Fellow Labourers-
This is the end of another work week for most of us and did I hear TGIF. I do find though that in my personal life days hardly matters anymore. Why? This is the day that the Lord has made. Last night I was lamenting with a fellow Elder the decline of prayer in the church. This was a shared position between us and I promised by God's grace I will do something about it. E.M. Bounds in his book Powerful and Prayerful Pulpits said the following: "The power of the preacher lies in the power of prayer, in his ability to pray so as to reach God and bring great results. The power of prayer is rarely tested, its possibilities seldom understood, never exhausted. The pulpit fixed and fired with holy desires that presses these desires on God with tireless faith will be the pulpit of power. Nothing is so feeble, so insipid, so nonproductive as a little tedious praying. To pray over our sermons in the same way as we say grace at our meals does no good. Every part of the sermon should be born of the throes of prayer; its beginning and end should be vocal with the plea and song of prayer. Its delivery should be impassioned and driven by the love from the furnace of prayer. Prayer, on fire with intense desire and urged by a faith that does not fold its wings till God is reached, is the mightiest of forces. Prayer that carries heaven by storm and moves God by a restless advocacy makes the pulpit a throne and its deliverances like the decrees of destiny. The power of preaching must be backed by a Christlike life."
As we close another week may we find the time to truly worship. You see my friends worship is more that an act, it's a life style.
Pax Vobiscum
Robert A. Stewart
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Sis. Beldene wrote:
ReplyDeleteThis is much food for thought Elder and fellow saints. Just to add some quotations from "Streams in the Desert"
Extracts on “PRAYER” from “Streams in the Desert”
Men ought always to pray and not to faint (Luke18:1)
The victories won by prayer, by prayer must still be held.
The foe retreats, but only when by prayer he is compelled.
Pray until the thing you pray for has actually been granted.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5;16)
Prayer without faith is but husk; but with faith, it contains the seed-corn of a million harvest.
When we depend upon organizations, we get what organization can do. When we depend upon education we get what education can do. When we depend upon man we get what man can do; but when we depend upon prayer we get what God can do.
The prayer of the upright is His delight (Proverbs 15:8)
It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; nor the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they may be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they may be; nor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the method of our prayers, how orderly they may be; which God cares for. Fervency of spirit is that which availeth much. Prayer-craft is greater than air-craft.
Jehoshaphat and Asa cried out, “We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee”. Hezekiah in his distress, turned his face to the wall and cried out. Daniel in the lion’s den, the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace were men who never ceased to pray.
Every prayer of the Christian, made in faith, according to the will of God, for which God has promised, offered up in the name of Jesus Christ, and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, whether for temporal or spiritual blessings, is, or will be fully answered.
Remember to P.U.S.H. (PRAY UNTIL SOMETHING HAPPENS)
The greatest undeveloped resources of our country faith, the greatest unused power is prayer.
Elder Stewart wrote:
ReplyDeleteSister Beldene,
These are some excellent thoughts on prayer. They coincides well with Sunday's message. Fear not, Faint Not, Fret Not.
Elder