To understand the true nature of prayer is a vital need and a sure key to the solution of humanity's troubles. It is necessary for us to understand that prayer is not an occasional appeal to God to change His laws or to give us more of good than is already at hand. Since it is the human concept alone that must change and be regenerated, the answer to our prayers depends on the depth of our constant, silent desire throughout a busy day to glorify God and to bless our fellowman. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote,
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
A little maidservant, overhearing a group of ministers discussing the text, "Pray without ceasing" (I Thess. 5:17), offered this version of it: "When I open my eyes in the morning, I pray, 'Lord open the eyes of my understanding;' while I am dressing, I pray that I may be clothed with righteousness; when I have washed me, I ask for the washing of regeneration; when I begin to work, I pray that I may have strength equal to my day; when I kindle the fire, I pray that God's work may revive in my soul; as I begin to sweep out the house, I pray that my heart may be cleansed from all its impurities; when I am preparing and partaking of the breakfast, I desire to be fed with the manna and the sincere milk of the Word; as I am busy with the children, I look to God as my Father, and pray for the spirit of adoption, that I may be His child; and so on, all day everything I do furnishes me with a thought of prayer."
