Your ShelfYour Projects

Communion With God

20%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 14, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 15.

Read the full edition

Communion With God

PRAYER is not simply petition. It is largely that, to be sure; but it is more. It is communion with God. It enables the believer to become familiar with God. The child does not simply ask his father for gifts; he communicates his ideas and sorrows and joys. And his father does not only say, “I will grant this or withhold that;” he talks with his child of various things; he lifts up the child’s ideas by the power of his own. Child and father hold communion—become intimate.
Just so it may be, yea, ought to be, with the child of God. In proportion to one’s Christian experience is his desire for this communion and fellowship. The devout soul echoes the psalmist’s words, “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” This communion increases one’s Christian experience. There is no better method of growth in grace than the habit of constant communing with the Father of spirits.
Paul says, “Pray without ceasing.” It is the secret of progress heavenward. It explains the difference in the rate of advance of Christians. One halts along; another runs. One is of comparatively little use; another is abundant in every good word and work. The reason is, one is content with simply offering few and feeble petitions; the other holds communion with God, pouring out his soul before him, and there comes to him an elevation of spirit, a heavenliness of mind, which makes him joyous and strong and effective.
In numberless instances has the promise been fulfilled, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” What privileges! What possibilities! But, notwithstanding all this, how unbelieving we are at times when we enter the spiritual realm. High above the gateway of prayer we see written in imperishable characters, “Ask, and it shall be given you.” The Author of our being invites us, yea, even beseeches us, to hold sweet communion with himself.—Selected.