The Value of the Week of Prayer by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 22, 1910

The Value of the Week of Prayer

By F. M. W.

Of what value has been the recent week of prayer to Seventh-day Adventists? The answer to this question must be determined, not by the good resolutions which have been made or the new purposes which have been formed, but by the manner in which these resolutions and purposes shall find expression in the life in coming days. It is a good thing, when the heart is tender, to form resolutions for right-doing. It is a good thing, under the influence of the Spirit of God, to pledge the service of the life to his cause. But even better than the resolving is the carrying out of the resolution.

Says the wise man: “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools; pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?”

The pledges and purposes and resolutions of the heart are noted by the angel of God. He makes an account of them in the great record book of heaven. Let us be true to the entry which is made. Let us not say by our lives before the angel of God, that it was an error.

The coming year, bright with promise, lies before us. God is waiting to be gracious to every soul. He extends his hands with loving tenderness, inviting the backslider to return, the sinner to give his heart to him. Let us place ourselves in his hands, for him to choose for us our future. In doing this we are safe, whatever may betide. Let there come cloud or sunshine, let there enter into our experience the sweet or the bitter, pleasure or disappointment, we have committed the keeping of our souls unto the great God, and he will see to it that every experience is turned to our advantage in the end.

With what assurance, then, may we step into the portals of the new year! With what confidence may we seek to weave into practical life experience the impressions which the week of prayer

has brought us, and the good resolutions and purposes which we have formed! But in order for this experience to be ours, we must make every week a week of prayer, every day a day of consecration, every hour an hour of constant abiding in him.

We shall need constantly to keep our experience up-to-date, to keep our sins forgiven every day. Every night we should have the consciousness that God accepts us, that we are his children. Every morning we should arise from the failures of the day before; and with forgiving grace, with lessons learned from the past, and with new consecration to God, go on to new victory. This daily living, this constant spirit of consecration, will make the coming year one of blessed experience, and will make the influence of the week of prayer far-reaching and effective in the accomplishment of what God designs.

F. M. W.