November 3, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Behold, he prayeth." — Acts 9:11 · KJV

Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray, the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul. Often a poor brokenhearted one bends his knee, and can only utter his grief in the language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music, and that tear has been caught by God and treasured in the tear-bottle of heaven. "Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle" implies that they are caught as they flow. The suppliant whose fears stop his words will be well understood by the Most High; he may only look up with a misty eye, but "prayer is the falling of a tear." Tears are the diamonds of heaven; sighs are part of the music of Yahweh's court, and are numbered with "the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high." Do not think that your prayer, however weak or trembling, will be unregarded. Jacob's ladder is lofty, but our prayers shall lean on the Angel of the covenant and so climb its starry rounds. Our God not only hears prayer, but loves to hear it: "He forgetteth not the cry of the humble." True, He regards not high looks and lofty words; He cares not for the pomp and pageantry of kings; He listens not to the swell of martial music; He regards not the triumph and pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big with sorrow, or a lip quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential sigh, the heart of Yahweh is open. He marks it down in the registry of His memory; He puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of His book of remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last, a precious fragrance shall spring up from it. Faith asks no signal from the skies to show that prayers, accepted, rise; our Priest is in His holy place, and answers from the throne of grace.