Scripture: "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving, withal praying also for us."—COL. iv. 2, 3.
There is nothing that can bring us nearer to God, and lead us deeper into His love, than the work of intercession. There is nothing that can give us a higher experience of the likeness of God than the power of pouring out our hearts into the bosom of God, in prayer for men around us. There is nothing that can so closely link us to Jesus Christ, the great Intercessor, and give us the experience of His power and Spirit resting on us, as the yielding of our lives to the work of bringing the great redemption into the hearts and lives of our fellow-men. There is nothing in which we shall know more of the powerful working of the Holy Spirit than the prayer breathed by Him into our hearts, "Abba, Father," in all the fulness of meaning that it had for Christ in Gethsemane. There is nothing that can so help us to prove the power and the faithfulness of God to His Word, as when we reach out in intercession to the multitudes, either in the Church of Christ or in the darkness of heathenism. As we pour out our souls as a living sacrifice before God, with the one persistent plea that He shall, in answer to our prayer, open the windows of heaven and send down His abundant blessing, God will be glorified, our souls will reach their highest destiny, and God's Kingdom will come.
There is nothing that will so help us to understand and to experience the living unity of the Body of Christ, and the irresistable power that it can exert, as the daily and continued fellowship with God's children in the persistent plea that God will arise and have mercy upon Zion, and make her a light and a life to those who are sitting in darkness. O my brother, how little we realize what we are losing in not living in fervent intercession! What may we not gain for ourselves and for the world if we allow God's Spirit, as a Spirit of grace and of supplication, to master our whole being!
In heaven Christ lives to pray; His whole intercourse with father is prayer; an asking and receiving of the fulness of Spirit for His people. God delights in nothing so much as in prayer. Shall we not learn to believe that the highest blessings of heaven will be unfolded to us as we pray more?
Blessed Father, pour down the Spirit of supplication and intercession on Thy people—for Jesus Christ's sake. AMEN.
