“Prayer is the link that connects us with God.” – A. B. Simpson
The Church’s Special Privilege – Alistair Begg
Jesus has sent His Church into the world on the same errand upon
which He Himself came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say
that the Church is the world's priest? Creation is dumb, but the Church finds a
mouth for it. It is the Church's high privilege to pray with acceptance. The
door of grace is always open for her petitions, and they never return
empty-handed. The curtain was torn for her; the blood was sprinkled upon
the altar for her; God constantly invites her to bring her requests. Will
she refuse the privilege that angels might envy? Is she not the bride of
Christ? Can she not approach her King at any hour? Will she allow the precious
privilege to be unused?
The Church always needs to pray. There are always some among her
who are declining or falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed for,
that they may be carried in Christ's bosom; the strong, lest they grow
presumptuous; and the weak, lest they become despairing. If we kept up prayer-meetings twenty-four
hours a day all the days in the year, we might never be without a special
subject for supplication.
Is there ever a time when no one is sick or poor or afflicted or
wavering? Is there ever a time when we do not seek the conversion of relatives,
the reclaiming of backsliders, or the salvation of the lost? With congregations
constantly gathering, with ministers always preaching, with millions of sinners
lying dead in trespasses and sins—in a country over which the darkness of
religious formalism is certainly descending—in a world full of idols,
cruelties, devils—if the Church does not pray, how will she excuse her neglect
of the commission of her loving Lord? Let the Church be constant in
supplication; let every private believer give himself to the ministry of
prayer.
Sid StewartExecutive Director, Haven of Rest Ministries, Inc.
www.havenofrest.cc
864 226-6193
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