He who rushes into the Presence of God, to hasten through a
few formal petitions, and then hastens back to outside cares and pursuits, does not tarry
long enough to lose the impression of what is without, and get the impress of what is
within the secret chamber. He does not take time to fix his mind's gaze on the unseen and
eternal. Many a so-called "praying man" has never once really met and seen God
in the closet. The soul, disturbed and perturbed, tossed up and down and driven to and fro
by worldly thoughts and care, can no more become a mirror to reflect God, than a ruffled
lake can become the mirror of the starry heights that arch above it. He who would look
downward into his own heart-depths, and see God reflected there, must stay long enough for
the stormy soul to get becalmed. Only when He first gives peace is the nature placid
enough to become the mirror of heavenly things.
But when such communion becomes real, prayer ceases to be mere duty and becomes delight.
All sense of obligation is lost in privilege. Love seeks the company of its object, simply
for the sake of being in the presence of the beloved one; as one little fellow explained
his, quietly coming into his father's study by the hunger for his presence- "just to
be with you, papa." Have any of us not known what it is to cultivate companionship
for its own sake, mutely sitting in the presence of another whom we devotedly love? And do
we not love God enough to make it an object to shut ourselves in with Him at times just to
enjoy Him? Is there no taint of selfishness in prayer which knows no there motive than to
ask for some favor? Jude counsels us to "pray in the Holy Ghost" as a means
whereby we keep ourselves in the love of God, He who know the very ecstasies of the secret
chamber, there learns to keep himself in the love of God, finding therein the Sunbeam
whose light illumines, whose love warms, whose life quickens. God's Presence becomes the
atmosphere he breathes and without which his spiritual life cannot survive. Such a habit
of abiding in the Presence of God, and dwelling upon His glorious perfection develops a
holy and enamoring love, which can only say with Zinzendorf and Tholuck, "I have but
one passion: and it is He and He alone!
References Used: Lessons in the School of Prayer by A.T. Peirson