Give yourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. If you do not pray, God will probably lay you aside from your ministry, as He did me, to teach you to pray.
Interpretation
Prayer and commitment to ministry are essential for a fruitful spiritual life.
In this quote, Robert Murray M'Cheyne emphasizes the importance of prayer and the study of the Word of God in Christian ministry. He warns that neglecting prayer can lead to being sidelined in one's spiritual responsibilities, as he experienced, suggesting that prayer is crucial for sustenance and effectiveness in ministry.
In practice
During a church meeting, to highlight the importance of prayer in our daily lives.
I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. I feel it is far better to begin with God-to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.
Rose early to seek God and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?
I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into any corner.
Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little In comparison to eternal realities.
If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.
The greatest need of my people is my own holiness.
Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus.
There is no specialized art of prayer. All of life must be a training to pray. We pray the way we live.
Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one prays he goes to a source of strength greater than his own.
[Our] first and foremost duty [is] to seek the Lord until we open the path of communication from God to our own soul.
In these days there is no time to pray; but without time, and a lot of it, we shall never learn to pray.
God answers all true prayer, either in kind or in kindness.
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