As Soldiers in Rank and File

The answers to your prayers are of infinite concern. You should watch for the answers with holy impatience and desire. Like an archer, take careful aim that you may hit the mark. Send your requests to God as soldiers in rank and file. Marshal them so that they may not be out of order. And what then?

“Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch” Psalm 5:1-3 (ESV).

by George Swinnock

The answers to your prayers are of infinite concern. You should watch for the answers with holy impatience and desire. Like an archer, take careful aim that you may hit the mark. Send your requests to God as soldiers in rank and file. Marshal them so that they may not be out of order. And what then? When you have prayed, wait expectantly for the answer. Though your prayers are mingled with many imperfections, if they are the travail of your soul and upright, do not give them over as lost. When Moses’ mother could keep him no longer, she made an ark and daubed it with a pitch, and hid him by the river’s bank. When Pharaoh’s daughter came to bath she saw the babe and gave him to his mother to nurse. Truly, when the fruit of your heart, your tears, sighs, groans, and prayers, are ready to be given over for dead in the eye of sense, they lie floating upon the water; let your faith and hope be near at hand to see what will become of them. Though the messenger you send to heaven tarries long, you must wait and expect his return. If you find little fruit in your petitions, do not lay aside that calling, “Continue steadfastly in prayer” (Colossians 4:2). Anglers, though they have fished for many hours and caught nothing, do not break their rods, but draw out the hook, check the bait, and then throw it in again. So, when you have been earnest in prayer and received no answer, reflect on your prayers and consider what has gone amiss. Is it possible that you have desired stones instead of bread, or fuel for your lusts? If any of these are the fault, on wonder they failed! Whatever the fault, be diligent to amend it, and fall on your work again with confidence. The archer, if he shoots once, and again, and misses the mark, considers what the reason was, reforms his error and shoots to find the target.