Psalms 18:19

Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.—I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

In my distress I called upon the Lord , and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Is it hypocritical to pray when we don’t feel like it? Perhaps there is no more subtle hindrance to prayer than that of our moods. Nearly everybody has to meet that difficulty at times. Even God’s prophets were not wholly free from it. Habakkuk felt as if he were facing a blank wall for a long time.

What shall we do when moods like this come to us? Wait until we do feel like praying? It is easy to persuade ourselves that it is hypocrisy to pray when we do not feel like it, but we don’t argue that way about other things in life. If you were in a room that had been tightly closed for some time you would, sooner or later, begin to feel very miserable—so miserable, perhaps, that you would not want to make the effort to open the windows, especially if they were difficult to open. But your weakness and listlessness would be proof that you were beginning to need fresh air very desperately—that you would soon be ill without it.

What is this “spacious place”? What can it be but God Himself—the infinite Being through whom all other beings find their source and their end of life? God is indeed a “spacious place.” And it was through humiliation, degradation, and a sense of worthlessness that David was taken to it.

MADAME GUYON