"But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving..."

As Thanksgiving rolls around once again, I think of all the answered prayer over the past years and how thankful I should be. Not only have I been given new life in and through Jesus Christ, but He continues to hear the cries of my needy soul. Here is a compilation of some writings of Charles Spurgeon on the subject of prayer:

“Whenever we are on our knees in prayer, it becomes us to bless God that our prayer has been answered so many times before. Why, many of the mercies that you possess today and rejoice in are answers to prayer. They are dear to you because, like Samuel whom his mother so named because he was “asked of God,” they came to you as answers to your supplications. Nothing pleases God as much as when a sinner comes again with twice as large a petition: saying “Lord, You heard me last time, and now I come again.” 

  Most of us are too slow to go to God. If we have been heard once, we go away instead of coming again and again, and each time with a larger prayer. Make your petitions longer and longer. Ask for ten, and if God gives them, then for a thousand. You and I, the people of God, have a permit, a passport to come before the throne of heaven at any time we desire, and we are encouraged to come there with great boldness. 

 All the petitioner's wants shall be supplied, because it is a throne of grace.

      The throne of grace will look on you, if you cannot look on it, and will give to you, though you have nothing to give in return, and will deliver you, though you cannot raise a finger to deliver yourself. 

 “Pray without ceasing” is a most sweet and precious permit to the believer to pour out his heart at all times before the Lord. The dead of the night is not too late for God; the breaking of the morning, when the first gray light is seen, is not too early for the Most High; at midday He is not too busy; and when the evening gathers, He is not weary with His children's prayers. The Lord continually regards the pleadings of His servants and waits to be gracious to them. He loves to hear the loud outcries of needy souls.   

It is His delight to bestow favors. He is more ready to hear than you are to ask. The Lord says to each one of us: “Before the world began, I chose you. I made the covenant for you. I laid aside My glory and became a man for you; I gave up My life for you; and if I did all this, I will surely help you now.”