He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6

Jesus says, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” You have to live with Christ to know Him, and the longer you live with Him the more will you admire and adore Him; yes, and the more will you receive from Him, even grace for grace. Truly He is a blessed Christ to one who is but a month old in grace; but these babes can hardly tell what a precious Jesus He is to those whose acquaintance with Him covers well-nigh half a century! Jesus, in the esteem of abiding believers, grows sweeter and dearer, fairer and more lovely, day by day. Not that He improves in Himself, for He is perfect; but that as we increase in our knowledge of Him, we appreciate more thoroughly His matchless excellences. How glowingly do His old acquaintances exclaim, “Yea, He is altogether lovely”! Oh, that we may continue to grow up into Him in all things who is our head, that we thus may prize Him more and more! *

How much of our prayer is not prayer to God at all. It is nominally so, but it is really a muttering to the winds, a talking to the air, for the presence of God is not realized by the mind, “He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.” Do you know what it is mentally to lay hold upon the great unseen One, and to talk with Him as really as you talk to a friend whose hand you grip? How heavenly to speak right down into God’s ear, to pour your heart directly into God’s heart, feeling that you live in Him as the fish live in the sea, and that your every thought and word are discerned by Him.

It is true pleading when the Lord is present to you, and you realize His presence, and speak under the power and influence of His divine overshadowing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

*https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-secret-of-power-in-prayer/#flipbook/