Persevering Prayer - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain.
James 5:17

Persevering Prayer
James tells us of Elijah's secret moments of prayer and wrestling, and shows him to us in the retirement of the mountains of Gilead, where he had no doubt mourned over the lamentable state of things in Israel, and also fortified his spirit for the part he was about to play.

This circumstance in the life of the prophet teaches us a truly profitable lesson. We live in a time of more-than-usual barrenness and spiritual dearth. The state of the Church may well remind us of Ezekiel's valley of dry bones. We have not merely to cope with evils that have characterized bygone ages, but also with the matured corruption of a time wherein the varied evils of the Gentile world have become connected with, and covered by, the cloak of the Christian profession.

And when we turn to the state of those whose knowledge of truth and high profession might naturally encourage the expectation of more healthy and vigorous Christian action, we find, alas! in many, that the knowledge is but cold and uninfluential theory, having no power over the feelings and affections of the inward man. Among persons of this class, it will also be found that the truth of God possesses no attractive power; they know so much in the intellect that nothing can be presented to them with which they are not already acquainted: hence the lifelessness with which they harken to every statement of truth.

In such a condition of things, what is the resource of the faithful one? To what should he direct himself? Prayer; patient, persevering prayer; secret communion with God; deep and real exercise of soul in His presence, where alone we can arrive at a true estimate of ourselves and things around us: and not only so, but also obtain spiritual power to act for God among our brethren, or toward the world without.

C. H. Mackintosh