A TRAINED EAR
Genesis 18:23-33
Prayer is Spirit-suggested. It needs a strongly bended will. Through that comes the open or trained ear. So we learn God’s plans. We catch the prayer he needs to have prayed. His promise turns into a prayer on our lips, and so it is a prophecy of what he will do. Thus prayer is restrained as well as inspired. Its whole purpose is to get God’s love-wili done through the needed human channels. Prayer’s touchstone is a trained ear,
A STUDY IN MATHEMATICS
Genesis 18:16-23
Co-operation increases efficiency in amazing proportion. Two working together in perfect agreement have fivefold the efficiency of the same two working separately. The old Book says that where one can handle a thousand, two can dispose of ten thousand. This is as true in prayer as in action. A united Church would be an unconquerable Church. But the moment co-operation sacrifices an essential, real power is at the disappearing point. First true though alone; then co-operation.
BAD BARGAINING
Genesis 13:12-18
Bargaining is selfish, even bargaining with God. Jacob bargained with God. Jacob’s kinsfolk seem quite numerous. The real Christ-spirit yields all to the Father because it’s his, and trusts him to be a Father, without bargaining. The real Jesus-spirit in a man helps another because he’s needy. Then there comes an unbargained-for double reward: we are like God, and we open the way for him to be God in full to us and through us.
THE HURTING POINT
Genesis 13:5-11; Genesis 14:14-16
The heart that responds to God always responds to another’s need to the hurting point, if need be. There’s a helping others that has little, if any, of the God-spirit in it. It’s the thing to do; others do it; it’s popular. The touchstone of the real thing is the willingness to do when it costs or hurts. It cost Abraham to help Lot. It cost Jesus to be our Saviour. It will cost to be a real Jesus-helper to others.
THE GREATEST GREATNESS
Mark 10:35-45
The way up is down. True greatness is not in position nor in possessions nor in achievements, but in what one is in himself when he’s alone in the dark. To feed a hungry man in sore need, who doesn’t appreciate your help, even when it means suffering and sacrifice for you—this is the real Christ-spirit. To be like Jesus himself in heart and spirit and action—this is the greatest greatness.
