A Blessed New Year to all of my friends at QUO VADIS.I wonder how you are doing? We are entering a new year of 2021 and boy it is a very different year start with so much worry and confusion in it already.
Oh how much we need the Lord’s presence in our lives!
If love is the fulfillment of the law, why aren’t we seeing much of it among “God’s commandment-keeping people”, these days? Do people actually want to be together?
Many people are so divided and apart from each other. The Covid problem is taking its toll on all of us. I admit things are frightening, but perfect love casts out fear, remember?
Many prayers are offered without faith. A set form of words is used, but there is no real importunity. These prayers are doubtful, hesitating; they bring no relief to those who offer them, and no comfort or hope to others. The form of prayer is used, but the spirit is wanting, showing that the petitioner does not feel his need, and is not hungering and thirsting after righteousness ... { GW92 425.2 }Learn to pray short, and right to the point, asking for just what you need. Learn to pray aloud where only God can hear you. Do not offer make-believe prayers, but earnest, feeling petitions, expressing the hunger of the soul for the Bread of Life. If we prayed more in secret, we should be able to pray more intelligently in public. These doubtful, hesitating prayers would cease. And when engaged with our brethren in public worship, we could add to the interest of the meeting; for we should bring with us some of the atmosphere of heaven, and our worship would be a reality, and not a mere form. Those about us can soon tell whether we are in the habit of praying or not. If the soul is not drawn out in prayer in the closet, and while engaged in the business of the day, the lack will be manifest in the prayer-meeting. The public prayers will be dry and formal, consisting of repetitions and customary phrases, and they will bring darkness rather than light into the meeting. { GW92 425.3 }
The life of the soul depends upon habitual communion with God. Its wants are made known, and the heart is open to receive fresh blessings. Gratitude flows from unfeigned lips; and the refreshing that is received from Jesus is manifested in words, in deeds of active benevolence, and in public devotion. There is love to Jesus in the heart; and where love exists, it will not be repressed, but will express itself. Secret prayer sustains the inner life. The heart that loves God will desire to commune with him, and will lean on him in holy confidence. { GW92 426.1 }
Let us learn to pray intelligently, expressing our requests with clearness and precision. Let us put away the listless, sluggish habit into which we have fallen, and pray as though we meant it. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” [James 5:16.] Faith takes a firm hold of the promises of God, and urges her petitions with fervor; but when the life of the soul stagnates, the outward devotions become formal and powerless. { GW92 426.2 }
We know that our revival will come only in answer to prayer, and it appears that those prayers need to be ones that aren’t just formal and powerless, but those where our soul is drawn out in fervency because of a real sense of our need.
Pray with a partner, or friend, church members, pray with wavered ones, sick ones, needy ones, and strangers, but PRAY. We need the Lord, our spiritual condition is lacking the power of God.
- The Gift - December 23, 2021
- The Perspective of God’s Will - September 29, 2021
- The Narrow Path - May 9, 2021
