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Spiritual Growth Through Prayer, January 25
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be
opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and
to him who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 7:7, 8
, NKJV.
Ministers [and all] who would labor effectively for the salvation of souls must
be both Bible students and men and women of prayer. It is a sin for those who
attempt to teach the Word to others to be themselves neglectful of its study. All
who feel the worth of souls will flee to the stronghold of truth, where they may be
furnished with wisdom, knowledge, strength, and divine power to work the works
of God. They should not rest without the holy unction from on high. Too much is
at stake for them to dare to be careless in regard to their spiritual advancement....
Ministers of Christ [and others] whom God has made the depositaries of His
law, you have an unpopular truth. You must bear this truth to the world. Warnings
must be given ... to prepare for the great day of God. You must reach those whose
hearts are calloused by sin and love of the world. Continual and fervent prayer, and
earnestness in well-doing, will bring you into communion with God; your mind and
heart will imbibe a sense of eternal things, and the heavenly unction, which springs
from connection with God, will be poured upon you. It will render your testimony
powerful to convict and convert. Your light will not be uncertain, but your path will
be luminous with heavenly brightness. God is all-powerful, and Heaven is full of
light. You have only to use the means God has placed in your power to obtain the
divine blessing.
Be instant in prayer. You are a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. You
occupy a fearfully responsible position. I entreat you to redeem the time. Come
very near to God in supplication, and you will be like a tree planted by the river
of waters, whose leaf is always green, and whose fruit appears in due season....
Only go to God, and take Him at His word, and let your works be sustained by
living faith in His promises. God does not require from you eloquent prayers and
logical reasoning; but only a humble, contrite heart, ready and willing to learn of
Him.—
The Review and Herald, August 8, 1878
.
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