[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-1216":3},"DECEMBER 16\r\nAnd there was Anna, a prophetess ... which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day\r\n(Luke 2:36,37).\r\nNo doubt by praying we learn to pray, and the more we pray the   oftener we can pray, and the better we can pray. He who prays in fits and starts is never likely to attain to that effectual fervent\r\nprayer which availeth much.\r\nGreat power in prayer is within our reach, but we must go to work\r\nto obtain it Let us never imagine that Abraham could have\r\ninterceded so successfully for Sodom if he had not been all his lifetime in the practice of communion with God.\r\nJacob's all-night at Peniel was not the first occasion upon which\r\nhe had met his God. We may even look upon our Lord's most choice and wonderful prayer with his disciples before His Passion as the\r\nflower and fruit of His many nights of devotion, and of His often rising up a great while before day to pray.\r\nIf a man dreams that he can become mighty in prayer just as he\r\npleases, he labors under a great mistake. The prayer of Elias which shut up heaven and afterwards opened its floodgates, was one of\r\nlong series of mighty prevailings with God. Oh, that Christian men would remember this! Perseverance in prayer is necessary to\r\nprevalence in prayer.\r\nThose great intercessors, who are not so often mentioned as they ought to be in connection with confessors and martyrs, were\r\nnevertheless the grandest benefactors of the Church; but it was only by abiding at the mercy-seat that they attained to be such\r\nchannels of mercy to men. We must pray to pray, and continue in prayer that our prayers may continue. --C. H. Spurgeon.",1783499794128]