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Andrew Murray
Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917). South African pastor, author, and revivalist born in Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony, to Dutch Reformed missionary parents. Sent to Scotland at 10, he studied at Aberdeen University and Utrecht, Netherlands, returning ordained in 1848. He pastored in Bloemfontein and Worcester, later moderating the Dutch Reformed Church’s Cape Synod. In 1860, he sparked a revival in the Orange Free State, preaching to thousands across racial lines despite apartheid’s rise. Murray wrote over 240 books, including Abide in Christ (1882) and With Christ in the School of Prayer, translated into dozens of languages. His emphasis on holiness, prayer, and divine healing influenced global Pentecostalism. Married to Emma Rutherford in 1856, they had eight children, four becoming missionaries. He founded theological seminaries and the Huguenot College for women. Despite chronic illness, he traveled to Europe and America, speaking at Keswick Conventions. His devotional works remain widely read, shaping Christian spirituality across denominations.
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Sermon Summary
Andrew Murray emphasizes the importance of waiting on the Lord with courage and faith, as expressed in Psalm 27:14. He highlights that true strength comes from trusting in God's goodness, even when we feel powerless against our challenges. Murray encourages believers to maintain hope and to seek God's presence, reminding them that God's love and power are always at work, even when they may not feel it. He illustrates this by comparing waiting on God to basking in the healing warmth of the sun, which brings restoration to the weary soul. Ultimately, he reassures that God's delight is in blessing His children, urging them to come to Him in their weakness.
Scriptures
Be Strong and of Good Courage
‘‘Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!’’ —Psalm 27:14 (NKJV) The Pslamist said in the previous verse, ‘‘I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.’’ If it had not been for his faith in God, his heart would have given up. But in the confident assurance in God that faith gives, he urges himself and us to remember one thing above all—to wait on God. The deliverance we often wait for is from our enemies, in whose presence we are powerless. The blessings we plead for are spiritual and unseen, things impossible with men. Our heart may well faint and fail. Our souls are unaccustomed to holding intimate fellowship with God. The God we wait on often appears to hide. We are in such a habit of evaluating God and His work in us by what we feel that it is very likely that on some occasions we will be discouraged because we do not feel any special blessing. Above everything, when you wait on God, do so in the spirit of hope. It is God in His glory, His power, and His love who is longing to bless you. The blessedness of waiting on God has its root in the fact that He is such a blessed being, full of goodness and power and life and joy. God is love! That is the one and only all-sufficient reason for your expectation. Love seeks out its own: God’s delight is to impart himself to His children. Come. However weak you feel, wait in His presence. Just as a weak and sickly invalid is brought out into the sunshine to allow its healing warmth to go through his body, come with all that is dark and cold in you into the sunshine of God’s holy, omnipotent love, and sit and wait there. As the sun does its work in the weak who seek its rays, God will do His work in you. Trust Him! (Excerpted from The Andrew Murray Daily Reader in Today’s Language, pg. 26)
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Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917). South African pastor, author, and revivalist born in Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony, to Dutch Reformed missionary parents. Sent to Scotland at 10, he studied at Aberdeen University and Utrecht, Netherlands, returning ordained in 1848. He pastored in Bloemfontein and Worcester, later moderating the Dutch Reformed Church’s Cape Synod. In 1860, he sparked a revival in the Orange Free State, preaching to thousands across racial lines despite apartheid’s rise. Murray wrote over 240 books, including Abide in Christ (1882) and With Christ in the School of Prayer, translated into dozens of languages. His emphasis on holiness, prayer, and divine healing influenced global Pentecostalism. Married to Emma Rutherford in 1856, they had eight children, four becoming missionaries. He founded theological seminaries and the Huguenot College for women. Despite chronic illness, he traveled to Europe and America, speaking at Keswick Conventions. His devotional works remain widely read, shaping Christian spirituality across denominations.