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For What Shall We Pray During the Week of Prayer?

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 16, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 46.

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For What Shall We Pray During the Week of Prayer?

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

WHY have Seventh-day Adventists set apart the week of December 9-16 for special prayer? Is it to unitedly pray for larger temporal blessings? Is it to ask God to stay the progress of some cruel war or some devastating pestilence, or to end some dreadful famine? Is it to pray for better crops, higher prices, and more wealth?
We may very appropriately ask for these blessings for some of our suffering fellow men, and we may also express our gratitude for the blessings we are enjoying. But it is not primarily for any or all of these temporal blessings that the week of prayer has been appointed.
This season of special prayer has been set apart for the purpose of seeking for spiritual blessings. We need the righteousness of Christ that we may be humble, pure, patient, self-sacrificing, and earnest in the Master's cause. We need the power of God to proclaim his message for this time, and win souls to his kingdom. These great blessings we need in far larger measure than we have ever received them.
The righteousness of Christ is implanted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. “When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife.”
It is the Holy Spirit that gives us power to render effectual service in soul winning. “Christ in his mediatorial capacity gives to his servants the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is the efficiency of the Spirit that enables human agencies to be representatives of the Redeemer in the work of soul saving. That we may unite with Christ in this work we should place ourselves under the molding influences of his Spirit. . . . To every one who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results.”
It is by the vitalizing, regenerating power of the Holy Spirit that God will finish his work in this generation. In a recent communication through the spirit of prophecy this statement is made:—
“God has committed to us a special work, a work that no other people can do. He has promised us the aid of his Holy Spirit. The heavenly current is flowing earthward for the accomplishment of the very work appointed us. Let not this heavenly current be turned aside by our deviations from the straightforward path marked out by Christ.”
Seeing, then, that it is through the Holy Spirit that God gives us victory over sin, and power to win souls to him, should we not at this time pray most earnestly to be filled with the Holy Spirit? “For the baptism of the Spirit every worker should be pleading with God. Companies should be gathered together to ask for special help, for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to plan and execute wisely. Especially should men pray that God will baptize his missionaries with the Holy Spirit.”
And the assurance is given through the spirit of prophecy that “this promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train.” We need a new life put into us; we need the graces of our blessed Redeemer; we need more missionaries and more funds; we need much indeed, but above all we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit of the living God. This will bring all the rest. For this we should offer earnest, continued, triumphant prayer during the coming week of prayer.
And while we pray for the baptism of the Spirit, we should earnestly seek to know the conditions upon which the Lord can safely bestow it, and should quickly and fully comply with them. Our motive in asking for the abiding presence of the Spirit should be to glorify Christ, to overcome sin, and to work successfully for the Lord. We must be willing to put away our sins, to crucify self, to surrender all we have to God, and to give our lives to him for service.
With right motives and humble submission to his will controlling us, we may ask in faith for this highest of gifts, and we shall receive. This will lift us to a higher platform, and give the cause we love new life and power. It will provide all the workers and means required to speedily finish the Lord's work. Then let us pray and give to this end.
A. G. DANIELLS.