THE SECRET TO A HOLY, EFFECTIVE LIFE

James 5:16 (KJV), “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

William Wilberforce knew the secret of a holy life.  Is that not where most of us fail?  We are so busy with other things, so immersed even in doing good and in carrying on the Lord’s work, that we neglect the quiet seasons of prayer with God, and before we are aware of it our soul is lean and impoverished.

“One night alone in prayer,” says Spurgeon, “might make us new men, changed from poverty of soul to spiritual wealth, from trembling to triumphing.  We have an example of it in the life of Jacob.  Aforetime the crafty shuffler, always bargaining and calculating, unlovely in almost every respect, yet one night in prayer turned the supplanter into a prevailing prince, and robed him with celestial grandeur.  From that night he lives on the sacred page as one of the nobility of heaven.  Could not we, at least now and then, in these weary earthbound years, hedge about a single night for such enriching traffic with the skies?  What, have we no sacred ambition?  Are we deaf to the yearnings of Divine love?  Yet, my brethren, for wealth and for science men will cheerfully quit their warm couches, and cannot we do it now and again for the love of God and the good of souls?  Where is our zeal, our gratitude, our sincerity?  I am ashamed while I thus upbraid both myself and you.  May we often tarry at Jabbok, and cry with Jacob, as he grasped the angel—

‘With thee all night I mean to stay,

And wrestle till the break of day.’

Surely, brethren, if we have given whole days to folly, we can afford a space for heavenly wisdom.  Time was when we gave whole nights to chambering and wantonness, to dancing and the world’s revelry; we did not tire then; we were chiding the sun that he rose so soon, and wishing the hours would lag awhile that we might delight in wilder merriment and perhaps deeper sin.  Oh, wherefore, should we weary in heavenly employments?  Why grow we weary when asked to watch with our Lord? Up, sluggish heart, Jesus calls thee!  Rise and go forth to meet the Heavenly Friend in the place where he manifests Himself.”

We can never expect to grow in the likeness of our Lord unless we follow His example and give more time to communion with the Father.  A revival of real praying would produce a spiritual revolution.

Taken from “Purpose in Prayer” by E. M. Bounds