest. Nay, He has an especial tenderness of love toward thee for thou art in the dark and has no light, and His heart is glad when thou doest arise and say, "I will go to my Father.". . .