Hardly had God made a certain promise to David concerning his house and posterity than David began to pray earnestly to God to grant him that promise (2 Sam. 7). Now, that he would do that may seem strange to men, but it was just what pleased God. There is no more effectual way of praying than to plead God's promises. It is not the persuading God to give us what he was not before willing to give, or at least has said nothing about, that constitutes prayer, so much as the claiming and laying hold by faith of what he holds out to us in his promises. We have indeed a right to ask for anything which it is right to desire. But perhaps all those things are in one way or another already included in God's abundant promises. To plead God's promises--that is praying in faith, that is "praying in the Holy Spirit." And how wonderfully potent, and how much larger and higher that will make our prayers! Let a man open, say, at Ephesians, and mark the promises contained in 1:3, 4, and those implied in the two inspired prayers of Paul (1:17-19; 3:14-19), and, on the strength of the statements found in 3:12, 20, weave them all into a prayer to God-- [150] if you have never done it before, it will be the grandest prayer you ever offered, a prayer worth while, one that will count with God and bring its sure answer.

[TAG 150-151]