Scripture: "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not."—JER. xxxiii. 3
As you plead for the great mercies of the new covenant to be bestowed, take with you these thoughts:—
(1) The infinite willingness of God to bless. His very nature is a pledge of it. He delights in mercy. He waits to be gracious. His promises and the experience of His saints assure us of it.
(2) Why then does the blessing so often tarry? In creating man with a free will, and making him a partner in the rule of the earth, God limited Himself. He made Himself dependent on what man would do. Man by his prayer would hold the measure of what God could do in blessing.
(3) Think how God is hindered and disappointed when His children do not pray, or pray but little. The low, feeble life of the Church, the lack of the power of the Holy Spirit for conversion and holiness, is all owing to the lack of prayer. How different would be the state of the Church and of heathendom, if God's people were to take no rest in calling upon Him!
(4) And yet God has blessed, just up to the measure of the faith and the zeal of His people. It is not for them to be content with this as a sign of His approval; but rather to say, If He has thus blessed our feeble efforts and prayers, what will He not do if we yield ourselves wholly to a life of intercession?
(5) What a call to pentinence and confession that our lack of consecration has kept back God's blessing from the world1 He was ready to save men, but we were not willing for the sacrifice of a whole-hearted devotion to Christ and His service.
Children of God, God counts upon you to take your place before His throne as intercessors. Awake, I pray you, to the consciousness of your holy calling as a royal priesthood. Begin to live a new life in the assurance that intercession, in the likeness and the fellowship with the Lord Jesus in heaven interceding, is the highest privilege a man can desire. In this spirit take up the word with large expectations: "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not."
Let each one who has read thus far, say whether he is not willing, whether he does not long to give himself wholly to this blessed calling, and in the power of Jesus Christ to make intercession, supplication for God's Church and people, and for a dying world, the one chief object of his life? Is this asking too much? Is it too much to yield your life for this holy service of the royal priesthood, to that blessed Lord who gave Himself for us?
