February 19, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." — Ezekiel 36:37 · KJV

Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history, and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come into this world unheralded by supplication. You have found this true in your own experience. God has given you many an unsought favor, but great prayer has always been the prelude of great mercy with you. When you first found peace through the blood of the cross, you had been praying much, earnestly pleading with God to remove your doubts and deliver you from your distresses; your assurance was the result of prayer. Whenever you have had high and rapturous joys, you have had to see them as answers to your prayers. When you have had great deliverances out of sore troubles, and mighty help in great dangers, you have been able to say, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." Prayer is always the preface to blessing; it goes before the blessing as the blessing's shadow. When the sunlight of God's mercies rises upon our needs, it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the plain. Or, to put it another way, when God piles up a hill of mercies, He Himself shines behind them and casts on our spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may be certain, if we are much in prayer, that our pleadings are the shadows of mercy. Prayer is thus joined to the blessing to show us its value. If we had the blessings without asking, we would think them common things; but prayer makes our mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are precious, but we do not feel their preciousness until we have sought them earnestly. Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw; prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw; it gives exercise to faith and love, and brings every blessing from above.