“I have found prayer always helps; provided
I am honest with God for help in the right way – not to get out of the mess I
don’t like, but to be given help and strength to go through with it. My greatest insights about myself have come
when I have prayed. I have been impressed by the immense patience God seems to
show. I may desert Him for years, but whenever
I turn back, He always seems to be there, waiting. I think prayer is a question of leaving oneself
open to any answer that may come – very often unexpected and not what one wanted,
and yet it always leaves me with awe, reverence and gladness that I have made the
effort. This seems to be a point: we have
to make the initial effort. We are then met
more than half way, but He never intrudes on us. He waits for us to approach Him.”
Alister Hardy (1896-1985)
Page 77 from The Spiritual Nature of Man