Prayer and Promises

THE PROMISE  

“For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will endure before Me… All mankind will come to worship Me from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another,” says the Lord.

— Isaiah 66:22, 23, HCSB

THE TESTIMONY 

Everyone should feel that he has a part to act in making the Sabbath meetings interesting. You are not to come together simply as a matter of form, but for the interchange of thought, for the relation of your daily experiences, for the expression of thanksgiving, for the utterance of your sincere desire for divine enlightenment, that you may know God. 

Communing together in regard to Christ will strengthen the soul for life’s trials and conflicts.

As you enter the place of worship, ask the Lord to remove all evil from your heart. Bring to His house only that which He can bless. Kneel before God in His temple, and consecrate to Him His own, which He has purchased with the blood of Christ. Pray for the speaker or the leader of the meeting. Pray that great blessing may come through the one who is to hold forth the word of life. Strive earnestly to lay hold of a blessing for yourself. 

God will bless all who thus prepare themselves for His service. They will understand what it means to have the assurance of the Spirit because they have received Christ by faith.

As the word of life is spoken, let your heartfelt response testify that you receive the message as from heaven. This is very old-fashioned, I know; but it will be a thank offering to God for the bread of life given to the hungry soul. This response to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit will be a strength to your own soul and an encouragement to others. 

Every heavenly intelligence is interested in the assemblies of the saints who on earth meet to worship God. In the inner court of heaven they listen to the testimony of the witnesses for Christ in the outer court on earth, and the praise and thanksgiving from the worshipers below is taken up in the heavenly anthem, and praise and rejoicing sound through the heavenly courts because Christ has not died in vain for the fallen sons of Adam. 

Oh, that we could all realize the nearness of heaven to earth! 

— Testimonies for the Church, Volume 6, p. 362-367

THE RESPONSE  

Come together on Sabbath for the interchange of thought, for the relation of your daily experiences, for the expression of thanksgiving. 

As you enter the place of worship, ask the Lord to remove all evil from your heart.  

Kneel before God in His temple, and consecrate to Him His own. 

Pray for the speaker. Pray that great blessing may come through the one who is to hold forth the word of life.