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By Prayer, Prepare for Convocations, January 21
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you
sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.... Humble yourselves in
the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
James 4:8-10
, NKJV.
Here is a work for families to engage in before coming up to our holy convo-
cations. Let the preparation for eating and dressing be a secondary matter, but let
deep heart-searching commence at home. Pray three times a day, and, like Jacob,
be importunate. At home is the place to find Jesus; then take Him with you to
the meeting, and how precious will be the hours you spend there. But how can
you expect to feel the presence of the Lord and see His power displayed when the
individual work of preparation for that time is neglected?
For your soul’s sake, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of others, work at home.
Pray as you are not accustomed to pray. Let the heart break before God. Set your
house in order. Prepare your children for the occasion. Teach them that it is not of
so much consequence that they appear with fine clothes as that they appear before
God with clean hands and pure hearts. Remove every obstacle that may have been
in their way—all differences that may have existed among themselves or between
you and them. By so doing you will invite the Lord’s presence into your homes,
and holy angels will attend you as you go up to the meeting, and their light and
presence will press back the darkness of evil angels....
Oh, how much is lost by neglecting this important work! You may be pleased
with the preaching, you may become animated and revived, but the converting,
reforming power of God will not be felt in the heart, and the work will not be so
deep, thorough, and lasting as it should be. Let pride be crucified and the soul be
clad with the priceless robe of Christ’s righteousness, and what a meeting will you
enjoy. It will be to your soul even as the gate of heaven.
The same work of humiliation and heart-searching should also go on in the
church, so that all differences and alienations among the members may be laid aside
before appearing before the Lord.... Set about this work in earnest ...; for if you
come up to the meeting with your doubts, your murmurings, your disputings, you
bring evil angels into the camp and carry darkness wherever you go.—
Testimonies
for the Church 5:164, 165
.
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