A Practical Question: Prayer

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 7
Let me ask you a practical question. How much, today, have you prayed for the Church of God? How much have you prayed for the saints of God? and how much do you pray every day of your life? How much is it upon your heart as a burden because it relates to the interests of Christ and the glory of Christ? How much do you seek solitude with God, and retirement with Him, and long to be at home with God, to shut the world out and yourself in, that you may be there with God about those wonderful interests of Christ, because you have got communion with His mind about that which is so dear to Him on this earth? I tell you, the lack of all this is simply the result of the want of separation; and it is not merely a person being separated outwardly. It is possible for saints to satisfy themselves if they have outwardly escaped from the wreck and the corruption that is all around. They say, "Oh well, I have escaped from the corruption that is outside; my body is not in it." But the question is, Is your heart outside the world, and is your spirit separated from it as much as your body? Do you think, if I may speak strongly, that what the blessed God wants is a number of individuals brought together into a place before Him, but whose hearts are far away elsewhere? Do you think it is a mere question of what is outside and seen? Beloved friends, what He is looking for is the affection of a heart and the earnestness of a soul that has found His own Son in heaven. If it is merely a question of your bodily presence, while your heart and affections are outside, what I say is, and I say it with all gentleness, "My son, give me thine heart." Pro. 23:2626My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. (Proverbs 23:26).
This is where the feebleness is; it is this want of separation. In w a r d separateness would lead to outward separateness; but outward separateness will never produce inward separateness. If your heart and affections, your intelligence, your inner man, are separated to God, then your body, as a vessel, will soon follow that which controls it.