Matthew 14:19—Looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave.
Stonewall Jackson was once asked what he meant when be used the expression, "Instant in prayer." "I will give you," he said, "my idea of it for illustration, if you will allow it, and not think that I am setting myself up as a model for others." On being assured that there would be no misjudgment, he went on to say; "I have so fixed the habit in my own mind, that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without a moment’s asking of God’s blessing. I never seal a letter without putting a word of prayer under the seal. I never take a letter from the poet without a brief sending of my thoughts heavenward. I never change my classes in the section room without a minute’s petition on the cadets who go out and those who come in." "And don’t you sometimes forget this?" "I think I can say that I scarcely do; the habit has became almost as fixed as breathing."
And if this was the habit of the servant, how much more of the Master. Frequently, in the Gospels, we are told of his heavenward look. It was as though He were always looking up for his Father’s smile, direction, and benediction; so that He could be assured that what He was engaged in was in the line of his Father’s Purpose, and that He might gain the needed power to act and wisdom to speak.
It is only thus that we shall be able to meet the hunger of our times. Our slender stores will not avail for so great a multitude. But if we bring them to Him, and place them in his hands, and look up to heaven for his enablement, we shall break and break again till all have sufficed and left. But this habit can only be maintained by those who go into the mountain of prolonged fellowship.