Learn To Do Without

February 22.

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God.

PHILIPIANS 4, verse 6.


We tell Thee of our care,
Of the sore burden, pressing day by day,
And in the light and pity of Thy face,
The burden melts away.
We breathe our secret wish,
The importunate longing which no man may see;
We ask it humbly, or, more restful still,
We leave it all to Thee.

SUSAN COOLIDGE.


That prayer which does not succeed in moderating
our wish, in changing the passionate desire into
still submission, the anxious, tumultuous
expectation into silent surrender, is no true prayer,
and proves that we have not the spirit of true prayer.
That life is most holy in which there is least of
petition and desire, and most of waiting upon God;
that in which petition most often passes into
thanksgiving. Pray till prayer makes you forget
your own wish, and leave it or merge it in God's will.
The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a
means whereby to obtain the good things of earth,
but as a means whereby we learn to do without them;
not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a
means whereby we become strong to meet it.

F. W. ROBERTSON.