Oswald Chambers: Prayer - A Holy OccupationSýnishorn

Prayer is not to be used as the privilege of a spoiled child seeking ideal conditions in which to indulge spiritual propensities without restraint. The purpose of prayer is the maintenance of fitness in an ideal relationship with God amid conditions which ought not to be merely ideal but real. Circumstances are not to be idealized, but to be realized, while by prayer we lay hold on God and He unites us into His consciousness.

Prayer is the vital breath of Christians; not the thing that makes us alive, but the evidence that we are alive.

Reflection Question: Do I pray so that I will be spiritually fit or do I throw spiritual fits when I pray?

Quotations taken from Christian Discipline, vol. 2 and Disciples Indeed, © Discovery House Publishers