Scripture: "Be sober, and watch unto prayer, above all things being fer¬vent in your love among yourselves."—1 PET. iv. 7, 8.
In our text, watching unto prayer and fervent love are closely linked. This is true, too, in the spiritual life. The man who prays only for himself will not find it easy to be in the right attitude towards God. But where the heart is filled with fervent love to others, prayer will continually rise to God for those whom we love, and even for those with whom we do not agree.
There would be a great defect in this little book on brotherly love if we neglected to indicate what an important place prayer holds in the life of love. These two fruits of the Spirit are inseparably connected. If you wish your love to grow and increase, forget yourself, and pray, pray earnestly, for God's children and His Church. And if you would increase in prayerfulness, give yourself in fervent love to the service of those around you, helping to bear their burdens.
What a great need there is, at this time, of earnest, powerful intercessors! Let those who complain that there is so little love among Christians, acknowledge that one of the chief signs of love is lacking in themselves, if they do not pray much and often for their brethren. I am deeply convinced that God desires His children, as members of one body, to present themselves each day before the Throne of grace to pray down the power of the Spirit upon all believers. Union is strength. This is true in regard to the Kingdom of Heaven. Real spiritual unity will help us to forget ourselves, to live unselfishly, wholly for God and our fellow-men. And the word of Peter will be applied to our lives— "watching in prayer—fervent in love."
There can be no surer way of growing in the spirit of love than by uniting daily at the Throne of grace, and finding our joy and life in the oneness of Spirit with the whole Body of Christ.
Let this little book on love be also a book on prayer. As we meditate on love to the brethren, we shall be constrained to have fellowship with God. And we shall attain this, not by reading or thinking, but by intercourse with the Father, and with the Lord Jesus through the Holy Ghost. Love impels to prayer; to believing prayer is vouchsafed the love of God.
