I appreciate your post here as well as the one from A. W. Tozer, Men Who Met God (thread is Worship, Wonder and Awesome Fear).
In the weekly Encouragements to Prayer that I offer in my fellowship, I was convicted this week of my neglect in this area. The result was the Encouragement to Prayer below.
Murray and Tozer agree on a relationship between the fear of God and prayer. The bolded words are as written by Murray. The source is The "Secret Series", from the Ninteeth Day of [u]The Secret of Adoration[/u]. This set of 12 pocket-sized books was written over the course of five years and is regrettably out of print as a set.
I particularly like the Biblical evidence from Acts. 9:31 of how a church grows in numbers (fear of God is now added to persecution as an alternative to popular worldly methods). I recall the comfort of the Comforter (John 16: 7-11).Quite an anointing.
[b][size=small]Encouragement to Prayer[/size][/b]
[[b]Preface[/b]]: I know it is religiously incorrect, these days, to speak about the fear of God and His Holiness. This could explain much. May this add what has been missing to these encouragements to prayer.
[b]The Fear of God[/b] by Andrew Murray
Blessed is the man who feareth the Lord, who delighteth greatly in His Commandments. - Psalms 121: 1, Psalms 128:1, 4.
THE fear of God these words characterize the religion of the Old Testament, and the foundation which it laid for the more abundant life of the New. The gift of holy fear is ever still the great desire of the child of God, and an essential part of a life that is to make a real impression on the world around. It is one of the great promises of the new covenant in Jeremiah: I will make an everlasting covenant with them; [b]and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.[/b] [Jer. 32:40]
We find the perfect combination of the two in the Acts 9:31. The churches had peace, being edified, and [b]walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit[/b], were multiplied.
And Paul more than once gives fear a high place in the Christian life. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (Phil. 2:12; 2 Cor. 7:1)
It has often been said that the lack of the fear of God is one of the things in which our modern times cannot compare favorably with the times of the Puritans and the Covenanters. No wonder then that there is so much cause of complaint in regard to the reading of God's Word, to the worshiping in His house, and the absence of that spirit of continuous prayer which marked the early Church. It is essential that texts like the one at the head of this reading should be expounded, and young converts fully instructed in the need and the blessedness of a deep fear of God, leading to an unceasing prayerfulness as one of the essential elements of the life of faith.
Let us in the inner chamber earnestly cultivate this grace. Let us hear the word coming out of the very heavens: Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably [b]with reverence and godly fear[/b]. [Rev. 15:4; Heb.12:28]
As we take the word Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord into our hearts, and believe that here is one of the deepest secrets of blessedness, we shall seek, in every approach to God, in His fear to worship toward His holy temple. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. [Psm. 2:11]
([b]07-12-09[/b] Quotes from men and women of prayer.) |