The Sign of Prayerlessness One of the signs of the Lord’s re turn is the fact that while we talk and sing about prayer, we actually do so little speaking to the Lord in daily communion. A recent maga zine covered a large convention of evangelical pastors and laymen and pinpointed the seemingly total lack of a desire to pray. The article stat ed, “Constant pleas were made from the platform that the delegates take time out to visit a special prayer room for intercession and medita tion.” Yet most of the time the room was completely empty except for- the attendant. This is a tragical ly familiar scene. Later 75% o f the delegates did not stay for a ten minute prayer session which had been called to remember the needs of pastors and missionaries. It is not unusual to note that a church w ith a Sunday morning attendance of 700 w ill have about 125 out for the midweek prayer service, a 25% average. D. L. Moody, declared, “Every great movement of God be gins w ith a kneeling figure.” The Lord Jesus said, “Ye have not be cause ye ask not.” May the Spirit of God give us a burden to pray and a spirit of discernment that we might pray as we ought realizing that herein lies our strength, our fruitfulness and our daily blessings as we become conformed to the image of God’s Son, our blessed Sav iour. * * * "The only way to leave your foot prints in the sands of time, is to wear your work shoes." * * * Life's Little Loads A ll too frequently we're prone to major on the minor things. Yet, it seems that the flood and press of the small cares of life mount up card
present s u c h a n overwhelming aspect of daily existence to us. Mis sionaries from Nigeria report that in their literature ministry one of the greatest hazards eomes in the form of tiny white ants. Recently the first draft of a manuscript, which was to be printed into a tract, was held up because ants had eaten holes in it. The damage was con siderable; the culprits, small, tiny, insignificant ants. Similarly, some times we are tempted to think of our own sins as being small and insignificant when in actuality we're being bound by them more tightly clay by day. “The little foxes,” in the Song of Solomon, “spoil the vines,” so the little sins ruin the testimony for Christ in our lives. Living In The Past God’s mercy and faithfulness is new every day. We need not rest on past experiences, but find new blessings every day. A certain man, whenever he wanted to testify, would always go back to an event 25 years previous. He called it his “Blessed Experience.” He even wrote it out so he could recite it better. One night a friend visited him. He called to his wife, “Hear, would you run upstairs and from that bottom drawer bring down my “Blessed Ex perience.” Well, she went upstairs to get it but when she returned she declared, “Something terrible’s hap pened, the mice have been in the drawer and they’ve eaten up your ‘Blessed Experience.’ ” We needrtt forget the Lord’s goodness to us, but le ts remember that God still works today; we needn’t run on past experiences, fo r, “It is of the Lord’s mercies, that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
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