Wednesday, Week 5

After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
— Acts 4:31 (BSB)

Our true character comes out in the way we pray.
— Oswald Chambers

O God, who has taught us in Your holy word to be anxious for nothing — but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to make known our requests unto You — hear us this evening as we come to You with our supplications. There are many things in our lives which might cause us to be anxious, were it not for the promises of Your love. There have been things in the life of this day which naturally would make us worry. There have been discouragements — not all our expectations have been realized. It would be easy for us to be anxious — if we would yield to our feelings.

But we remember our Savior's earnest teachings against worrying — that we ought to take no anxious thought, because our Heavenly Father knows what things we need, and that we ought to seek first the kingdom of Heaven — and we want to obey His counsel. Help us to learn this beautiful lesson. It is not easy to learn it. We are prone to fret, complain, and worry. Help us to overcome this disposition, and never to yield to its sway.

Help us to learn the lesson Your servant Paul tells us that he had learned — in whatever state we are, therein to be content. May the love of Jesus in us be so strong, that we shall not mind the little trials along the way. May Your peace in our hearts be so deep, so tranquil, so controlling — that all frets and discontents shall be swallowed up in its blessed fullness. Help us to follow so intently the one essential thing of Christian life — the doing of Your will — that no hardness of the way, no cross bearing, no difficulties, no discouragements — shall have any power to divert our hearts and thoughts from our supreme purpose. We ask for grace to learn this lesson, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.