Were You Faithful?

“If my life is to be lived as a friend of God, to be lived in response to the discerning love of God, how can I do other than to lay my desires and longing before Him for review and plead the case for them if I feel strongly about them? If I believe I love a woman, or if I am considering some undertaking whose success seems of great moment to me, where better could I take these matters than to prayer, where I may ask God to further them? That He will do so is another matter. I may beg with all my might for some outcome, and I may, after an hour arise convinced that it is not to be, or that it must be in another form, or that I must wait, or that I must take this costly step in order for it to come about. It does not matter where or with what petitions we begin in prayer. What is really important is where we end, where we are brought to in prayer. The real question to ask of ourselves after prayer is: ‘Were you faithful? Did you yield?’

…There is, then, no absolute limit that can be placed upon petition. The only limit is human need. But the prior condition must never be forgotten – the condition is to abide in Him and that His words shall abide in you. The condition is that you shall yield, that you shall respond, that you shall be faithful. Faith in God is set prior to faith in prayer; yet given this, you may begin at any point. And those old friends of prayer take their every need into prayer with great ease and confidence.”
~Douglas Steere