Murray

Prayer and Teaching of the Disciples

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Acts 13:2, 3 (NASB)
While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

A Theme to Remember:
Dedicating someone to the Lord’s work is not only a privilege; it’s a vitally important task. No one whose life is fully devoted to serving God – whether they are a pastor, a missionary, a Christian teacher, or are otherwise engaged in full-time ministry – will fully succeed without the regular, interceding prayers of fellow believers.

Words to Remember:
Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, and confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain what we seek for the Kingdom of God.
–Andrew Murray

A Prayer of Jesus

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John 17 (NLT)
When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone in all the earth. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life–to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to do. And now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
“I have told these men about you. They were in the world, but then you gave them to me. Actually, they were always yours, and you gave them to me; and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the words you gave me; and they accepted them and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.
“My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. And all of them, since they are mine, belong to you; and you have given them back to me, so they are my glory! Now I am departing the world; I am leaving them behind and coming to you. Holy Father, keep them and care for them–all those you have given me–so that they will be united just as we are. During my time here, I have kept them safe. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.
“And now I am coming to you. I have told them many things while I was with them so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They are not part of this world any more than I am. Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth. As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself entirely to you so they also might be entirely yours.
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father–that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are–I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you’ve given me to be with me, so they can see my glory. You gave me the glory because you loved me even before the world began!
“O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. And I have revealed you to them and will keep on revealing you. I will do this so that your love for me may be in them and I in them.”

A Theme to Remember:
That the Father may be glorified in the Son:it is to this end that Jesus on His throne in glory will do all we ask in His Name. Every answer to prayer He gives will have this as its object: when there is no prospect of this object being obtained, He will not answer. It follows as a matter of course that this must be with us, as with Jesus, the essential element in our petitions: the glory of the Father must be the aim and end, the very soul and life of our prayer. (Adapted from Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer)

Words to Remember:
Christ is the Morning Star who, when the night of this world is past brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting day.
–Venerable Bede

A Prayer of Jesus

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John 14:16 (NLT)
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you.

A Theme to Remember:
To pray in Christ’s name is therefore to be identified with Christ as to our righteousness, and to be identified with Christ in our desires by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. To pray in the Spirit, to pray according to the will of the Father, to pray in Christ’s name, are identical expressions. The Father Himself loveth us, and is willing to hear us: two intercessors, Christ the Advocate above, and the Holy Ghost, the Advocate within, are the gifts of His love. (Adapted from Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer)

Words to Remember:
We do not need to wait for the Holy Spirit to come: He came on the day of Pentecost and He has never left the church.
–John R.W. Stott

A Prayer of Acknowledgement

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Jeremiah 32:17-19 (KJV)
Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name, Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

A Theme to Remember:
Those who let God be Father always and in everything, who live their whole lives in the Father’s presence and love, who allow God in all the greatness of His love to be a Father to them, they will experience most gloriously that a life in God’s infinite Fatherliness and continual answers to prayer are inseparable. (Adapted from Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer)

Words to Remember:
A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our helper He amid the flood,
Of mortal ills prevailing.
–Martin Luther

A Prayer for Times of Weakness

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Jeremiah 1:6 (KJV)
Then said I, “Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.”

A Theme to Remember:
There are now still many to whom the Lord puts the same question, and who cannot, until it has been answered, get the aid requested. Our prayers must not be a vague appeal to His mercy, an indefinite cry for blessing, but the distinct expression of definite need. Not that His loving heart does not understand our cry, or is not ready to hear. But He desires it for our own sakes. Such definite prayer teaches us to know our own needs better. It demands time, and thought, and self-scrutiny to find out what really is our greatest need. It searches us and puts us to the test as to whether our desires are honest and real, such as we are ready to persevere in. It leads us to judge whether our desires are according to God’s Word, and whether we really believe that we shall receive the things we ask. It helps us to wait for the special answer, and to mark it when it comes. (Adapted from Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer)

Words to Remember:
Whoever posses God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.
–Teresa of Avila