WORK AS YOU PRAY by Chas. T. Everson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 1, 1901

WORK AS YOU PRAY.

By Chas. T. Everson

CHAS. T. EVERSON.

EVANGELISTIC services were in progress in the Baptist church of a certain town. At the close of one of the meetings the evangelist who was conducting the services was invited to dine at the home of a prominent member of the church.

After dinner the host spoke of his distress over the condition of a brother, who was a skeptic. For years he had been earnestly praying for him, but had apparently received no answer to his prayer. “But,” he concluded, addressing the evangelist, “do not say anything to him about his soul’s salvation, for that will spoil your chances of doing anything for him.” The skeptical brother was a lawyer, and the evangelist, having some legal matters that needed attention, sought his services. After their business had been transacted, he felt constrained to speak to him of his own salvation, despite the admonition of the lawyer’s brother. They talked only a few minutes, however, before the lawyer arose and started toward the door. Now, thought the evangelist, I have lost my opportunity to help him; his brother was right after all. But the lawyer suddenly returned to where he had sat, and resumed the conversation in a very earnest manner. Before long they both knelt in prayer, and the skeptic arose a converted man. As they clasped hands, the lawyer said, “My brother has been a deacon in the Baptist church for fifteen years. During that time I have lived in the same house with him, and not once has he ever said anything to me concerning my need of a personal Saviour. I concluded that there was nothing in his religion, or otherwise he would have been anxious to have me share it with him.”

And yet his brother had been at the same time anxiously praying for his salvation. If he had only worked as he had prayed, his brother would have been saved long before.

Jesus gave us a parable (Luke 11: 5-8) of a man who went to his neighbor at midnight, and asked for three loaves of bread; a friend had come, and he had nothing for him to eat. By his persistence he finally obtained the needed provision. We notice that he had sufficient bread for himself, and that his request was for a friend. This parable presents to us the kind of petition that will certainly receive an answer. If we are thoroughly in earnest, and will ask in faith, we shall obtain the Bread of life. And if, when we have received it, we will offer a petition of a similar nature in behalf of our friends and relatives, God will give us the Bread of life for them.

Suppose that when the man in the parable had returned to his friend, he had not intimated to him what had been the nature of his errand, but had carefully hid the food obtained, and studiously avoided any mention of bread. And when the morning dawned, suppose he had sent him off, faint from lack of sustenance, hoping and praying that in some way or somehow some one might learn of his distress and feed him before he perished. What would we think of such a course? We would naturally suppose that it showed a lack of judgment to say the least, if not of love. But does not this illustrate that which is taking place in the religious world continually? A person who has tasted of the joys of salvation becomes anxious to have his friends and relatives experience that same blessedness; and he brings them before God in earnest prayer. The fervent petitions that ascend to God are not unheeded by Him; He gives the Bread of life to the petitioner to take to his unsaved friend or relative. But as the anxious one returns from the secret of God’s presence, how often he says nothing to his friend about the sweet communion he has enjoyed. He studiously avoids any reference to the Bread of life that God has committed to his charge, but allows his friends to go on, hoping and praying that in some way or some how some one will learn of the man’s need of a Saviour, and will bring him to a realization of this need, before he goes down in everlasting destruction.

Should we not work as we pray? Shall we allow our friends and relatives to perish for want of the very truth that God has committed to our care for them? They know that whenever we have anything of an enjoyable nature in the matters pertaining to this world they are not forgotten, and they must conclude that if our religion is such a comfort and pleasure to us, we would be anxious for them to have a share in it. But what must they think when the subject of their soul’s salvation is not even as much as mentioned? Should we not let them know that we are praying for them? There is not a man in the world, however low or debased, who will not be encouraged by a consciousness of the fact that some one is praying for him.

Many a man in the deepest hours of his discouragement has been buoyed up by the thought that he had a godly mother praying for him. We should pray for our friends and relatives with a faith that knows no refusal, and then work as we pray. Pray that an opportunity may be given you for placing the Bread of life before your perishing loved ones, and then go to work to make the opportunity. God will co-operate with you and save the lost. Are not the members of our household and our friends of as much value in the sight of God as total strangers? In 1 Tim. 5:8 we read, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” Does not this providing for one’s own house include the giving of the highest of all necessary provisions; namely, the Bread of life?

Almost as many are being lost every year from the families of Sabbath-keepers as the workers are able to bring in. Should this be so? Are you endeavoring to stem the tide by working as you pray?