We have received your earnest petition and have carried it before the throne of grace with thankfulness that you would seek the Lord in prayer.
Your heart cries out for favor and for miracles and for blessings, and for deliverance from principalities and powers of darkness, and for the glory of God to be seen throughout the world. These are great petitions, and we would have you see how the Lord Himself teaches us to understand them. The greatest favor of God is not to be measured by outward abundance, but by this, that the Lord accepts the persons of His people through the sweet savor of the Lord Jesus Christ. His merits are purely offered unto God, and in Him we have forgiveness, freedom and favor. The generosity of our God is seen not in the granting of every wish, but in the provision He has made for poor sinners who were deeply in debt to His law.
And as to miracles, we must remember that most of the miracles of Christ are symbols and emblems of the spiritual and moral miracles that He works in the world of the heart. What new teaching is this, the people said, for with authority He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him. The astounding miracle is this, that the same power which brought our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead should bring us up from our death in sin, that He should lift our sins as another Atlas and bear them upon His shoulders, that He should breathe life into a dead soul and give a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. This is the miracle we most need, and this is the miracle He delights to do, to bring the chief of sinners to repentance.
Concerning the powers of darkness, be comforted that there is Divine work always going on before God's people. His shield goes in front, His sword cuts and clears the way, and He will thrust out our enemies before us. Yet we are not to be idle, for we have also a Divine command to be obedient to His Word and to walk where He leads, trusting not in our own strength but in that Divine energy which works in us.
Therefore we do stand with you in prayer, not for mere wonders to astonish the eye, but for the abounding glory of Christ to be known.
O Lord our God, look upon this soul who seeks Thy face. Grant unto us the true favor which is in Christ Jesus, even perfect pardon through His blood, and seal it home by Thy Holy Spirit. Work in us the miracle of Thy grace, convict us of sin and draw us with cords of love unto the Savior, that we may be loosed from every infirmity by Thy Divine Voice. Thrust Thou out the enemies of darkness before us, and keep us from the enchanted ground of indifference and sleep, that we may be kept alive toward Thee. Let Thy glory be seen not in our abundance but in our being made new creatures in Christ, and let that glory spread as Thou art lifted up before men. We ask this, trusting only in the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our sweet savor before the Father. Amen.