Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB
I would love to pour out my heart right here. I’d like to tell you how the whole universe shifted and is still shifting for me. But it’s not time for me to do that yet, and I cannot move until He moves me—I’ve done enough of that to fill two lifetimes. What then can I possibly write about on a blog that chronicles the lives of disciples in all their splendor and not-so-splendor? I don’t know what I’ll write next time, but today I will highlight the wisdom of Andrew Murray that has so smitten me of late.
Andrew Murray on a Deeper Prayer Life
“Would that we might understand God’s counsels of grace for us! The flesh on the cross—the Spirit in the heart and controlling the life.“This spiritual life is too little understood or sought after; yet it is literally what God has promised and will accomplish in those who unconditionally surrender themselves to Him for this purpose.
“Here then we have the deep root of evil as the cause of a prayerless life. The flesh can say prayers well enough, calling itself religious for so doing and thus satisfying conscience. But the flesh has no desire or strength for the prayer that strives after an intimate knowledge of God, that rejoices in fellowship with Him, and that continues to lay hold of His strength. So finally it comes to this: the flesh must be denied and crucified.
“The Christian who is still carnal has neither desire nor strength to follow after God. He rests satisfied with the prayer of habit or custom. But the glory, the blessedness of secret prayer is a hidden thing to him, until one day his eyes are opened, and he begins to see that the flesh, in its disposition to turn away from God, is the archenemy that makes powerful prayer impossible for him.”
Andrew Murray, The Prayer Life (formerly titled Prayer Power)
The Holy Spirit reveals truth, and the truth about humanity and salvation and the Christian life are the same – always! Murray’s writing speaks to me, right where I am, today. What a gift!
Hi Jennifer,
AMEN!
I’m going to send John something that I just wrote… A book review of Andrew Murray’s, “Humility”.
Even through just the first chapter of this little book, God is shining a great light into the darkness of my prayer life…Thank You brother Murray for discipling us by speaking Truth in Love to the English speaking Church, thank you Shulamite for the testimony of your obedience to Christ, of your lives in Christ,for the evidence of your confidence In God and His purposes…’He makes everything work out according to His plan’