from: My utmost for His highest

ALWAYS NOW

"We... beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain."  2 Corinthians 6:1 The grace you had yesterday will not do for to-day. Grace is the  overflowing favour of God; you can always reckon it is there to  draw upon. "In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities,  in distresses" - that is where the test for patience comes. Are you  failing the grace of God there? Are you saying-Oh, well, I won't  count this time? It is not a question of praying and asking God  to help you; it is taking the grace of God now. We make prayer  the preparation for work, it is never that in the Bible.  Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God.  Don't say: I will endure this until I can get away and pray.  Pray now; draw on the grace of God in the moment of need.  Prayer is the most practical thing, it is not the reflex action of  devotion. Prayer is the last thing in which we learn to draw on  God's grace. "In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours" - in all  these things manifest a drawing upon the grace of God that  will make you a marvel to yourself and to others. Draw now,  not presently. The one word in the spiritual vocabulary is Now.  Let circumstances bring you where they will, keep drawing on the grace of God in every conceivable condition you may be in.  One of the greatest proofs that you are drawing on the grace of  God is that you can be humiliated without manifesting the  slightest trace of anything but His grace. "Having nothing . . ." Never reserve anything. Pour out the best  you have, and always be poor. Never be diplomatic and careful  about the treasure God gives. This is poverty triumphant.