Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments, JOB 23:3-4.

There are some very valuable lessons to be learned from the history of Job. In the extremity of his case, he found that all human help deceived. His complaint was not that he had just lost his children or his wealth, nor was it because his body was filled with sore boils. Job knew he was being tried in the furnace of affliction, and he said, "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold," JOB 23:10.

It was in the extemity of this trial that Job cried out, "Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!" Job did not murmur or fret about his plight, but he turned away from all human help to seek the face of God; and what did he say? "I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments." If we are to prevail in prayer we must order our cause before God.

To order our cause before God, we must come in faith. Jesus said, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive," MAT 21:22. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord," JAM 1:6-7.

When we order our cause before the Lord, we must be specific and with few words. "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few, ECC 5:2. The Lord Jesus said, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him," MAT 6:7-8.

We must order our cause asking those things that are according to His will. "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us," 1Jo 5:14. When we ask for things that are not according to God's will, He says, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts," JAM 4:3.

We must order our cause with importunity. In His parables in LUK 11:5-13, Jesus said, "I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

We must order our cause in true humility. Abraham said, "Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes," GEN 18:27. David said, "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him," PSA 34:6-8.