R.A.Torrey: We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little …many services but few conversions….
I ran across this prayer during my reading and thought it was excellent. I hope you won’t just read it, but that you will pray it for yourself and for your church this morning…
“God, give us tears for our sins. Forgive us for being so shallow in prayer, …so content amid perishing neighbors, so empty of passion and earnestness in all our conversation. Restore to us the childlike joy of our salvation. …Cause us to hold to the cross with fear and trembling as our hope-filled…tree of life. Grant us nothing, absolutely nothing, the way the world views it. May Christ be all in all.
…Oh God, place [within us] passionate prayer, poverty of spirit, hunger for God, rigorous study of holy things, white-hot devotion to Jesus Christ, utter indifference to all material gain, and unremitting labor to rescue the perishing, perfect the saints, and glorify our sovereign Lord.
Humble us, O God, under Your mighty hand, and let us rise…as witnesses and partakers of the sufferings of Christ. In His awesome name. Amen.”
(from John Piper in Brothers, We are not Professionals)
What else would you add to a prayer that we should all be praying today?
— brian rushing