Satan, knowing how disastrous to his kingdom is the Christian’s prayer of faith, will do all he can to hinder. He will heap upon you duties of life; tell you that you have no time for prayer. When you do pray he will try to make your prayers hurried and insincere. He will try to divert your attention when at the altar of prayer. He will be constantly presenting thoughts of secular duties. He will strive to make your devotions formal and irksome. He will cast over you a feeling of awful indifference and then advise you not to pray until you feel more like it. He will make the heavens appear as brass above you, and tell you God does not hear you. Christian, you know by the Word of God what is your duty. It is to pray. Then pray you must. It is the language of the Bible. Disregarding your feelings, pray. Disregarding the suggestions of Satan, pray. As you value your soul, pray, and “pray without ceasing.” Fastings. That the apostle Paul considered fasting an excellent means for spiritual development is evident from his writings. He says that the ministers of God should approve themselves by “much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings.” 2 Cor. 6:4, 5. In speaking of himself, he says he was “in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often.” 2 Cor. 11:27. In Acts 27:33, we learn that on the occasion of the shipwreck fourteen days were spent in fasting. This is not the doing of penance that the priests of mystic Babylon bind upon their subjects, but the cheerful service of a humble, devoted heart. God has not left this at the direction of man, but it is alone at the dictation of the Holy Spirit. There is a secret power in fasting. It separates us farther from self and deepens us in humility, spirituality and reliance upon God. On occasions where great faith was required, fastings were recommended by the Savior. In speaking to his disciples concerning the devils which possessed a child, he said, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Mat. 17:21. When Paul and Barnabas were separated by the Holy Spirit unto the work of the Lord, after fasting and prayer hands were laid upon them and they were sent away. When fasting, the mind is clearer and the faith more active. It is a self-denial, which has a tendency to develop the graces of the Spirit. It is said of a certain prophetess that dwelt in Jerusalem in the days of our Savior’s nativity, that she departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Luke 2:36, 37.