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From the Pastor’s Desk
"The Robinson's Crusoe's Text"
Desperate Need Demands Determined Prayer
The question we must ask though is, “Are we desperate?”
"Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. (Luke 11:5-6)
Prayer is natural to all human beings. Made in the image of God our inward being cannot live without relating to its Creator. Disastrous events, such as 911, demonstrate this instinctive nature of prayer as people cry out for help.
"Saint Augustine said the best disposition for praying is that of being desolate, forsaken, stripped of everything. When God is all you have, it is a basic instinct to call out to Him with all that you have."
We are too much like the church of Laodicea
"You say, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. (Revelation 3:14-21)
Instead of the church of Laodicea asking, seeking, knocking - it is Christ who is knocking - "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. (3:20)
Charles Spurgeon once preached a sermon called "The Robinson's Crusoe's Text.
Robinson Crusoe has been wrecked. He is left on the desert island all alone. His case is very pitiable one. He goes to his bed, and he is smitten with fever. This fever lasts upon him long, and he has no one to wait upon him - none even to bring him a drink of cold water. He is ready to perish. He had been accustomed to sin, and had all the vices of a sailor; but his hard case brought him to think. He opens a Bible which he finds in his chest, and he lights upon this passage, "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me". That night he prayed for the first time in his life, and ever after there was a hope in God, which marked the birth of heavenly life. Robinson Crusoe's text was Psalm 50:15 - "...call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me."
Again, our trouble is that we often fail to see our trouble. We think we are rich when we are poor; we think we see when we are blind; we think we are clothed when we are naked.
Desperate need demands determined prayer
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