Weekly Pursuit – Week 1 of May
Verse:
Exo. 30:35 “And you shall make of it incense, a fragrant compound according to the work of a compounder, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.”
Excerpts:
If we would experience the Christian life in a finer way, we shall learn that our prayer must be thoroughly salted…. This element is the cross. God’s coming to us is not a matter of the daily working of the cross. Rather, His coming is altogether in the oil, in the Spirit. However, our going to God requires the cross. We need the cross all the time. The salt here signifies the cross of Christ, His killing death. We need to experience the killing death of Christ in our prayer. I can testify that I have much experience of this. If my motive, intention, and heart are not pure, I am not able to pray. Furthermore, if my spirit has some kind of bias, I cannot pray either. In order to pray, my spirit must be without bias, and my motive and intention must be pure. To be pure in this way requires salt; it requires the cross.
Young people may realize that if they commit sins, they will find it very difficult to pray. But as we grow in the Lord and come to a finer stage in the spiritual life, we shall see that even a little bias in our spirit can keep us from praying properly…. You may still pray if you have bias in your spirit, but deep within you may realize that this is not the kind of prayer the Lord desires. I dare not say whether or not the Lord will answer a prayer that issues from a biased spirit. However, I am assured that this is not the kind of prayer He desires…. Such prayer does not have a pleasant fragrance to Him.
Do you intend to pray? As you are about to pray, you need to be crossed out. Your natural being, your natural way, your natural thought, your natural desire, your natural preference, your natural choice—all must be crossed out. (The Life-study of Exodus, msg. 168)
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