Essentials of prayerBounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Religion
Essentials of prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Prayer -- Christianity
The Scriptures ever set before us the one standard of full consecration
to God. This is the Divine rule. This is the human side of this
standard. The sacrifice acceptable to God must be a complete one,
entire, a whole burnt offering. This is the measure laid down in
God’s Word. Nothing less than this can be pleasing to God. Nothing
half-hearted can please Him. “A living sacrifice,” holy, and perfect
in all its parts, is the measurement of our service to God. A full
renunciation of self, a free recognition of God’s right to us, and
a sincere offering of all to Him――this is the Divine requirement.
Nothing indefinite in that. Nothing is in that which is governed by the
opinions of others or affected by how men live about us.
And while a life of prayer is embraced in such a full consecration,
at the same time prayer leads up to the point where a complete
consecration is made to God. Consecration is but the silent expression
of prayer. And the highest religious standard is the measure of prayer
and self-dedication to God. The prayer-life and the consecrated life
are partners in religion. They are so closely allied they are never
separated. The prayer life is the direct fruit of entire consecration
to God. Prayer is the natural outflow of a really consecrated life. The
measure of consecration is the measure of real prayer. No consecration
is pleasing to God which is not perfect in all its parts, just as no
burnt offering of a Jew was ever acceptable to God unless it was a
“whole burnt offering.” And a consecration of this sort, after this
Divine measurement, has in it as a basic principle, the business of
praying. Consecration is made to God. Prayer has to do with God.
Consecration is putting one’s self entirely at the disposal of God. And
God wants and commands all His consecrated ones to be praying ones.
This is the one definite standard at which we must aim. Lower than this
we cannot afford to seek.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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