August 30.
But we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night. NEHEMIAH iv. 9.
WE are in danger of making prayer a substitute for duty, or of trying to roll over on God the burden of caring for us and doing things for us, while we sit still and do nothing. When we pray to be delivered from temptation, we must keep out of the way of temptation unless duty clearly calls us there. We must also watch against temptation, resist the Devil, and stand firm in obedience and faith. When we ask God for our daily bread, pleading .the promise that we shall not want, we must also be ready to earn God's bread, and thus make it ours honestly. A lazy man came once and asked alms, saying that he could not find bread for his family. "Nor can I," replied the industrious mechanic to whom he had applied. " I am obliged to work for it."
While we pray for health, we must use the means to obtain it. While we ask for wisdom, we must use our brains and think, searching for wisdom as for hid treasure. While we ask God to help us break off a bad habit, we must also strive to overcome the habit. Prayer is not a mere device for saving people from toil, struggle, and responsibility. When there is no human power adequate to the need, we may ask God to work without us, and in some way he will help us. But ordinarily we must do our part, asking God to work in and through us, and to bless us through faithful obedience.
