GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 13

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

JESUS, YOU…… GIVE ME COUNSEL …Ps 116:7

JESUS, YOUR……….. COMPASSIONS FOR ME ARE NEW EVERY MORNING…Lam 3:22

JESUS, YOU……….PUT A NEW SONG IN MY MOUTH …Ps 40:5

********** *********

THE WORD FOR TODAY

John 14:13

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

We are moving on in the chapter entitled “So You Will Have Power in Prayer” in Andrew Murray’s classic 1800’s book, Abide in Christ.

There are many reasons why this must be so (that our chosen unity with Christ is the reason our prayers are heard).  One is that abiding in Christ and having His words abiding in us, teach us to pray in accordance with the will of God.  With the abiding in Christ, our self-will is kept down, and the thoughts and wishes of nature are brought into captivity to the thoughts and wishes of Christ.  Like-mindedness to Christ grows upon us; all our working and willing become transformed into harmony with His.  There is deep and oft-renewed heart searching to see whether the surrender has indeed been entire; there is fervent prayer to the heart-searching Spirit that nothing may be kept back.  Everything is yielded to the power of His life in us, that it may exercise its sanctifying influence even on ordinary wishes and desires. 

His Holy Spirit breathes through our whole being, and without our being conscious how, our desires, as the breathings of the divine life, are in conformity with the divine will and are fulfilled.  Abiding in Christ renews and sanctifies the will; we ask what we will and it is given to us.

In close connection with this is the thought that the abiding in Christ teaches the believer in prayer only to seek the glory of God.  In promising to answer prayer, Christ’s one thought it this:  (John 14:13)

“….that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”  In His intercession on earth in John chapter 17, this was His one desire and plea; in His intercession in heaven, it is still His great object.  As the believer abides in Christ, the Savior breathes this desire into him.  The thought, “only the glory of God,” becomes more and more the keynote of the life hidden in Christ.  At first, this subdues, quiets, and makes the soul almost afraid to dare entertain a wish, lest it should not be to the Father’s glory.  But when once its supremacy has been accepted, and everything yielded to it, it comes with mighty power to elevate and enlarge the heart and open it to the vast field open to the glory of God.

Abiding in Christ, the soul learns not only to desire, but also to discern spiritually what will be for God’s glory; and one of the first conditions of acceptable prayer is fulfilled in it when, as the fruit of its union with Christ, the whole mind is brought into harmony with the Son as He said “Father, glorify Your name,” (John 12:28).

Published by liveinthelightofourlord

View all posts by liveinthelightofourlord