A Word of Gratitude
Below are excerpts from a letter I sent out this week to a group of very special men and women who come together every Sunday during Scofield’s corporate worship in order to pray that God would be honored in a variety of ways and through a variety of people, including me as the pastor/teacher. I wanted you to see it just because they really are quite special, and because I thought it was a good reminder regarding the power of intercessory prayer. Here they are:
“One of my heroes of old, J. Oswald Sanders, wrote that prayer ‘is the most ancient, most universal, most intense expression . . . . It touches infinite extremes, for it is at once the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try and the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on high. It is indeed the Christian’s vital breath and native air.’ Sanders is spot on in his assessment. Prayer is fundamental; life-giving. It is the means by which our souls plunge into the deep well which is the heart of God.
“Of course, you already know this, as is clearly evidenced by your faithful commitment to intercede for Scofield’s corporate worship experience, and, in particular, me as Scofield’s pastor-teacher. Regularly you bow your sould before the Infinite One to beseech his blessings on all that is part of this corner of Christ’s Body. Indeed, you model the kind of thing of which Sanders writes. Prayer is obviously your ‘vital breath and native air.’
“Because this is so I just want to say ‘thank you.’ Thank you for praying for someone whose own fraities and fears must be wrestled with each Sunday morning. Thank you for prayerfully tilling the soil of my own soul, and the souls of the many who gather for corporate worship. Thank you for believing that God is very big, that his Word is life changing, that he has a plan for this church, and that he is deserving of our very best. Please know that without you Scofield would be a remarkably lesser place.”
There is a bit more that I write to these dear saints. Perhaps by reading these thoughts you too will, as was I when I penned them, be further motivated regarding the vitality and vision which is faithful intercession before the Ancient Throne.