Prayer and Promises

THE PROMISE 

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

— Romans 12:2, NLT 

THE TESTIMONY 

Have those who profess the name of Christ been truly converted? Have they consecrated to God their reason, their knowledge, their affections, their thoughts?... or have they devoted all their energies of mind and body to the building up of worldly enterprises? 

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”... The self-denial, the self-sacrifice, the sympathy, the love that was manifested in the life of Christ, is to reappear in the life of the worker for God. Those who are laborers together with God will feel the need of wrestling in prayer for the endowment of the Holy Spirit. They will manifest the most tender solicitude for the erring, will make most earnest appeals to those who are out of Christ. 

Those who consecrate their all to God will not be left unmolested by the enemy of souls. Satan will come to them with his specious temptations, designing to allure them from their loyalty to God. He will present to them his bribe, as he did to Christ in the wilderness of temptation, saying, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” But what should be the answer of the Christian to all the temptations of the evil one? He should say, “I will not lend my influence in any way to the advancement of anything save the cause of Christ. I am not my own; I have been bought with a price. I am not to live to please myself; for I have been purchased, ransomed by the blood of Christ. It is not possible for me to give to Christ more than that which belongs to him; for every moment of my life belongs to him. I am his possession, a servant employed to do the will of my Master.” This is the only position it is safe for us to occupy; and if the individual members of the church felt in this way, what a power would the church exert to draw and win souls to Christ. 

Each one of us is to stand where we shall be under the transforming influence of the grace of Christ, and then in our association one with another, we shall be able to impart and to receive the light of the Sun of Righteousness. 

— Atlantic Union Gleaner, July 12, 1905 

THE RESPONSE 

Father God, I consecrate my thoughts, my knowledge, my affections to You. Forgive me when my influence lures away from You. Transform me, change the way I think. I plead for the gift of the Holy Spirit that I may be a laborer together with Christ. I pray for the transforming influence of the grace of Christ that Your good and pleasing will may be done in my life.