worth of these blessings demands, they may come to see that it
was indeed the lack of desire that was the cause of failure. What is
true of God is true of each of his blessings, and is the more true the
more spiritual the blessing: "Ye shall seek Me, and shall find, when ye
shall search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. xxix. 13). Of Judah in
the days of Asa it is written, "They sought Him with _their whole
desire_" (2 Chron. xv. 15). A Christian may often have very earnest
desires for spiritual blessings. But alongside of these there are other
desires in his daily life occupying a large place in his interests and
affections. The spiritual desires are not all-absorbing. He wonders
that his prayer is not heard. It is simply that God wants the whole
heart. "The Lord thy God is _one Lord_, therefore thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with _all thy heart_." The law is unchangeable: God offers
Himself, gives Himself away, to the whole-hearted who give themselves
wholly away to Him. He always gives us according to our heart's desire.
But not as we think it, but as He sees it. If there be other desires
which are more at home with us, which have our heart more than Himself
and His presence, He allows these to be fulfilled, and the desires that
engage us at the hour of prayer cannot be granted.

We desire the gift of intercession, grace and power to pray aright. Our
hearts must be drawn away from other desires: we must give ourselves
wholly to this one. We must be willing to live wholly in intercession
for the kingdom. By fixing our eye on the blessedness and the need of
this grace, by thinking of the certainty that God will give it us, by
giving ourselves up to it, for the sake of the perishing world, desire
may be strengthened, and the first step taken towards the possession of
the coveted blessing. Let us seek the grace of prayer, as we seek the
God with whom it will link us, "with our whole desire"; we may depend
upon the promise, "He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him." Let
us not fear to say to Him, "I desire it with my whole heart."

2. "What things soever ye desire when _ye pray_."--The desire of the
heart must become the expression of the lips. Our Lord Jesus more than
once asked those who cried to Him for mercy, "What wilt thou?" He wanted
them to say what they would. To speak it out roused their whole being
into action, brought them into contact with Him, and wakened their
expectation. To pray is to enter into