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Time to Retreat

A devotional by John Piper for reading on March 2nd

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. ( James 4:8 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded. )

If you are hungry for the fullness of God ( Ephesians 3:19 19 and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God. ), what should be your next move?

Here is one suggestion. Take a personal prayer retreat.

James says, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”

Consider Charles Finney’s experience. He said that God gave him many fillings with the Holy Spirit:

That went through me, as it seemed, body and soul. I immediately found myself endued with such power from on high that a few words dropped here and there to individuals were the means of their immediate conversion. My words seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a hammer. Multitudes can attest to this. . . . Sometimes I would find myself in a great measure empty of this power. I would go and visit, and find that I made no saving impression. I would exhort and pray with the same results. I would then set apart a day for private fasting and prayer. . . . After humbling myself and crying out for help, the power would return upon me with all its freshness. This has been the experience of my life.

John Hyde and R. M’Cheyene Patterson waited before God for thirty days leading up to a missionary conference in India. After a week’s break, George Turner joined them, and for twenty-one more days and nights, they prayed and praised God for a mighty outpouring of his power. Over the years, thousands came into the kingdom through the prayers of these men.

Can you find a time and place? One missionary in India used to get on the train, ride to the next stop, get off, and sit half a day in the railway waiting room, where no one knew him, in order to seek God in “solitude.” Planning is the key.

Take a Bible, a hymnal, a note pad, a concordance, and a solid devotional book on prayer or the Spirit or revival. Let the Spirit guide you in seeking the Lord.

God is willing and eager to meet you: “Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts” ( Malachi 3:7 7 From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return? ; Zechariah 1:3 3 Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. ).

Pour over the Scriptures. Let them be your prayer.

Pray with Moses, “Show me your glory” ( Exodus 33:18 18 And he said, Show me, I pray thee, thy glory. ).



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