Prayer and Meditation by Allie Church

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 3, 1872

Prayer and Meditation.

By Allie Church

ARE we as often found at the mercy-seat pleading for help and strength from God to perform every duty and overcome every sin as we should? Many who are striving for eternal life sometimes wonder why their progress is so slow. They look over the past and cannot see wherein they have erred. They say, I have sought my closet as often as is required of me and I have not made a failure here certainly. But do these persons realize how they have sought God? Have they come with their hearts wholly in the work, fully believing that the Lord would verify his promises to them? or have they come with lip-service, their thoughts wandering and at the same time disbelieving what God has said?

If this is the way we come to God in secret prayer, there is sufficient reason why we make no more progress; for the Lord will not listen to such prayers. Better, it sometimes seems to me, would it be if those prayers (if such they can be called) had not been uttered.

If we come to God in the way which is first noticed, certainly this is not where we lack. We should then examine a little closer and see if we have meditated upon these things sufficiently.

Many come short here. If we have sought God in the manner here last described, or if we have not had complete control of our thoughts so as to keep them in the right channel, it is certainly time for us to reform. Time is short, and we have not a moment to lose.

Many times have I had to regret that I have lived so far from God in these things. Let us arouse, one and all, and strive by God's grace assisting us to redeem the time.

ALLIE CHURCH.

Steele Co., Minn., Aug. 13, 1872.