Andrew Murray (1828-1917) was the son of a Dutch missionary sent to South Africa. He ministered for 60 years in South Africa, praying that “May not a single moment of my life be spent outside the light, love, and joy of God’s presence, and not a moment without the entire surrender of myself as a vessel for him to fill full of his Spirit and his love.”
Note from Randy: Today’s reading at first may seem shocking – but if you encounter a secular professor of “religion”, you may meet someone who has read much of the Bible, but has yet to personally encounter the God of the Bible. The Bible points us to the God of the Word – let’s love the Bible, read it, and study it; but don’t let it become mere academic knowledge.
Christian! There is a terrible danger to which you stand exposed in your inner chamber. You are in danger of substituting Prayer and Bible Study for living fellowship with God, the living interchange of giving Him your love, your heart, and your life, and receiving from Him His love, His life, and His spirit.
Your needs and their expression, your desire to pray humbly and earnestly and believingly, may so occupy you, that the light of His countenance and the joy of His love cannot enter you.
Your Bible Study may so interest you, and so waken pleasing religious sentiment, that – yes – the very Word of God may become a substitute for God Himself, the greatest hindrance to fellowship because it keeps the soul occupied instead of leading it to God Himself.
And we go out into the day’s work without the power of an abiding fellowship, because in our morning devotions the blessing was not secured.
What a difference it would make in the life of many, if everything in the closet were subordinate to this one thing: I want through the day to walk with God; my morning hour is the time when my Father enters into a definite engagement with me and I with Him that it shall be so.
What strength would be imparted by the consciousness: God has taken charge of me, He is going with me Himself; I am going to do His will all day in His strength; I am ready for all that may come.
Yes, what a nobility would come into life, if secret prayer were not only an asking for some new sense of comfort, or light, or strength, but the giving away of life just for one day into the sure and safe keeping of a Mighty and Faithful God.
“Pray to thy Father which seeth in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly.”
Where the secret fellowship with the Father in spirit and in truth is maintained, the public life before men will carry the reward. The Father who sees in secret takes charge and rewards openly. Separation from men, in solitude with God – this is the sure, the only way to live in intercourse with men in the power of God’s blessing.
From The Inner Chamber and The Inner Life, by Andrew Murray.
