Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

much."again"effectual?"sinner."this'gift"Lesson Helps for the Week of August 14, 1955C. Y. P. U.August 14, 1955"'GROWING IN OUR PRAYER LD7E."James 5:1-20.Comments by Rev. Thomas J. Wilson,White Lake.Psalms:Psalm j. o^un67,\j i, 161, verses 1-3.page JL\JJ-, VPsalm 143, page 347, verses 4-7Psalm 51, page 131, verses 7-8; 13-16.Psalm 4, page 6, verses 1-4; 8.Scripture passages:Psalms 65:2; 102: 17; 109: 4; Matt.21:22; Luke 1:13; 6:12; Acts 12: Eph. 6:18; Phil. 4:6; I Peter 4:7; 2 Thess. 5:16-18.Comments:"Prayer is an offering upof our desires unto God, for things agreeable tohis will, in the name of Christ,with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.Scripture reading for"In ourevening, thepassage which especially takes my attention is the latter part of verse 16.James writes:"The effectual ferventprayer of a righteous man availethOur subject for this evening applies only to Christians, namely, thosepeople who know Jesus Christ as theirpersonal Savior. In it we are assumingthat all of us who are truly "borndo take time out to pray to Godonce in a while. Also, we are assumingthat every one of us who prays hasexperienced the power of prayer in ourlives, and therefore would like to havemore power with God.Prayer is a privilege as well as aduty of every Christian. A person whois not a Christian may pray but what hecan pray with any real meaning is verylimited. The only prayer of a sinnerwhich God will hear is found in essencein the prayer which the publican prayed in the temple, "God be mercifulto me a Nevertheless, for theChild of God there is no limit. God welcomes his fellowship through Christ anyhour of the day or night,and He wantsus to ask for the things which we need.The question before us then is, "Howcan we develop our spiritual senses inorder that our prayers might be moreThe answer to this questioncan be stated quite simply,"Practicemakes pefect"; but there is much moreinvolved in it than that. The maintrouble with most of our "prayer lives"is just the fact that there isn't muchlife. When we get up in the morning weare busy; as the daybusier; in the evening58progresses we getwe havepracti-cally no time to ourselves; and finally atnight we drop into bed exhausted. Isuppose that this is the busiest generation that ever lived on the face of theearth. The other day a man flew fromLos Angeles to New York City and atelunch, and he arrived back home inLos Angeles in time for dinner at sixo'clock in the evening. He made thetrip from coast to coast and back in lessthan twelve hours. A few years ago itwould have taken months to make sucha trip, but today it is just a matter of hours. Under these circumstances you would think that wewould have more leisure time onour hands but it has worked outin just the opposite direction. We havebecome such claves to time that wecan't sit down and relax even when wehappen to run out of something to do.But in my few years of observing humannature there is one thing that I havenoticed again and again. The fact isthat we are all so busy that we hardlyknow which way we are going, butwith all of this invariably we find timeto do that which we want to do. WhenJack Johnson started going with MarySmith, he was the busiest boy in theschool. He participated in football, basketball, and track; he took in most ofthe clubs in school; on top of all thathe was an "A" student. Jack's time wasall taken up but the fact of the matterwas that he found time in his busyschedule to be with Mary. He foundtime because he wanted to.We will grow in our "prayer life"when the time comes that we actuallywant to grow. It seems to me that itis not a matter of method. Some people set aside a certain time of the dayfor prayer and meditation. I think thatthat is a good idea if there is a chancethat you might forget to pray. Somepeople write up for themselves "prayerlists" and in their prayers they go overthese various subjects which they havewritten down. As I said before, if thesethings help you to get more out of prayer, then by all means use them. Butgrowth itself comes as we meet Godday after day, and as we learn to knowHim and to love Him as a personalfriend.Love for God is surely the propellingmotive behind "the effectual ferventprayer of a righteousman."It is love inour hearts that draws us to God andmakes us want to have fellowship withHim. The greater our love for God beforcomes, the more desirous will we be tohave fellowship with Him. There is away by which we can cultivate our loveGod so that it will grow. James says:"Confess your faults one to another, andpray one for another Jesus said:"Therefore if thou bring thy gift to thealtar, and there rememberest that thybrother hath ought against thee; leavethere thy gift before the altar, and gothy way; first be reconciled to thybrother, and then come and offer thy(Matt. 5:23-24). In other words,if we would make our peace in heavenwe must first make our peace here onthe earth. Our love for God grows aboutas rapidly as does our love for ourfellow men. It is our duty as Christiansto endeavor to develop a love for all people with whom we come into contact.If we cannot love them for what theyare, then we should love them for whatthey might be in Christ. We shouldpray for them that God will give us theability to love them with a ChristianLove. If we will do this, then our "prayer life" is bound to grow for the obstacles which tend to keep us from Godwill be automatically removed; and thefellowship which we have with God canbut give us a greater desire to spendmore time with Him.Questions for discussion:Discuss the "prayer lives" of some ofthe great men in the Bible. What didthey do to get their wonderful powerswith God? (Abraham, Jacob, Daniel,Peter, Paul.)JUNIOR TOPICAugust 14, 1955BALAAM AND THE TALKINGDONKEYNumbers 22:1-30Lola Weir, New York, N. Y.MEMORY VERSE: I John 2:15 "Lovenot the world, neither the things thatare in the world. If any man love theworld, the love of the Father is not inhim."Memory Psalm: Psalm 34:1-6, page 79.Sin separates from God until confessed:Psalm 42:1-6, page 107Psalm 51:1, 2, 4, page 132When sin istaken away then ourtestimony is restored: Psalm 66:12-14,page 158. End of Balaam: Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:22; Neh. 13:2; Deut. 23:4,5. Israel was never allowed to forgetwhat Balak and Balaam did: Micah 6:5;2 Peter 2:15, 16; Jude 11 (woe); Rev.2:14.1. What kind of reputation did Israelhave among her neighbors? (v. 4),Balaam? (v. 6).COVENANTER WITNESS