y in Jesus’ Name
My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone
sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1,
NKJV.
We have an advocate at the throne of God, which is encircled by the bow of promise,
and we are invited to present our petitions in the name of Christ before the Father. Jesus
says: Ask what ye will in My name, and it shall be done unto you. In presenting My name,
you bear witness that you belong to Me, that you are My sons and daughters, and the Father
will treat you as His own, and love you as He loveth Me.
Your faith in Me will lead you to exercise close, filial affection toward Me and the
Father. I am the golden chain by which your heart and soul are bound in love and obedience
to My Father. Express to My Father the fact that My name is dear to you, that you respect
and love Me, and you may ask what you will. He will pardon your transgressions, and adopt
you into His royal family—make you a child of God, a joint heir with His only-begotten
Son.
Through faith in My name He will impart to you the sanctification and holiness which
will fit you for His work in a world of sin, and qualify you for an immortal inheritance in
His kingdom. The Father has thrown open, not only all heaven, but all His heart, to those
who manifest faith in the sacrifice of Christ, and who through faith in the love of God return
unto their loyalty. Those who believe in Christ as the sin-bearer, the propitiation for their
sins, the intercessor in their behalf, may through the riches of the grace of God lay claim to
the treasures of heaven....
The prayer of the contrite heart unlocks the treasure-house of supplies, and lays hold of
omnipotent power. This kind of prayer enables the suppliant to understand what it means
to lay hold of the strength of God, and to make peace with Him. This kind of prayer causes
us to have an influence over those with whom we associate.... It is our privilege and duty to
bring the efficacy of the name of Christ into our petitions, and use the very arguments that
Christ has used in our behalf. Our prayers will then be in complete harmony with the will
of God.—The Signs of the Times, June 18, 1896.
14
Our Prayers Will Be Answered
For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God.
You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. Job
22:26, 27, NKJV.
In his prayer for His disciples Christ said: “I sanctify myself, that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word.” In His prayer Christ includes all those who shall hear
the words of life and salvation through the messengers whom He sends....
Can we by faith comprehend the fact that we are beloved by the Father even as the Son is
beloved? Could we indeed lay hold of this and act up to it, we would indeed have the grace
of Christ, the golden oil of heaven, poured into our poor, thirsty, parched souls. Our light
would no longer be fitful and flickering, but would shine brightly amid the moral darkness
that like a funeral pall is enveloping the world. We should by faith hear the prevailing
intercession that Christ continually presents in our behalf, as He says: “Father, I will that
they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my
glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
...
Our Redeemer encourages us to present continual supplications. He makes to us most
decided promises that we shall not plead in vain. He says: “Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
He then presents the picture of a child asking bread of its father, and shows how much
more willing God is to grant our requests than parents are to grant their child’s petition....
Our precious Savior is ours today. In Him our hopes of eternal life are centered. He is
the One who presents our petitions to the Father, and communicates to us the blessing for
which we asked.—The Signs of the Times, June 18, 1896.
15
Not Only Pray, but Ask and Work!
Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of
heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, ... I ask that you send me
to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” Nehemiah 2:4, 5,
NKJV.
While Nehemiah implored the help of God, he did not fold his own hands, feeling
that he had no more care or responsibility in the bringing about of his purpose to restore
Jerusalem. With admirable prudence and forethought he proceeded to make all the
arrangements necessary to ensure the success of the enterprise....
The example of this holy man should be a lesson to all the people of God, that they are
not only to pray in faith, but to work with diligence and fidelity. How many difficulties we
encounter, how often we hinder the working of Providence in our behalf, because prudence,
forethought, and painstaking are regarded as having little to do with religion! This is a grave
mistake. It is our duty to cultivate and to exercise every power that will render us more
efficient workers for God. Careful consideration and well-matured plans are as essential to
the success of sacred enterprises today as in the time of Nehemiah....
Men and women of prayer should be men and women of action. Those who are
ready and willing will find ways and means of working. Nehemiah did not depend upon
uncertainties. The means which he lacked he solicited from those who were able to bestow.
The Lord still moves upon the hearts of kings and rulers in behalf of His people. Those
who are laboring for Him are to avail themselves of the help that He prompts men and
women to give for the advancement of His cause. The agents through whom these gifts
come may open ways by which the light of truth shall be given to many benighted lands.
These people may have no sympathy with God’s work, no faith in Christ, no acquaintance
with His Word; but their gifts are not on this account to be refused.
The Lord has placed His goods in the hands of unbelievers as well as believers; all may
return to Him His own for the doing of the work that must be done for a fallen world. As
long as we are in this world, as long as the Spirit of God strives with human hearts, so long
are we to receive favors as well as to impart them.—The Southern Watchman, March 15,
1904.
16
Pray in Submission to God’s Will
Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all
these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36,
NKJV.
Pray often to your heavenly Father. The oftener you engage in prayer, the closer your
soul will be drawn into a sacred nearness to God. The Holy Spirit will make intercession for
the sincere petitioner with groanings which cannot be uttered, and the heart will be softened
and subdued by the love of God. The clouds and shadows which Satan casts about the soul
will be dispelled by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the chambers of
mind and heart will be illuminated by the light of Heaven.
But be not discouraged if your prayers do not seem to obtain an immediate answer.
The Lord sees that prayer is often mixed with earthliness. People pray for that which will
gratify their selfish desires, and the Lord does not fulfill their requests in the way which
they expect. He takes them through tests and trials, He brings them through humiliations,
until they see more clearly what their necessities are. He does not give to His children
those things which will gratify a debased appetite, and which will prove an injury to human
agents, and make them a dishonor to God. He does not give men and women that which
will gratify their ambition, and work simply for self-exaltation. When we come to God, we
must be submissive and contrite of heart, subordinating everything to His sacred will.
In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ prayed to His Father, saying, “O my Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me.” The cup which He prayed should be removed from
Him, that looked so bitter to His soul, was the cup of separation from God in consequence
of the sin of the world. He who was perfectly innocent and unblamable became as one
guilty before God, in order that the guilty might be pardoned and stand as innocent before
God. When He was assured that the world could be saved in no other way than through the
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sacrifice of Himself, He said, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.” The spirit
of submission that Christ manifested in offering up His prayer b
