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Prayer And Patience Must Go Hand In Hand
Our Saviour represents God’s own elect as crying day and night to him, Luke 18:7. Sore temptations, soul-burdens, Satan’s buffetings, are peculiarly felt by them. Their crying under them is a proof of spiritual life, their crying to the Lord only is an evidence of the faith of God’s elect, their entreaties to be delivered from them show the sanctified holy disposition of their souls. Thus the Lord draws out into exercise the graces of his children. His eyes are ever upon them, his ears open to their prayers, and his almighty power and grace sufficient to deliver them. But ‘he that believeth, must not make haste.’ We must tarry the Lord’s leisure, and be strong in hope: his time is best. It is God’s…
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Jabez’ Prayer
FOR A COMPLETE ORDER OF WORSHIP, INCLUDING BIBLE READING, HYMNS AND SERMON...
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When Ye Pray
Faith in the heart excites prayer from the lips. Thus the faith of God’s elect manifests itself, that it cometh from the Lord the Spirit. By it the soul is led to Jesus the mediator, and by him to God the Father. So each person in the Godhead is known, worshipped, and glorified by believing souls. While we see and feel nothing of our misery and wants, no marvel that prayer is an irksome task. From a sight of ourselves, and the knowledge of Jesus, we come to him daily with simplicity of heart. Master, teach us to pray, it is the highest honour, the sweetest privilege, the most blessed exercise of the soul to draw nigh to God. What greater on earth than to…
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Wrong Petitions
Strange! What, James and John, two disciples of a despised and rejected Master, who had not where to lay his head, yet dreaming of earthly pomp and worldly grandeur, and petitioning for the highest pitch of worldly glory? Yes, nothing less than the right hand of pre-eminence, and the left hand of power, would suit them. Human nature, how earthly, carnal, and selfish! How low are we fallen, yet how lofty in pride! What are the best of men, when left to their own spirits? Truly, we know not what to pray for as we ought. Jesus, Master, instruct us what to do. Teach us what to pray for. Let thy word, ‘my kingdom is not of this world,’ be ever uppermost in our minds.
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Clean Hands Essential To Communion With God
Three of the great blessings to be tasted in measure here, and enjoyed immeasurably hereafter, by the saints of God, are salvation, sanctification, and communion. Salvation frees from the damning consequences of sin; sanctification from its domination and pollution; and communion is, getting beyond its hindering power. The first of these blessings is so complete that there is no adding to or diminishing from it. "It is finished," and always the same to every child of God. In the knowledge of salvation there may be, and is, great variety amongst the people of God; but with regard to the thing itself, there is no difference. The feeblest soul that, with the most trembling and dim faith, has fled to the cross, and there rested for…
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Book 3: Chapter 20, Of Prayer—A Perpetual Exercise Of Faith; The Daily Benefits Derived From It
From the previous part of the work we clearly see how completely destitute man is of all good, how devoid of every means of procuring his own salvation. Hence, if he would obtain succour in his necessity, he must go beyond himself, and procure it in some other quarter. It has farther been shown that the Lord kindly and spontaneously manifests himself in Christ, in whom he offers all happiness for our misery, all abundance for our want, opening up the treasures of heaven to us, so that we may turn with full faith to his beloved Son, depend upon him with full expectation, rest in him, and cleave to him with full hope. This, indeed, is that secret and hidden philosophy which cannot be…
