PAUL abounded in prayer, and one mean by which the grace of God wrought this on him was, not only his deep feeling of absolute dependence upon the God of all grace, but his enlarged apprehension, enlarged believing apprehension of God, as the God of all grace. Two things make us stinted in prayer, either little feeling of need, or little hope of supply. Two things make us very enlarged in prayer—deep feeling of need, and enlarged and strong hope of supply. Under the pressure of felt need many are still much straightened; they feel, indeed, that they want much, but they have no expectation, or no high or settled expectation of getting much. They are shut up, they do pray, they cannot help it—a feeling of need makes that they do ask, but they ask of God earnestly, but not amply earnestly, because they feel need, but not amply, because they think He is a niggard. They have not corresponded so faith to their feeling of want, they do not rightly believe in God, as giving to all liberally, and upbraiding not. They are indeed humbled, and are content to be glad to pick of the crumbs that fall from their Master’s table; but they are doubtful if they shall get a dog’s right to them. How much more is any measure of desire repressed by the thought why that they dare never ask? Now, dear friends, either we are to approach God on our own merits, or we are not. If we are to approach God on our own merits, I don’t know how little we should ask. I don’t know what we could pray for at all, unless to be cut off, and sent to hell very speedily. Either we are to ask on our own merits, and then we can ask nothing, unless we are to set about it, and pray down damnation on our heads; or we are not to ask on our own merits, but on God’s rich mercy, and Christ’s glorious merits; and if so, if I am not to ask anything but for that, why let me not disgrace that by asking little things upon it. I know not whether it be more dishonouring to disbelieve that He hears prayer at all, or to think that a little good may be extorted out of an unwilling God. Did you never thus pray, and do you never pray to God in the thought that He is very niggardly, and that you know that He has what you need, that it’s very good, and you being very unworthy, you don’t think He will give it to you. If He give it, it will be a very small portion, and that forced out by your importunity. Well, though no doubt it is better to deal with God as if He were the widow’s unjust Judge, than not to pray at all, for then He will forgive and He will grant. But I think it a burning shame for all that, to think of Him as being the widow’s unjust Judge. Now, Paul prayed, we have an example in the context; he was concerned about a certain matter, about the stability of the Ephesians, as it might be affected by the tribulation to which he, the Apostle of Christ, was subjected. He says—”Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you.” This was his desire—a generous desire, you see. The tribulation did not trouble him much, so far as he had to bear it; but it gave him somewhat concern as regarded the Ephesians. The tribulation was nothing to Paul, but the effect the tribulation had upon their minds was a great deal. His anxiety then was that they might not faint. Now the Apostle did not think it was an easy thing to keep up the Ephesians under his tribulation. Many, in foolishness, are ready to make great martyr-boastings, and they will go through fire and water for Christ, and though all men forsake Him, they never will. They are ready to die for Him; but Paul knew by the grace of Christ what human nature is, a little better, and what human nature in the saints of God even is, and he knew that men were very ready to faint, not only when they feel the cross, but at the bare sight of it upon another man’s shoulders. When they saw an Apostle who hath come with the unsearchable riches of Christ, poor, oppressed, persecuted, forsaken, they would be tempted to say—”Is this the blessedness whereof He speaks?”. Now, the Apostle thought there was much here to make the Ephesians faint, and yet he did not think it was a necessary thing that they should faint. For all that, there was much to make them faint, and yet it was not absolutely necessary they should faint; there was something which could support them, could keep them from fainting; but it was no little thing; it was a great thing—a Divine thing, and therefore obtainable, for here is the difference between faith and unbelief. Whenever faith sees a thing in God’s hands, faith says—I have it. Unbelief says—I cannot get it. Such is the different estimates of faith and unbelief. Paul hath a good hope that the Ephesians would be supported, because he saw that their support lay with God, and this led him to have a good hope towards God, and to be very prayerful; “Whereof I desire,” etc., “for this cause to bow my knees.” That was all Paul could do to hold up their hands, namely, to bow his knees; to keep them strong, all he could do was to go into a position of the greatest lowliness, and poverty and weakness, “I desire,” etc.; and he bowed that they might get strength, but how much strength? “I bow my knees,” etc. That they might not faint at his tribulation, he bowed his knees, that God would strengthen them with might, according to His glory, according to the riches of His glory: the Ephesians needed all that to keep them from fainting, not at their own cross, but even at Paul’s; and he asks this; he did not think they needed little, and he did not expect God to give little. He felt need widely and deeply. He believed in grace as widely and deeply and somewhat more; he had not learned to look upon sin as a little thing, small and in petty quantity, but as abounding; but then he had learned to look upon grace as super-abounding; he had not conceived the Ephesians to be very strong people, but very weak people indeed; but then he bowed his knees in expectation of obtaining for them no less strength than according to the riches of his glory, etc. What this would work is described in the following verses on which we cannot enter. Through this strength he would be able to comprehend with all saints, etc., and so would not faint at his tribulation. Now, you say this man knows how to pray. I daresay he does, a little better than you or I, but he does not please himself. I daresay we wonder at what he thinks and asks; but is his thinking and asking the bounds of his desire? No, he grapples with something too great for even his comprehension, with the almighty power of God to give blessings, and, absorbed in this thought, concludes his prayer with the doxology, “Now unto Him,” etc., he has both thought and asked a great deal for them, “To Him that is able,” etc. Let us attend:—
1st. To Him who is the object of this doxology: and then, if time permit, to the doxology itself.
1st. “Unto Him,” etc. You know who this is—the God of all grace and consolation. The God who says, “I know the thoughts that I think concerning you to give you an end and expectation, and an end beyond expectation.” Now we, in relation to Him, ask and think; we ask of Him, and we think what we shall ask of Him; we put our ingenuity to ask, the ingenuity of a renewed and spiritual and Divinely instructed mind: we have got a carte blanche, a blank put into our hands by Christ—Ask what ye will. Now, we would think it a sad pity to get nothing, or to get little, when we have such a draft upon God, for all whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, we ask, and we not barely ask; we think, guided by the Word and Spirit of God; we think upon all things that could be good, good for us, good for others, good for our family, good for our congregation, good for our city and country, good for the Church, and good for the world, good for time and Eternity. We are always thinking, at least that is what we should be doing, when He says, “Ask what ye will.” Thinking what good we shall ask, and then we ask up to the point of our thinking. Whatever we think we ask, no limit to our asking, but our thinking. The moment we discover anything to be bad, we ask God to put that thing away. As soon as we find anything to be good, we ask God to grant that good thing—yea, we study His very character, amongst other things and attributes, that we may learn how far we shall think that we shall be able to ask; but then, God pity us if that were all the good we were to get. If we were to get no more than we would get by that, poor would we be after all that He is able to do above—abundantly above—exceedingly abundantly above all, etc. When you go with all that you ask, and all that you think, God says—“Poor soul, is that all you want, is it only these trifles—would that please you? would you go away with that only?” That wont please God to give; you think He is not willing to give you so much. I tell you He is not willing to give you so little; above it all, some little addition. Ah, no, abundantly above. He not only hears and answers the prayer, whatsoever ye ask, and give a little more full measure, filled and running over. No, an abundance over and above the asking—abundantly above—an immense quantity more—not that only, not merely an abundance, but an exceeding abundance—an abundance that passes, that surpasses all ordinary idea of abundance. It is not the usual abundance, but it is an exceeding, a surpassing abundance. Now, remember, however, that we do ask, and we do think; we come with our poor, scrimp, narrow-hearted petitions; we would give so little ourselves that we think of others, and we would carry it on to the Great God Himself, to be poor, miserly, wretched creatures; and perhaps, if our hearts were opened by grace, we would give a little. If a man came and said, “Do this,” we would say, “We cannot do all that, but we will do something for you.” We would do not as we were asked, or thought of, but somewhat a great deal below it; and still we think we have some generosity. We would feel, and we would do something, and so we think of God. He is good and generous, and something may be got at His hands. The world will not believe that good is to be got at His hands at all. Believers, with their little faith, have rather better thoughts of God. He has some goodness, mercy, and grace. By importunity we shall get something out of Him. He will not disappoint the expectation of the poor entirely and for ever, and if we shall not get all we think and ask; still, we shall get something. So it is we expect, but when we come, what does He give? All that’s asked? Of course, He is wise and good and kind, and He reserves in the answering whether it be for His glory and their good, which are indissolubly united together. But if it be really a good thing, they will get up to the asking and thinking; but God would be ashamed to stop there. They might say, “O how happy are we, and how much we have got!—everything we could ask or think.” But while they would be filled with joy, God would be covered with shame. I use the language, “He is not ashamed,” etc. God would be ashamed to let you away with that. “I am not a little God, poor, niggardly. I have great plenty, and a great heart. I am a bountiful Giver, I give liberally, and upbraid not. Here, take all this.” What is it? Ah, poor thing. That transcends thine asking, and even thy thinking; but “Take it by me now, if I will not open the window of Heaven,” etc. “But,” you will say, “What shall I do with the thing that I cannot think or ask if God will give it?” Why, so far as that may go, if He gives an additional power of mind to receive, I receive it; and if it transcend all communicated power of mind, I say, “Thank thee, my God, for it; I know it is exceeding good; but I cannot understand it; keep it among thy treasures; my blessedness rests not in my intellect, but in Thy favour, and if Thou hast mysterious good in store that I cannot understand, keep it, but keep it for me. It may come that I shall be able to appreciate it more, and understand it better. Meanwhile, as Thou dost not make my asking or thinking the bounds of Thy gifts, neither shall I make my understanding the bounds of my receiving.” Now, Paul, says on that he is able to do so—”Unto him that is able,” etc. But in respect of his ability, he glorifies him with the Doxology—”To Him be glory,” etc., and do you not think that it’s just as good when it is said that God is able, as if it had been said that God will? If that is doubted, whether we should not take the declaration that God is able, is just as good, and as importing that He will, let us turn and read together the 11th of Romans. The Apostle, speaking of the cut-off unbelieving Israelites under the present dispensation—”And they also if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able,” etc. Therefore they shall be. Mark the argument—He says, “They shall be, because God is able to do it,” and this implies that God is able to do that good He will do. “They shall be, for God,” etc. The force of the argument lies in the unenunciated thought, what God is able to do, that He will do. Now, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly, etc. And now, though you and I cannot reach it, we know what we are to aim at, we know where we are to point our desires and prayers and thoughts; and whether, since we cannot reach, we are ever more and more to approximate—and that’s God’s ability. I shall never have asked too much. I shall never have thought too much, till I have asked beyond God’s ability, till I have thought beyond God’s ability. I shall never have asked up to the point from which I expect my good to come, till I have asked up to, and even that I never shall do—till I have asked and thought, and thought and asked up to God’s ability; whatever God can do, that may I ask Him to do, that in the name of Christ may I ask Him to do, and depend that He will do it; and as I cannot reach that in my asking or thinking, what have I to do then? Why, when in explicit prayer I have prayed up to the asking and thinking, I must take to the implicit prayer, saying—”Lord, I cannot ask further,” but this is not the point. I would be at Thy power. Here is the point, here is my asking, my thinking, but answer me, Lord, not according to that I ask or think of, but according to that which transcends it, according to Thy power, Thine ability. O Lord Jehovah! do me all the good Thou canst, whatever blessings thou canst bestow, empty Thy goodness on me, on mine, on Thy Church, on the world. This ability is according to the power that worketh, etc. It is not a bare abstraction of the omnipotence of God, but it is the omnipotence of God as working in Church and people of God; it is not barely and simply extensie omnipotence. Mark what the Apostle had said—”That ye be strengthened,” etc. The Apostle speaketh of the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe. Now, we may be sure that the whole omnipotence of God was in that, it was all put out, greater act never was done; greater act (we speak reverentially) never could be done, it was on the footing of God’s omnipotence. The highest proof that He was able to subdue all things to Himself, “Now unto him,” etc. “The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward.” “Know ye not that your bodies are the temples?” etc. “The Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God which is in you, crying out,” etc.; “Shout, thou inhabitant of Zion,” etc. It is the omnipotence of the indwelling God. Thou art poor and feeble, but the Eternal God is not only near thee, with thee; He is in them all, His Almighty and the communion of the Holy Ghost, including in it from the unity of essence; indeed, from the Persons of the Godhead, as well as the unity of purpose in the economy of redemption. Thereby, truly and really the presence and indwelling of the Triune. All the grace of our Lord Jesus, and all the love of God, being wrapped up and contained in the communion of the Holy Ghost. Now, God, working according to His power in us, is able to do, etc. The Apostle was asking and thinking about stability, not fainting—was then king of strength in the inner man, that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith. He thinks of all that, because God is able to do it, according to the power wherewith He, the indwelling God, worketh. The Holy Ghost has not left his omnipotence behind; He is not omnipotence in Heaven, and impotent in thee, or particularly powerful in thee. When He comes to dwell in thy heart, He comes in all His omnipotence, and then He is as the spirit of grace and supplication, teaching thee both to think and ask; but then, even then thou art but an evil creature. There are two causes that keep down—1st, We are sinful creatures, even believers; and, 2nd, We are but feeble creatures. Suppose there was no opposition in us to the work of the Holy Ghost, suppose we were passive, yea, most willing, active recipients of Divine grace; God is infinite in knowledge to teach. We are but of finite capacity to learn, and a believer at every step learns but as much; but it was not to do up to that point that the Spirit of God came; but to do all the mighty things that are to be done, and more than the man knows. He comes with all His omnipotence to you; therefore, He is able to do all this, not by anything more, but by the out-putting, the exertion of the power that already worketh in us; but we see that God’s greatest work for a man is His work in the man—His greatest work. I am not speaking antecedently, but I am comparing the internal good which God does to a man with all the external good He does to Him; and I say the internal good which God does to a man transcends the external good which (at least in this work) He does to him. The principal thing that God does for us what he does in us, “According to the power,” etc. There is a power beyond that worketh for us, and that power works the universe for us—”All things work together,” etc. That’s God’s working the universe for us. But not less, in some respects greater, is God’s work in us—”He is able to do exceedingly abundantly,” etc. Now, what is due to Him who is able thus to do? What should be rendered to Him? Unto Him be glory.” Is it not a glorious work? And in doing the glorious work, doth He not manifest the possession of glorious perfections? And for the glorious perfection possessed, and for the glorious work manifesting it and communicating holy blessedness to us in the manifestation, owe we not glory? Make Him glorious we cannot; but think how glorious He is, and tell how glorious he is. Show that forth in lip and life; by His gracious and mighty working we may. And surely His character as set forth thus ably demands it. Unto Him be glory. “Once I have heard, yea, twice, that glory belongs unto Jehovah.” “Thine,” said Christ, teaching His disciples to pray, “Thine is the Glory.” Not only is God all glorious, but all glory belongs unto Him. No other has a right to glory. Were an archangel to glory in His presence the act would transmute him into a devil, and send him straight to hell. Glory is God’s prerogative alone. Many things are glorious because God has given them glory and beauty. The sun is glorious, and the stars are glorious, and one star excelleth another star in glory; but they do not deck themselves with their own splendours; they do not feed their own fires. Glory belongeth unto Jehovah. When He has done exceedingly abundantly, above all that we can ask or think, how rich shall we be then, and how glorious! Our houses shall be full of all precious substance; but He did it. If thou hast received, why boastest thou as if thou hadst not received? If the King of Glory hath taken the beggar from the dunghill and exalted him to sit with princes, even with the Princes of the People. When we look on that exalted beggar, we stop not to say, “What a glorious man!” No, we dare not say that at all, unless in connection with—”How glorious the King of Glory who hath in the omnipotence of grace done this thing!” In short, when we are so enriched we are glorious. The Name of our Lord Jesus is glorified in us, and we in Him; but it is as the Name of the Lord Jesus glorified in us that we are glorified in Him, and it is when the glory that God reflects on the creature, is by the creature ascribed as due only to God when He is glorified as the Author of it—transcendently and infinitely glorious. It is then that the glory rests. When it is appropriated it is lost; but it is possessed when it is as it were tossed back and fore between God and the creature. When the creature gives it to God, God of His rich grace sends it back in greater measure. But the humble creature, emulous of God’s glory, sends it all back again to him, and as it reciprocates, so it increases; “Unto Him be glory.” Dear friends, these are very instructive words of the Apostle, that “No flesh should glory in His Presence.” Mark the connection—no flesh must glory before Him: he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. The only way not to glory before Him, is to glory in him. Israel durst not say, “We are a better people than other people,” richer or more learned, warlike, or moral; Israel had but one glory legitimately. “Their rock is not as our rock.” Might they not say to all the nations, “Their rock,” etc., “our enemies themselves being judges. The gods of the nations are dumb idols. Yea, there was no hurt in the Jews saying to all the nations in the world (I speak under that economy)—”Ah, you may be a far better people than us in every way, but our God is a far better God than all your gods put together.” He did not glory before God; he gloried in God. He only announced God’s glory, and so the people of Christ. Their profession is not of betterness, save of betterness bound upon them, desired and aimed at; little, and clothed with humility, a little unto the praise of Divine grace. They may acknowledge sometimes that they differ, having been made to differ; but of this they can glory. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a better God than all the worldlings know. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a glorious Lord, “The Chief among ten thousand.” Whatever I be, my Saviour is a glorious one. Thus may we glory, “He that glorifieth,” etc. Not even in his relation to God, but secondarily—”Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us,” etc. God was before the relation, for God constituted that relation. It is therefore not glorifying in our relation, for He made that. His relation is glorious, simply in Himself giving unto the Lord the kingdom and the dominion and the glory and the power, for they are His—”Unto him be glory.” All should glorify God, all will not. In the Church alone will God get glory. Most true it is that there is no salvation out of the Church; most true it is that there is no God known out of the Church, however men may have construed that, and defines that wrong, constituting human and even corrupted societies as the Church. Yet, taking Scripture definition of the Church, the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. There is no salvation but in the Church, and no glory given to God, but in the Church; and if we pray that all nations and all individuals of the human race may glorify God, this is not praying that God’s glory may go beyond the Church, but that the bounds of God’s Church might be mightily enlarged; for all glory is in the Church to God’s, because it is by Christ Jesus, “Unto him,” etc. It is through Christ Jesus that He is able and that He is willing to do exceedingly abundantly above. It is through Christ Jesus that He manifests all the glory of His perfections in the highest degree. All the glory of His perfections as the God of grace and salvation, with all the reflected glory of the ministration of the government of nature in subordination to grace. It is through Christ Jesus that He shines in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Gifts of exceedingly transcendent abundance come through Christ, and consequently what comes is in the Church, for it is through Christ; by the Spirit of Christ to the ministers of Christ, the law of the Spirit of Christ, etc., lying at the very foundation of all these blessings. Through Christ, therefore, is all the glory to ascend to Him. He is the Mediator, and as all Heaven’s bounties pass through the Father’s hands into His, so all earth service, all the Church’s service, for none on earth but the Church ever do or will serve Him. All the Church’s service goes up to God through the hands of Christ. He, receiving of the Father, showers down the blessings; He, receiving the thanksgiving from man, presents them to the Father, and so through Christ Jesus is kept up through the spirit of prayer, keeping us asking and thinking, and the grace of God doing exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think; this in the reception of blessings the glory of God as well as His goodness. The glory of His goodness being seen, we ascribe honour and glory and blessing, with warm adoring, grateful hearts to the glorious God manifested by the glorious blessings He confers on us by Jesus Christ, and thus Divine adoration, Divine gratitude, unitedly ascend through Christ Jesus, and thus God keeps up by Christ Jesus in the world a Church, and a glorifying of Himself in the Church, “Unto him be glory,” etc. It was not in the days of the primitive Church only that God was able and God was willing to do, etc. The arm of the Lord is not shortened since Pentecost that it cannot save. It was not then and then only the same glory is to God, and the same glory can go up by the same riches of blessing down on the Church. The called, according to God’s purpose, both Jews and Gentiles throughout all ages. The stream of time rolls on, world without end, throughout all the ages of time, not terminating there—”World without end.” For shall the communion with God of blessing and praising only run on, while this globe runs round its axis, or whilst the days and nights are measured by the rising and setting of the sun? Throughout all it shall extend, “His name will endure for ever.” “I will make thy name to be remembered throughout all generations.” But that song of glory is only sung now as preparatory. The redeemed among men are but learning to sing it. Many a false note they admingle with their melody, now poor and puny, for they are but learning the song. But, then, as it shall be perpetuated in this school, on this earth, which Christ hath visited, and hath rendered a school of Heaven. When this school of earth shall end, then as adepts into the choir around the throne of God shall the redeemed among men enter, to sing for ever with perfection of celestial music the song of thousands of the Lamb—”Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power,” etc. Amen, so let it be. so it shall be, so let it be. God’s Amen declares it shall be, but our Amen says, “So let it be.” Praise ye the Lord. Do you set to your seal that God is true? Is your heart Amen from a heart filled with admiration, adoring admiration, and gratitude? Or is your heart hard pressed down with darkness, with care, and with anxiety? Hold an Amen which would burst forth, with which you are pent up, a silent Amen, which your consciousness can scarcely hear, yet an Amen God hears. God will bring it forth into distinctness. And, now, in conclusion, what can we say, friends, but that the whole subject should teach us, as the whole service of the day, that we should ask and think, and think and ask, and press on to the exceeding greatness of the ability. Let us be ashamed of our stinted prayers, with which we dishonour God’s rich grace. Let us ask that we may receive, that our joy may be full; for God gives not to end by enriching. No, that’s an immediate end; but the ultimate end is that He may be glorified; and let us not stop short of the ultimate end, when enriched; but let us see that when we have all sufficiency in all things, thanksgiving may abound, “Unto him be glory,” etc. To conclude, what wretched creatures are they who are far from the Lord Jehovah, who know not this God, who do not ask, who do not think, who know nothing of communion with Him, who get no blessings of salvation from Him, who give no ascription of glory to Him. Believers! you see you have a struggle to maintain with your sinful nature and with your feebleness, which can ask no more and think no more. You have a strife to maintain with that, maintain it in the view of His power, of His ability to do exceedingly abundantly. And now, if you can look beyond your power of asking and thinking, surely you know there lies an infinity beyond that, and that filled with God’s, to you, unknown goodness. Now, thank Him not only for what you see, but give thanks, because beyond your power to ask or think there lies an infinity of power to bestow; yea, and that power worketh in you, believer. Be ashamed to get little, get all things; don’t be poor any more; don’t be poor when you have to do with Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly. Get out of your poverty, not by fancying you are rich, but by coming and getting. “Ask and ye shall receive,” etc. Now, you know yourselves that your joy is not full yet. Well, if your joy is not full, your Saviour is not pleased. He is not satisfied, that is not satisfaction to Him. He wishes that your joy may be full. Now, why is it not full? What are you doing? Ask, even in this world, with all your asking. It wont be full, but it will be filling, and still Christ saying, “Ask and ye shall receive.” He never sets a bound till your joy be full. Nay, He says you have not asked enough if your joy be not full. Now, you are conscious that it is not full; then take your Saviour’s directions, “Ask,” etc. But give thanks, in everything give thanks; that’s one cause also why we get so little good. The prayers of the people of God are often of that kind, just extorted by feeling want, or mostly so. If God is very gracious, and He gives; but they were pressed on by want. It was spiritual selfishness, religious selfishness. Their souls were selfish about salvation. You may know, or do you know, that there is such a thing as spiritual selfishness about one’s soul? That is always in a man when he thinks more of his salvation than of the great end of salvation, the glory of God in Christ thereby. However he has asked (and is a bountiful giver), and though the prayer is very selfish, God gives good. Thus the man is relieved; but when he asks for good, it’s not so much for God’s glory as for his own comfort. He comes and begs and begs, and he gets. He is always begging from God, and always getting, and never says, “Thank you.” God will never put away His suppliants. He gives them more than they ask; but that’s one cause why they get so little. Would they not get a great deal more if they were thankful for what they get? Now, if I had a good friend who did me some good when I was in distress, and I fell into another, and go to him, and say, “Sir, I am in misery again; you will need to help me again,” and never thank him for what he did before. Why, suppose he did relieve me, I never would be a happy man; besides, there is not a right moral relation between giver and receiver, when there is no gratitude. So, dear friends, whatever God gives, if it should be a very little thing, we are heirs of hell, and should say, “Oh, Lord! I thank Thee for that, give me more”; and the more you get, always give glory, and come and ask and receive, and this prayer, mixed with thanksgiving, thanksgiving with prayer, I cannot tell into what intimacy your communion with God might grow.