I firmly believe a great many prayers are not answered because we are not willing to forgive someone.
When the church, the pulpit, and the pew get united, and God’s people are all of one mind, Christianity is like a red-hot ball rolling over the earth, and all the hosts of death and hell cannot stand before it.
If we have done wrong to some one, we should never ask God to forgive us until we are willing to make restitution.
If I wanted to find out whether a man was a Christian, I wouldn’t go to his minister. I would go and ask his wife. We need more Christian life at home. If a man doesn’t treat his wife right, I don’t want to hear him talk about Christianity.
Too often we knock at mercy’s door, and then run away, instead of waiting for an entrance and an answer.
As some one has said, God kissed away his soul, and took him home to Himself. “God buried him” – the greatest honor ever paid to mortal man.
About 1,500 gathered for two hours of lively, focused prayer. Later, I asked Pastor Jim Cymbala why so many were attending the Brooklyn Tab prayer meetings when many other churches have cancelled their prayer meetings for lack of interest. He answered, “You would also have a full church on prayer meeting night if your people actually believed that God answers prayer!” If we actually believed God answers prayer!
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Now in the fourth chapter of James, in the third verse, we find some spoken of whose prayers were not answered: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.” There are a great many prayers not answered because there is not the right motive; we have not complied with the Word of God; we ask amiss.
To do that, we must be clear and right before God. “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
No, not despairingly Come I to Thee; No, not distrustingly Bend I the knee; Sin hath gone over me, Yet is this still my plea, Jesus hath died. Ah, mine iniquity Crimson has been; Infinite, infinite, Sin upon sin; Sin of not loving Thee, Sin of not trusting Thee. Infinite sin. Lord, I confess to Thee Sadly my sin; All I am, tell I Thee, All I have been. Purge Thou my sin away, Wash Thou my soul this day; Lord, make me clean!
A man can preach the truth. He can be perfectly sound in doctrine, but if there is no love in his heart going out to those whom he addresses, and if he is doing it only professionally, the apostle says he is only sounding brass.
But no one can be a true worker for God and a successful winner of souls without love.
If you are strong-headed, read about Moses and Peter. If you lack courage, look at Elijah. If there is no song in your heart, listen to David. If you are a politician, read Daniel. If you are morally corrupt, read Isaiah. If your heart is cold, read of the beloved disciple, John. If your faith is low, read Paul. If you are getting lazy, learn from James. If you are losing sight of the future, read in Revelation of the Promised Land.
If you cannot come as a saint, come as a sinner. Only come!
Faith is taking God at His Word;.
Only a man who can govern himself is fit to govern other men.
Humility consists not in thinking poorly of ourselves but in not thinking of ourselves at all.
If we love the Lord Jesus Christ the burden of our hearts will be that God may bring us closer together, so that we may love one another and rise above all party feeling.
When I pray, I talk to God, but when I read the Bible, God is talking to me;.
Nothing will silence infidels so quickly as Christians everywhere being united.
Let others praise you. Don’t praise yourself. If we want God to lift us up, let us get down. The lower we get, the higher God will lift us.