December 20

Unselfish prayers

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men” (1 Tim. 2:1).
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved” (Rom. 10:1).

The unselfish desires for others, that exhale from human hearts under the influence of the love which Christ plants in us, do come down in blessings on others, as the moisture drawn up by the sun may descend in fructifying rain on far-off pastures of the wilderness. We help one another when we pray for one another.
—Alexander Maclaren.


There are innumerable people who have reached a crisis in their life; they are “white already to harvest.” We find them everywhere, not only in the foreign field, but in the people living beside us, and the way we discern it is not by intellect, not by suggestions, but by prayer. Think of the countless crises in people’s lives at this time; they are at the parting of the ways. “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
—Oswald Chambers.

Not for My name thy prayer was made,
Not for My sake thy praises paid.
My gift is sacrifice; My blood
Was shed for human brotherhood,
And till thy brother’s woe is thine
Thy heartbeat knows no throb of Mine.
Come, leave thy selfish hopes, and see
The birthright of humanity!
Shun sorrow not; be brave to bear
The world’s dark weight of sin and care;
Spend and be spent, yearn, suffer, give,
And in thy brethren learn to live.

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