Lesson 44: The Cure of Unbelief, part 4
Now follows a still wider application. Prayer is the reaching out after God and the unseen; fasting, the letting go of all that is of the seen and temporal. While ordinary Christians imagine that all that is not positively forbidden is lawful to them, and seek to retain as much as possible of this world with its property, its literature, and its enjoyments, the truly consecrated soul is as the soldier who carries only what he needs for the warfare. Laying aside every weight, as well as the easily besetting sin, afraid of entangling himself with the affairs of this life, he seeks to lead a Nazarite life as one specially set apart for the Lord and His service. Without such voluntary separation, even from what is lawful, no one will attain power in prayer: this kind goes not out but by fasting and prayer.
Disciples of Jesus! who have asked the Master to teach you to pray, come now and accept His lessons. He tells you that prayer is the path to faith, strong faith, that can cast out devils. He tells you, “If you have faith, nothing shall be impossible to you.” Let this glorious promise encourage you to pray much. Is the prize not worth the price? Shall we not give up all to follow Jesus in the path He opens to us here? Shall we not, if need be, fast? Shall we not do anything that neither the body nor the world around hinder us in our great life-work—having intercourse with our God in prayer, that we may become men of faith, whom He can use in His work of saving the world?
Prayer: Oh Savior, You are the Author and the Perfecter of our faith. Teach us what it is to let You live in us by Your Holy Spirit. Lord, our efforts and prayers for grace to believe have had so little effect. We know why it was: we sought for strength in ourselves to be given from You. Holy Jesus, do at length teach us the mystery of Your life in us, and how You, by Your Spirit, undertake to live in us the life of faith, to see to it that our faith shall not fail. Oh let us see that our faith will just be a part of that wonderful prayer-life which You give in them who expect their training for the ministry of intercession, not in word and thought only, but in the Holy Anointing You give, the inflowing of the Spirit of Your own life. And teach us how, in fasting and prayer, we may grow up to the faith to which nothing shall be impossible.