Prayer and Promises

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me… — Acts 1:8, NKJV 

When churches are revived, it is because some individual seeks earnestly for the blessing of God. He hungers and thirsts after God, and asks in faith, and receives accordingly. He goes to work in earnest, feeling his great dependence upon the Lord, and souls are aroused to seek for a like blessing, and a season of refreshing falls on the hearts of men. 

Personal, individual effort and interest for your friends and neighbors, will accomplish much more than can be estimated. It is for the want of this kind of labor that souls for whom Christ died are perishing. One soul is of infinite value; for Calvary speaks its worth. 

Those who have been most successful in winning souls, were men and women who did not pride themselves in their ability, but who went in humility and faith, and the power of God worked with their efforts in convicting and converting the hearts of those to whom they appealed. Jesus did this very work. He came close to those whom he desired to benefit by personal contact. 

Let your light shine, and others will be kindled... the cause of our great deficiency in the Christian life and experience is inactivity in the work of God. The muscles of your body will become weak and useless if they are not kept in exercise, and it is so with the spiritual nature. If you would be strong, you must exercise your powers. Exercise faith in God by proving his promises as you take up your cross and lift your burden. Put on the yoke of Christ, and prove his words that “ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Open the Scriptures to some one that is in darkness, and you will not complain of weariness and lack of interest in the cause of truth. Your heart will be awakened to an anxiety for souls, and joy in the evidences of the faith will fill your heart, and you will know that “he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” With living faith claim the promises of God. Has he not said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”? “But let him ask in faith.” 

— The Review and Herald, March 13, 1888