BEWARE MY SOUL OF LUKEWARMNESS
Wilberforce wrote, "I find that books alienate my heart from God as much as anything. I have been framing a plan of study for myself, but let me remember but one thing is needful, that if my heart cannot be kept in a spiritual state without so much prayer, meditation, Scripture reading, etc., as are incompatible with study, I must seek first the righteousness of God.
Everything was to be surrendered for his spiritual advance.
I fear that I have not studied the Scriptures enough. Surely in the summer recess I ought to read the Scriptures an hour or two every day, besides prayer, devotional reading and meditation. God will prosper me better if I wait on Him. The experience of all good Christians shows that without constant prayer and watchfulness the life of God in the soul stagnates.
I would look up to God to make the means effectual. I fear that my devotions are too much hurried, that I do not read Scripture enough. I must grow in grace; I must love God more; I must feel the power of Divine things more. Whether I am more or less learned signifies not. Whether even I execute the work which I deem useful is comparatively unimportant. BUT BEWARE MY SOUL OF LUKEWARMNESS.
I will press forward and labor to know God better and love Him more. Assuredly I may, because God will give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, and the Holy Spirit will shed abroad the love of God in the heart. O, then, pray, pray; be earnest, press forward and follow on to know the Lord. Without watchfulness, humiliation and prayer, the sense of Divine things must languish.
To prepare for the future he said he found nothing more effectual than private prayer and the serious perusal of the New Testament.
I must put down that I have lately too little time for private devotions. I can sadly confirm Doddridge's remark that when we go on ill in the closet we commonly do so everywhere else. I must mend here. I am afraid of getting into what Owen calls the trade of sinning and repenting...Lord help me, the shortening of private devotions starve the soul; it grows lean and faint. This must not be. I must redeem the time. I see how lean in spirit I become without full allowance of time for private devotions; I must be careful to be watching unto prayer."
Wilberforce knew the secret of a holy life. Is that not where most of us fall? 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.
(From the book ON PRAYER, by EM BOUNDS)
Everything was to be surrendered for his spiritual advance.
I fear that I have not studied the Scriptures enough. Surely in the summer recess I ought to read the Scriptures an hour or two every day, besides prayer, devotional reading and meditation. God will prosper me better if I wait on Him. The experience of all good Christians shows that without constant prayer and watchfulness the life of God in the soul stagnates.
I would look up to God to make the means effectual. I fear that my devotions are too much hurried, that I do not read Scripture enough. I must grow in grace; I must love God more; I must feel the power of Divine things more. Whether I am more or less learned signifies not. Whether even I execute the work which I deem useful is comparatively unimportant. BUT BEWARE MY SOUL OF LUKEWARMNESS.
I will press forward and labor to know God better and love Him more. Assuredly I may, because God will give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, and the Holy Spirit will shed abroad the love of God in the heart. O, then, pray, pray; be earnest, press forward and follow on to know the Lord. Without watchfulness, humiliation and prayer, the sense of Divine things must languish.
To prepare for the future he said he found nothing more effectual than private prayer and the serious perusal of the New Testament.
I must put down that I have lately too little time for private devotions. I can sadly confirm Doddridge's remark that when we go on ill in the closet we commonly do so everywhere else. I must mend here. I am afraid of getting into what Owen calls the trade of sinning and repenting...Lord help me, the shortening of private devotions starve the soul; it grows lean and faint. This must not be. I must redeem the time. I see how lean in spirit I become without full allowance of time for private devotions; I must be careful to be watching unto prayer."
Wilberforce knew the secret of a holy life. Is that not where most of us fall? 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.
(From the book ON PRAYER, by EM BOUNDS)
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