Your ShelfYour Projects

The Day of Fasting and Prayer

17%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 1, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 35.

Read the full edition

The Day of Fasting and Prayer

THIS is the hour of need for the work and the people of God. As never before in their history, the greatness and importance of this work in the last days press in from every quarter. The calls for labor are so numerous, and the demands so urgent, that it seems utterly beyond the power of man to meet the situation. The needs of the world's great cities accentuate this situation. From divine sources must aid be secured. The sense of this need led to the appointment of Sabbath, September 17, as a day of fasting and prayer. This people by deep consecration must give themselves to the finishing of this message. To this consecration God will respond. He is waiting to be gracious. Through his prophet Hosea, he invites us to a closer union:—
“O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.”
To this appeal for his people, the prophet represents God as responding: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.”
Shall we not heed this gracious invitation, and by humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, confessing and forsaking sin, dedicate our lives to a new consecration? We need not wait for the special day set apart to begin this work. The present is the time to turn to God with all the heart. Before the day of special prayer, let us so prepare our hearts, that at that time we shall meet with God, as it were, face to face, and receive a glorious outpouring of his Holy Spirit.
“Sow to yourselves in righteousness; reap in mercy: break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”