“I desire then that in every place the men should pray…” (1 Timothy 2:8)
Like ivy or vines reclaim an abandoned house - a church without prayer is overcome by the wilderness.
Aiden was born on a small farm in La Jose, PA and grew up as a teenager in Akron, OH. While on his way home from work at a tire company (of course - it was Akron!) he overheard a preacher share about the grace and mercy of God for sinners and his life forever changed. Aiden would give 44 years of his life in ministry. He started in a storefront church in a small town in West Virginia with a population of less than 1,400 people. For 33 of those years he served a church in the rough southside of Chicago, IL. Aiden passed in 1963, and very few of the sermons he preached for 44 years exist today. What people remember most about Aiden are a few of his books and mostly his prayers. In fact Aiden continues to impact my devotion and prayer life today. You may have heard of him by his full name: A.W. Tozer. As you go before the Lord today I want to challenge you in your prayer closets to remember his words:
“It is written of Moses that he “went in before the Lord to speak with Him … and he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel.” This is the Biblical norm from which we depart to our own undoing and to the everlasting injury of the souls of men. No man has any moral right to go before the people who has not first been long before the Lord. No man has any right to speak to men about God who has not first spoken to God about men. God is looking for those with whom He can do the impossible– what a pity that we plan only the things that we can do by ourselves. The church that is not jealously protected by mighty intercession and sacrificial labors will before long become the abode of every evil bird and the hiding place for unsuspected corruption. The creeping wilderness will soon take over that church that trusts in its own strength and forgets to watch and pray.”
Jesus’ words in the Garden of Gethsemane guide our moments today: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)