Proverbs 15:8

There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.—The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.—Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants.

This is as good as a promise, for it declares a present fact, which will be the same thro ughout all ages. God takes great pleasure in the prayers of upright men; He even calls them His deli ght. Our first concern is to be upright. Neither bending this way nor that, continue upright; not crooked with policy, nor prostrate by yielding to evil, be you upright in strict integrity and straightforwardness. If we begin to shuffle and shift, we shall be left to shift for ourselves. If we try crooked wa ys, we shall find that we cannot pray, and if we pretend to do so, we shall find our prayers shut o ut of heaven.

Are we acting in a straight line and thus following out the Lord's revealed will? Then let us pray much and pray in faith. If our prayer is God's delight, let us not stint Him in that which give s Him pleasure. He does not consider the grammar of it, nor the metaphysics of it, nor the rhetoric of it; in a ll these men might despise it. He, as a Father, takes pleasure in the lispings of His own babes, the stammerings of His newborn sons and daughters. Should we not delight in prayer since the Lord delights in it? Let us make errands to the throne. The Lord finds us enough reasons for prayer, and we ought to thank Him that it is so.