Are You Wholly Given to God–Monday–A week on prayer with Andrew Murray
On Prayerless Praying
On Prayerless Praying
Our religion breaks down most often and most sadly in our conduct. Beautiful theories are marred by ugly lives. The most difficult, as well as most impressive, point in piety is to live it. Our praying suffers from bad living as much as our religion does. Preachers were charged in earlier times to preach by their lives or to not preach at all. So Christian everywhere ought to be charged to pray by their lives or to not pray at all.
Of course, the prayer of repentance is acceptable; but repentance means to quit doing wrong and learn too do well. A repentance that does not produce a change in conduct is a sham. Praying that does not result in pure conduct is a delusion; it is prayerless.
We have missed he whole office and virtue of praying if it does not rectify our conduct.
E. M. Bounds
Have You Lost Power?
If we get away from brooding on the tragedy of God upon he Cross in our preaching, it produces nothing. It does not convey the energy of God to man; it may be interesting but it has no power. But preach the Cross-, and the energy of God is let loose. It pleased God to by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. “We preach Christ crucified.”
You see, we lose power if we can’t concentrate on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these, we are to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We have to concentrate on the great point of spiritual energy—the Cross, to keep in contact with that center where all power lies, and the energy will be let loose.
Oswald Chambers
When Was the Last Time You Prayed for Someone to Come to Christ
Perhaps if there we knew more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears in prayer, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things that can be reached through prayer may be the true cause of our want of success.
J. Hudson Taylor
The Place of Immunity
The Place of Immunity
Considering the size of God’s promises, it is actually a misfortune that most of us have no more time than a few minutes of devotions each day and a church service or two a week. The secret place in prayer and communion with our God is not a place to come and visit now and then, but a dwelling. For those who dwell with God, His presence is not merely our refuge, it is a permanent address.
This place of communion of heart between Christ and His bride is the place of immunity. It is God’s shelter from the distress and distractions of life. Here, He tells us what to pray; and here our prayers are answered.
Francis Frangipane