Be much alone with God, and take time to get thoroughly acquainted. Converse over everything with Him. Unburden yourself wholly -every thought, feeling, wish, plan, doubt- to Him...He wants not merely to be on good terms with you, but to be intimate.
Interpretation
The quote encourages deep personal reflection and intimate communication with God.
Horatius Bonar emphasizes the importance of spending time alone with God to foster a profound relationship. He suggests that it's not enough to maintain a superficial connection; we should openly share our innermost thoughts and feelings with God, as He desires a close, intimate relationship with us.
In practice
When giving a speech on faith, you might share this quote to emphasize the importance of personal prayer.
The gospel is the proclamation of free love; the revelation of the boundless charity of God. Nothing less than this will suit our world; nothing else is so likely to touch the heart, to go down to the lowest depths of depraved humanity, as the assurance that the sinner has been loved -- loved by God, loved with a righteous love, loved with a free love that makes no bargain as to merit, or fitness, or goodness.
Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another's life, another's death, I stake my whole eternity.
Thy way, not mine, O Lord, however dark it be; lead me by thine own hand; choose out the path for me.
May you be children of God, pure and unblameable, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (cf. Phil. 1:15): and may you never be entangled in the snares of the wicked that go round about, or bound with the chains of your sins. May the Word in you never be smothered with the cares of this life and so make you unfruitful: but may you walk in the King's Highway, turning aside neither to the right hand nor to the left, but led by the Spirit through the narrow gate.
Dear God, I surrender this thought to you, for I would see the miracle that lies behind it. Amen.
I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming.
In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds.
"My aim is to institute perpetual adoration," spoke St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, Franciscan priest and founder of the Knights of the Immaculata. For he said that this is "the most important activity," and "if half of the Brothers would work, and the other half pray, this would not require too much."
In prayer, we stand where angels bow with veiled faces. There, even there, the cherubim and seraphim adore before that selfsame throne to which our prayers ascend. And shall we come there with stunted requests and narrow, contracted faith?
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