To have formed a really fixed and
stable habit of daily prayer is an enormous step forwards in Christian
life. Much depends upon learning to rise regularly at a fixed hour
before breakfast: and this in turn depends upon a regularity in going
to bed, which under modern conditions of life it is not always easy to
achieve. If a man is obliged to be up so late at night that it is
morally certain that he will be too tired to pray with much reality
before turning in, he should endeavour, if it is at all possible, to
secure some time for prayer at an earlier stage in the evening.
Difficulties in the life of prayer beset everybody. Thoughts have a
way of wandering, the "saying" of prayers tends to become mechanical,
moods vary, and there are times in most men's lives when they feel it
almost impossible to pray with any sense of reality. A man should not
lightly be discouraged. He may be recommended to remind himself that
GOD knows all about it, and that the resolute offering of his will to
GOD at such times, in defiance of distraction and difficulty, has
special value.
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