Empty hands
We all go through periods of dryness in our prayers, don't we?
I doubt ... whether they are necessarily a bad symptom. I sometimes suspect that what we feel to be our best prayers are really our worst; that what we are enjoying is the satisfaction of apparent success, as in executing a dance or reciting a poem.
Do our prayers sometimes go wrong because we insist on trying to talk to God when He wants to talk with us.
Joy tells me that once, years ago, she was haunted one morning by a feeling that God wanted something of her, a persistent pressure like a nag of a neglected duty. And till mid-morning she kept on wondering what is was. But the moment she stopped worrying, the answer came through as plain as a spoken voice.
It was “I don't want you to do anything. I want to give you something; and immediately her heart was peace and delight.
St. Augustine says ”God gives where He finds empty hands“. A man whose hands are full of parcels can't receive a gift.
”Letters to an American Lady“ (C. S. Lewis), 73.
