2/19 Spurgeon Today

“Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of
Israel, to do it for them.” — Ezekiel 36:37

Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history, and you will
find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by
supplication. You have found this true in your own personal experience.
God has given you many an unsolicited favour, but still great prayer has
always been the prelude of great mercy with you. When you first found
peace through the blood of the cross, you had been praying much, and
earnestly interceding with God that He would remove your doubts, and
deliver you from your distresses. Your assurance was the result of prayer.
When at any time you have had high and rapturous joys, you have been
obliged to look upon them as answers to your prayers. When you have
had great deliverances out of sore troubles, and mighty helps in great
dangers, you have been able to say, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
and delivered me from all my fears.” Prayer is always the preface to
blessing. It goes before the blessing as the blessing’s shadow. When the
sunlight of God’s mercies rises upon our necessities, it casts the shadow of
prayer far down upon the plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God
piles up a hill of mercies, He Himself shines behind them, and He casts on
our spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may rest certain, if we are
much in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy. Prayer is thus
connected with the blessing to show us the value of it. If we had the
blessings without asking for them, we should think them common things;
but prayer makes our mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we
ask for are precious, but we do not realize their preciousness until we have
sought for them earnestly.
“Prayer makes the darken’d cloud withdraw;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love;
Brings every blessing from above.”