For
those of you who are also studying With Christ in the School of Prayer this
month, is it just me, or could we spend weeks on just one lesson?
I
find myself reading, rereading, and rereading again. To cover one lesson a day
seems almost an injustice to the material, but perhaps later we can spend time soaking in the truths God speaks through Andrew Murray.
In
the tenth lesson on praying definite prayers: “It is only when the child has
yielded his own will in entire surrender to the Father, that he receives from
the Father liberty and power to will what he would have.” These words reminded
me of Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the
desires of your heart.” As we submit to God, we find our will more and more
aligns with his, and that he fills our hearts so that his desires become our
desires.
The
true beauty of this is that when we ask, we may have confidence that we will
receive as Murray writes in lesson eleven, “And He is our life: all he was on
earth He is in us now; all he teaches He really gives. He is Himself the Author
and Perfecter of our faith: He gives the spirit of faith; let us not be afraid
that such faith is not meant for us. It is meant for every child of the Father;
it is within reach of each one who will be child like, yielding himself to the
Father’s Will and Love, trusting the Father’s Word and Power.”
And
in lesson twelve on having faith, Murray writes, “Listen to the lesson, Jesus
teaches us this day; have faith in God, the Living God: let faith look to God
more than the thing promised: it is
love, His power, His living presence will waken and work the faith.”
He
writes that the cure for weak faith is for our whole spiritual lives to be
strengthened, to walk continually in fellowship with the Lord.
Mike Bickle, director of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City, has
written that the Lord has made clear to him, “that He does not want ministry or
financial success to be our primary reward. He wants His Son to be our
magnificent obsession…” He also writes of “a people lost in the passion of holy
romance.”
Brent Curtis wrote in The Sacred Romance that, “We don’t go from being strangers to lovers
in an instant.”
So
true. If God seems a distant landlord, Lent is a season to set aside time to be
with Him, even a few minutes a day is a beginning. We won’t have the faith we
desire until we yield to Him, until we spend time with Him, until we become a lover of God.
Take
a moment, and listen to melodic words here.