In our misery, we have recourse only to God, as the Prophets, Apostles, and Jesus teach us
2 min • Digitized on November 16, 2021
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 205
By Venerable Louis of Granada
Reduced to this miserable condition, and deprived of our possessions by the first deluge, what resource, what remedy, has been left us by the Master who has punished us so severely?
There is but one remedy for us, and that is to have recourse to Him, crying out with the holy king Josaphat: “We know not what to do; we can only turn our eyes to Thee.” [2 Parai. xx. 12.]
Ezechias, powerful monarch though he was, knew that this was his only refuge, and therefore declared that he would cry to God like a swallow and would moan before Him as a dove. [Isaias xxxviii. 14.]
And David, though a still greater monarch, placed all his confidence in this heavenly succor. Inspired with the same sentiment, he exclaimed: “I cried to Thee, Lord, with my voice; to God with my voice, and He gave ear to me. In the day of my trouble I sought God, with my hands lifted up to Him in the night, and I was not deceived.” [Ps. lxxvi. 1, 2.]
Thus when all other avenues of hope were closed against him, when all other resources failed him, he had recourse to prayer, the sovereign remedy for every evil.
You will ask, perhaps, whether this is truly the sovereign remedy for every evil. As this depends solely upon the will of God, they alone can answer it who have been instructed in the secrets of His will—the Apostles and Prophets.
“There is no other nation so great, that hath gods so nigh them, as our God is present to all our petitions.” [Deut. iv. 7.] These are the words of God Himself, though expressed by His servant.
They assure us with absolute certainty that our prayers are not addressed in vain, that God is invisibly present with us to receive every sigh of our soul, to compassionate our miseries, and to grant us what we ask, if it be for our welfare. What is there more consoling in prayer than this guarantee of God’s assistance?
But still more reassuring are the promises of God Himself in the New Testament where He tells us: “Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” [St. Matt. vii. 7.] What stronger, what fuller pledge could we find to allay our doubts?