I ran across this in my reading this week in Leonard Ravenhill's "Why Revival Tarries". I leave his God-thoughts with you.
...If John Knox had prayed, "Give me success!" we would never have heard of him; but he prayed a self-purged prayer - "Give me Scotland, or I die!" - and his prayer scored the pages of history. If David Livingstone had prayed that he might split Africa wide open, as proof of his indomitable spirit and skill with the sextant, his prayer would have died with the wind of the forest; but he prayed, "Lord, when will the wound of this world's sin be healed?" Livingstone lived in prayer, and literally died upon his knees in prayer.
For this sin-hungry age we need a prayer hungry Church. We need to explore again the "exceeding great and precious promises of God." In "that great day," the fire of judgement is going to test the sort, not the size of the work we have done. That which is born in prayer will survive the test. Prayer does business with God. Prayer creates hunger for souls; hunger for souls creates prayer. The understanding soul prays; the praying soul gets understanding. To the soul who prays in self-owned weakness, the Lord gives His strength. Oh that we were men of like prayer as Elijah - a man subject to like passions as we are! Lord, let us pray!
