the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry; but the face of the Lord, is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” Our prayers must be in Jesus’ name. We cannot use a name unfamiliar to us. We have no right to go to God in the name of the Lord Jesus when we have never accepted the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. We are still enemies of the cross if we have never become reconciled to God. The Lord Jesus A MISSIONARY'S PRAYER Will you not pray for us? Each day we need Your prayers, for oft the way is rough and long. And our lips falter and forget their song, And we proclaim the Word men will not heed. Will you not pray for us? Alone we stand To stem the awful tide of sin and shame, To cast out demons in the Mighty Name Which is alone the hope of every land. Pray, pray for us! We are but vessels frail; The world's appalling need would crush us down Save that in vision we behold the crown Upon His brow who shall at length prevail. Not yet the crowning! Fields must yet be" won, Lives freely yielded, blood be spilt, Love cast out fear, redemption blot out guilt, Ere we behold the kingdom of God's .Son. Himself said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Then later, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name, ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” The first essential is that we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and the entire scope of the Gospel message. 14
Essentials of Prayer (Continued) the terms are used synonymously. In Romans 10:9 we read, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto. right eousness; and with the mouth con fession is made unto salvation.” I t is not a head assent but a heart under standing and possession of the truth. The Gospel is summarized in the 15th chapter of the book of 1st Corinthians in which the Holy Spirit, using the authorship of the apostle Paul, de clares : “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins accord ing to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scrip tures” (w . 3 and 4). This is the message we are to believe. We must believe more than just that there is a great Creator, a great someone somewhere who holds the keys to an unlimited supply depot. Our belief then is in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, as clear ly delineated in the Word of God. Have you heard of the man who, while working on a roof one day, felt himself falling? So he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, save me!” On the way down, while he slipped off the roof, the seat of his pants caught on a protruding nail. He was spared. So his next words were, “Never mind Lord, I’m okay after all.” This is not real belief in God; it is a form of “fox hole” religion. The Lord Jesus said, “Verily, veri ly, I say unto you. He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). There is only one prayer the Lord hears an unsaved individual of fer. That is, “God be merciful to me a sinner, and save me for Christ’s sake.” In Psalm 34:15 and 16 (re peated again in I Peter 3:12), we read, “The eyes of the Lord are upon
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