New To me Devotional

I downloaded this from Olive Tree yesterday. Hope it blesses you!
Adapted from A Plain Account of Christian Perfection by John Wesley
Day 24 – Prayer Unceasing
Topic: Prayer, Loving God
1 Thessalonians 5: 16- 19
Our Lord takes it for granted that His people will pray. And indeed in Scripture, generally the outward obligation of prayer is implied rather than asserted. Moved by a divinely- implanted instinct, our natures cry out for God, for the living God. And however this instinct may be crushed by sin, it awakes to power in the consciousness of redemption. Theologians of all schools, and Christians of every type, agree in their recognition of this principle of the new life.
Chrysostom has said, “The just man does not desist from praying until he ceases to be just;” and Augustine, “He that loves little prays little, and he that loves much prays much;” and Richard Hooker, “Prayer is the first thing with which a righteous life begins, and the last with which it ends;” and Père la Combe, “He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray, and he who will be constant in prayer shall know what it is to have a pure heart;” and Bunyan, “If you are not a praying person, you are not a Christian;” and Richard Baxter, “Prayer is the breath of the new creature;” and George Herbert, “Prayer…the soul’s blood.”
Adapted from The Hidden Life of Prayer by David MacIntyre
 

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Need a lift?

Oops! This post never made it on my blog! Well, one weekend in October at Southeast Church in Louisville I got to hear Simon Mbevi give a talk similar to this one! Take the time and learn a fresh approach to prayer! Well worth the listen! Sure hope you enjoy this!

Simon Mbevi | Prayer Workshop | Part 1 from Southeast Christian Church on Vimeo.

 

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National Election and the Day After

I find the exhaustion from working the election to be like none other. Not only is it a long day, 5:15 AM up and getting ready to 8:15 PM finally home again, but I spend the day mostly with strangers seated at a table where we greet other strangers all day long, trying to follow rules set by the State and misunderstood by the people ... besides waiting to see who the next elected officials will be. For an introvert this is hard work indeed! And this year I was the most experienced person at the table and that too was stressful!


I usually plan nothing the day after an election and this year is no exception! This morning I found Amy Carmichael's devotional so on target that I just had to share her thoughts with you!


Psalm 68:9 KJV Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.

Amy Carmichael: "O God, Thou wilt grant to Thine inheritance a gracious rain; for it was weary, but Thou didst refresh it. "

"After prayer of the kind that is a real traffic with Heaven, we may be tired, there may be a dryness like the dryness of the burnt- up earth before rain. Here are words which we may turn into a prayer: O God, send a plentiful rain; confirm Thine inheritance, for it is weary; refresh it. Do we ever bring His own words to Him and find that He turns away? Never.

"Sometimes the dryness is different. It is not the natural dryness after effort which has achieved, it is the tiredness of failure. "I could not get there" who does not know the baffled feeling that is the worst sort of weariness after distracted prayer? Even so, there is the plentiful rain, the gracious rain; rain not for the deserving, but just for the needy. Thank God for His Book of books. Is there a need it cannot meet, a dryness it cannot refresh? Not one. Come unto Me, and I will refresh you. MT 11:28 "In a place of green grass, there He has made me dwell." PS 23:2


Even so, Lord, refresh Your people and our land.

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