Saturday, April 3, 2010

classic Saturday

Today's classic devotion comes from Douglas Steele (1901-1995), a Harvard
philosophy professor, Rhodes scholar, and the author of many devotional books through the years. The following quotes are taken from a book entitled Prayer and Worship (1938), and focus on intercessory prayer.

"There is no greater intimacy with another than that which is built through holding him or her up in prayer."

"It is not a question of changing God's mind or of exercising some magical influence or spell over the life of another. Before we begin to pray, we may know that the love of the One who is actively concerned in awakening each life to its true center is already lapping at the shores of that life. We do not do it at all.

Such prayer is only cooperation with God's active love in besieging the life or new areas of the life of another, or of a situation. If you pray for something other than what is in keeping with that cooperation, you go against the grain, and if you remain in prayer and are sensitive, you will realize this and be drawn to revise it. As in all petitional prayer, the one who really prays must be ready to yield."

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