Convicting words…

From Andrew Murray about the sin of prayerlessness:

“Much is said and many complaints are made about the feebleness of the church to fulfill her calling, to exercise an influence over her members, to deliver them from the power of the world, and to bring them to a life of holy consecration to God. Much is also spoken about her indifference to the millions of heathen whom Christ entrusted to her that she might make know to them His love and salvation. What is the reason that many thousands of Christian workers in the world do not have a greater influence? Nothing except this – the prayerlessness of their service. In the midst of all their zeal in the study and the work of the church, of all their faithfulness in preaching and conversation with the people, they lack that ceaseless prayer that has attached to it the sure promise of the Spirit and the “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). It is nothing but the sin of prayerlessness that is the cause of the lack of powerful spiritual life!”

“It is the business of a minister to train believers up to a life of prayer, but how can a leader do this if he himself has little understanding of the art of conversing with God and of receiving from the Holy Spirit, every day, out of heaven, abundant grace for himself and for his work? A minister cannot lead a congregation higher than he is himself. He cannot with enthusiasm point out a way, or explain a work, in which he is not himself walking or living…Oh, what a difference we would notice in our congregations if ministers could be brought to see in its right light the sin of prayerlessness and were delivered from it!”