Without the support of the Holy Spirit, prayer becomes a matter of incredible difficulty. “As for my heart,” said one who was deeply involved in this engagement, “when I go to pray, I find it reluctant to go to God. When it is with Him, reluctant to stay with Him. Many times I am forced in my prayers, first to beg of God that He would take my heart and set it on himself in Christ, and when it is there that He would keep it there. I know not what to pray for, I am so blind, nor how to pray, I am so ignorant; only, blessed be grace, the Spirit helps our infirmities.”

   It is well for us to being our supplications by directing our hearts toward the Holy Scriptures because there are His chosen means of enlightenment, comfort, inspiration, and rebuke. It will greatly help to calm the stubborn and contrary mind if we open the sacred volume and read as if in the presence of God. We should remain there until a word from the Eternal comes to us from the printed page. George Muller confessed that he often could not pray until he had steadied his mind upon a text. Is it not the prerogative of God to break the silence? “Thou hast said, ‘Seek ye my face.’ My heart says to thee, ‘Thy face, LORD, do I seek’ (Psalm 27:8). Is it not fitting that His will should order all the acts of our communication with Him? Let us be silent before God that He may fashion us.    

The Hidden Life of Prayer - David McIntyre