“Prayer is the contact of a living soul with God. In prayer, God stoops to kiss man, to bless man, and to aid in everything that God can devise or man can need. Prayer fills man’s emptiness with God’s fullness. It fills man’s poverty with God’s riches. It puts away man’s weakness with God’s strength. it banishes man’s littleness with God’s greatness. Prayer is God’s plan to supply man’s great and continual need with God’s great and continual abundance.”
– E.M. Bounds, The Reality of Prayer
It doesn’t take much for us to be depleted.
The start of a week with a seemingly insurmountable to-do list after a busy and none-too-restful weekend.
A piece of bad news when we feel like we already have all we can handle.
A discouraging word when we’ve tried our best, given our all, and poured our heats for the sake of others.
It doesn’t take much for us to be depleted when we are relying on ourselves and the things of this world to provide our fulfillment.
We are quick to rely on our own power to get things done.
We search our brains for the solution to our latest problem.
We give ourselves a pep talk to just buckle down and carry on.
And we neglect to turn to the source of abundant riches that God has made available to His children. We draw from our own strength and not from His. We trust our own littleness and instead of casting ourselves on His greatness. We turn inward instead of turning outward, petitioning our Lord in prayer, and trusting Him to meet our needs.
We are in constant need; Scripture tells us to pray continuously (I Thess. 5:17). In doing so we recognize that it is through His power and provision alone that our needs are met and His work is done.