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janneju
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Joined: 2004/8/26
Posts: 29


 bible reading and prayer

Quote from George Meuller:-

Snares of Satan as to Prayer:-

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no Spirit of Prayer....whilst the truth is, in order to enjoy the Word we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a Spirit of Prayer is to continue praying, for the less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.

(Another quote:-)

...Speak also for the Lord as if everything depended on your exertions; yet trust not the least in your exertions, but in the Lord, who alone can cause your efforts to be effectual and beneficial to your fellow man.

end of quotes. :-)

 2004/10/17 2:48Profile
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 Re: bible reading and prayer

Quote:
in order to enjoy the Word we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a Spirit of Prayer is to continue praying, for the less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.


Thats some great stuff! and very true. Whenever I go through a dry spot in praying or reading the word of God I have to force myself to do it and thats not bad. I remember hearing in a sermon by Gerhard Du Toit recently that his prayer life has been 60% forced 40% desire, meaning that a majority of the time he prayers not because he feels like it but because he knows he should. I think its in this sermon that he mentions this and other things: [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=5284]Why Should I Pray? by Gerhard Du Toit[/url]


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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2004/10/17 10:17Profile
ravin
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Joined: 2004/5/6
Posts: 309
Washington st. u.S. A.

 Re: bible reading and prayer

The devil is a firm believer in prayer;
In a book by L. Ravenhill It was written these words.
The devil is a firm believer in prayer, not that he practices, it but suffers from it.

 2004/10/17 18:36Profile
Jimm
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Joined: 2004/4/27
Posts: 498
Harare, ZIMBABWE

 PRAYER IS THE SOUL’S SINCERE DESIRE

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer, the sublimest strains
That reach The Majesty on high.

Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air,
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters Heav’n with prayer.

Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
Returning from his ways,
While angels in their songs rejoice
And cry, “Behold, he prays!”

The saints in prayer appear as one
In word, in deed, and mind,
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.

No prayer is made by man alone
The Holy Spirit pleads,
And Jesus, on th’eternal throne,
For sinners intercedes.

O Thou by Whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray.
~James Montgomery


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James Gabriel Gondai Dziya

 2005/1/5 1:51Profile
Jimm
Member



Joined: 2004/4/27
Posts: 498
Harare, ZIMBABWE

 Desperate Prayer

Desperate Prayer (Leonard Ravenhill)

God makes all His best people in loneliness. Do you know what the secret of praying is? Praying in secret. "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door..." (Matt. 6:6). You can't show off when the door's shut and nobody's there. You can't display your gifts. You can impress others, but you can't impress God.

I Samuel 1:1-15 gives an account of the yearly trip Elkanah and his wife, Hannah, made to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord. During this time, Hannah had been distressed that she was not able to bear a son for her husband. This passage of Scripture gives quite a descriptive account of her time in prayer concerning the barrenness of her womb. It says that Hannah wept. More than this, she wept until she was sore. She poured out her soul before the Lord. Her heart was grieving; she was bitter of soul, provoked, and of a sorrowful spirit.

Now that's a pretty good list of afflictions - sorrow, hardship, and everything else that came upon this woman. But the key to the whole situation is that she was a praying woman. In verse 20 it says that she reaped her reward. "And it came about in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, 'Because I have asked him of the Lord.'"

Now I say very often - and people don't like it - that God doesn't answer prayer. He answers desperate prayer! Your prayer life denotes how much you depend on your own ability, and how much you really believe in your heart when you sing, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling...." The more self- confidence you have, the less you pray. The less self-confidence you have, the more you have to pray.

What does the Scripture say? It says that God takes the lowly, the things that are not. Paul says in I Corinthians 1:28 that God takes the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. We need a bunch of "are nots" today.

Leonard Ravenhill (Behold he prayeth)


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James Gabriel Gondai Dziya

 2005/1/5 2:03Profile
_Disciple_
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Joined: 2004/10/29
Posts: 335
The Netherlands

 Re: bible reading and prayer

"pray hard when it is hardest to pray"


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William

 2005/1/5 6:28Profile
hredii
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Joined: 2004/8/1
Posts: 218
Fresno CA

 Re: Bible reading and prayer

John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My [u][b]words[/b][/u] abide in you, you will [u][b]ask[/b][/u] what you desire, and it shall be [u][b]done[/b][/u] for you.


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Adam Fell

 2005/1/5 14:03Profile
jouko
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Joined: 2003/10/9
Posts: 172
Ex-England colony of Australia

 Re: bible reading and prayer

Encouraging Words

Taken from William MacDonald's devotional book, "One Day at a Time":

New Year's resolutions are good but fragile, that is, easily broken. New Year's prayers are better; they ascend to the throne of God and set answering wheels in motion. As we come to the beginning of another year, we would do well to make the following prayer requests our own:

Lord Jesus, I rededicate myself afresh to You today. I want You to take my life this coming year and use it for Your glory.

I pray that You will keep me from sin, from anything that will bring dishonor to Your Name.

Keep me teachable by the Holy Spirit. I want to move forward for You. Don't let me settle in a rut.

May my motto this year be, "He must increase; I must decrease." The glory must all be Yours. Help me not to touch it.

Teach me to make every decision a matter of prayer. I dread the thought of leaning on my own understanding. "O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps" (Jer. 10:23).

May I die to the world and even to the approval or blame of loved ones or friends. Give me a single, pure desire to do the things that please Your heart.

Keep me from gossip and criticism of others. Rather, help me to speak what is edifying and profitable.

Lead me to needy souls. May I become a friend of sinners, as You are. Give me tears of compassion for the perishing.

Lord Jesus, keep me from becoming cold, bitter, or cynical in spite of anything that may happen to me in the Christian life.

Guide me in my stewardship of money. Help me to be a good steward of everything You have entrusted to me.

Help me to remember moment by moment that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. May this tremendous truth influence all my behavior.

And, Lord Jesus, I pray that this may be the year of Your return. I long to see Your face and to fall at Your feet in worship. During the coming year, may the blessed hope stay fresh in my heart, disengaging me from anything that would hold me here and keeping me on the tiptoes of expectancy. ³Even so, come, Lord Jesus!²


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Jouko Hakola

 2005/1/5 21:20Profile
Jimm
Member



Joined: 2004/4/27
Posts: 498
Harare, ZIMBABWE

 Sweet hour prayer

The following, written by Thomas Salmon:

During my residence at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, I became acquainted with W. W. Walford, the blind preacher, a man of obscure birth and connections and no education, but of strong mind and most retentive memory. In the pulpit he never failed to select a lesson well adapted to his subject, giving chapter and verse with unerring precision and scarcely ever misplacing a word in his repetition of the Psalms, every part of the New Testament, the prophecies, and some of the histories, so as to have the reputation of “knowing the whole Bible by heart.” He actually sat in the chimney corner, employing his mind in composing a sermon or two for Sabbath delivery, and his hands in cutting, shaping and polishing bones for shoe horns and other little useful implements. At intervals he attempted poetry. On one occasion, paying him a visit, he repeated two or three pieces which he had composed, and having no friend at home to commit them to paper, he had laid them up in the storehouse within. “How will this do?” asked he, as he repeated the following lines, with a complacent smile touched with some light lines of fear lest he subject himself to criticism. I rapidly copied the lines with my pencil, as he uttered them, and sent them for insertion in the Observer, if you should think them worthy of preservation.

Sweet hour of prayer by W Walford

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
The joys I feel, the bliss I share,
Of those whose anxious spirits burn
With strong desires for thy return!
With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows His face,
And gladly take my station there,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
Thy wings shall my petition bear
To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless.
And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His Word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
May I thy consolation share,
Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
I view my home and take my flight:
This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise
To seize the everlasting prize;
And shout, while passing through the air,
“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”


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James Gabriel Gondai Dziya

 2005/1/6 9:24Profile





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