Prayer

Spiritual life is maintained by spiritual food. The habit of devotional Bible study and prayer must be maintained if we are to perfect holiness. In a time when a great flood of reading matter pours forth from printing presses everywhere, when the very ether is filled with thousands of voices, pleading for a hearing, it is incumbent upon us to close our eyes and our ears to much of that which is seeking entrance to our minds, and devote ourselves to God's book - the Book of all books, the Book of Life.

If we cease to be the people of the Book, we are lost, and our mission has failed. Only as we daily talk to God in prayer and listen to His voice speaking to us from the Bible, can we hope to live the life that is "hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3 ), or finish His work.

Prayer is a two-way conversation in which believers listen to God and talk to Him. "Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend." - Steps to Christ, p. 93. "Through sincere prayer we are brought into connection with the mind of the Infinite," but "without unceasing prayer and diligent watching we are in danger of growing careless and of deviating from the right path." - Steps to Christ, pp. 97, 95.

The home is the cornerstone of the church, and a Christian home is a house of prayer. "Fathers and mothers" says the Spirit of Prophecy, "however pressing your business, do not fail to gather your family around God's altar. . . . Those who would live patient, loving, cheerful lives must pray." - The Ministry of Healing, p. 393.