this every day. What tragedies there are in the life of countless thousands. In kindness we wrote back, “It’s hard er yet to hope without prayer. Prayer moves the mighty hand of God. When it seems hardest to pray we need to pray the hardest.” The third essential for prayer is that we must come in confidence. The fourth essential we want to put be fore you is that we must ask accord ing to God’s will, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. So often our prayers are like those the Apostle James describes in the fourth chapter and the third verse. “You ask and you fail to receive because you ask amiss, because you ask with the wrong pur pose and a selfish motive.” “This is the confidence we have that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.” Someone may say, “What about the little things in my life? Should they be taken to God in prayer?” But what things in our life are not little to God ? While I was living in Chicago, the Christian Busi nessmen’s Committee took an interest ing survey. They sent out a question naire to all of the pastors and the Christian workers in the area, full time ministers of the Gospel. The question they asked was, “How much * * * Darkness only makes the lamp of grace shine more brightly. * * * Keep your heart full of the oil of the spirit, and you'll soon have a face to "match" it. * * * N ew Time For SAN FRANCISCO 8:30-9:00 A M . KFAX , 1100 kc. ALSO: Evenings Covering the West KGO, 810 kc. 9 P.M.
time do you personally spend in prayer and Bible study every week?” The average turned out to be six. Not six hours, but six minutes. But not six minutes a day, six minutes a week. No wonder the church is so powerless when it is so prayerless. Coming from Scotch ancestry I am interested in the story of how these folk used to utter ejaculatory prayers many years ago. A man might be working in his fields when all of a sudden he would look up to heaven and say, “Lord save me!” Or a wo man, busy in the home, would lift her head and rapidly utter, “Lord help me!” The people erroneously thought that the devil would stop their prayers as they ascended up into the presence of God. So they had to get them in quickly. Perhaps we have reverted to the policy of the Scotch. That’s about the extent of most people’s prayers. We take so little time to meet with the Lord, and to have communion and fellowship with Him. A large pipe organ was to be in stalled in a New York church. The service was scheduled for a certain Sunday afternoon for the dedication. As the organist depressed his fingers to the keyboard not one sound came from the console. The custodian im mediately realized what had happened. The electricity had not been turned on. So he hastily wrote out a note and handed it to one of the ushers. He in turn took it to the preacher. When the preacher read the note he understood the problem and began with prayer, for the note said, “After the prayer the power will be on.” Isn’t that what we need in our lives? Prayer will give us £ ritual power. If your life seems fruitless and filled with foreboding, frustrations and failures, turn to God in prayer. “Be lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” That is the first essential. Then come with a clean heart. Approach the throne expecting God to work. And finally come asking according to God’s will. Thereby your life will be both blessed and become a blessing to others. 17
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