If Our Lives Were As Good As
Our Prayers By J.R. Miller If we only tried seriously
to live up to our praying, it would have a powerful effect
upon our character and conduct. There is no prayer that most
Christians make oftener than that they may be made like Christ. It is a most fitting prayer and
one that we should never cease to make. But if we very earnestly
wish to be transformed into Christ's likeness, we will find the desire
growing into great intensity in our daily lives and transforming
them. It will affect every phase of
our behavior and conduct. It will hold before us continually
the image of our Lord and will keep ever in our vision a new
standard of thought, of feeling, of desire, of act, of speech. It will keep us asking all the
while such questions as these. How would Jesus feel about this? if he were personally in my circumstances? What would Jesus do if he were
here today where I am? There is always danger of mockeries
and insincerities in our praying for spiritual blessings, The
desires are to be commended, God approves of them, and will
gladly bestow upon us the more grace we ask for, the increase
in love, the greater faith, the purer heart, the new advance
in holiness. But these are attainments which
are not bestowed upon us directly as gifts from heaven. We have
much to do in securing them. When we ask for spiritual blessings
or favors, the Master asks, Are you able to pay the price, to
make the self-denial, to give up the things you love, in order
to reach these attainments in holiness, in grace, in spiritual
beauty? If our lives were as good as
our prayers, we would be saint-like in character. If we find that
our prayers are beyond our living, our duty is not to lower them
to suit the tenor of our living, but to bring our lives up to
the higher standard of our praying.