Earlier this year, as I read "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (revised & republished by Banner of Truth, 1973), I found my heart resonated with the heart of the publishers, whose words were written 40 years ago this month:

Without doubt the following pages contain much information which has long been in accessible and practically unknown. If it not, however, a concern merely for the recovery of historical knowledge which is responsible for this reprint. Speaking once of how the Welsh fathers of the eighteenth century had prevailed with God in prayer, and been remarkable for their spiritual usefulness, Elias said, 'It is a consolation to us that the sword and arms they so skilfully used, are in our hands:  may the Lord enable us to handle them!' The supreme value of this volume we judge to be the way in which it reminds us what are the 'sword and arms' of the Church. May God use these pages to further a recovery of the light and power of the gospel at a time when contentment with small things has blighted us all!

The Publishers

June, 1973

As I read through the book, I discovered the words attributed to Elias were an incorrect citation on the part of the publishers –– though indeed it is true that Elias looked back to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist fathers of the previous century. Those words were actually part of a letter some of Elias' brothers in Christ had written to him to express their appreciation to him, as they met at Montgomeryshire for an Association Meeting of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connexion. At that time, in April 1841, Elias was at home under great physical affliction (it was just over a month before he would pass into the Glory everlasting). In their "letter of condolence" to Elias, these men requested Elias' prayers on their behalf as they desired to be equipped with God's power to skillfully use the "sword and arms" as did the fathers... (p. 179-180):

April 30, 1841...

Dear brother, we entreat your prayers for ourselves, that the God of Israel may abide with us. Our fathers prevailed with God in prayer, and were remarkable for spiritual gifts; we are no more grasshoppers in comparison to them. But it is a consolation to us that the sword and arms they so skillfully used, are in our hands:  may the Lord enable us to handle them.

John Elias (1774 -1841) and the other Welsh Calvinistic ministers looked back to the fathers (including William Williams (Pantycelyn), Daniel Rowland, Thomas Charles, Griffith Jones, etc.) because of their remarkable "spiritual usefulness." The 18th century fathers had "skillfully used" the "sword and arms," and these 19th century men men were diligently seeking the Lord for the power He alone could provide, knowing the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. They longed to walk in the ways of the fathers –– to be workers approved and unashamed, and to prove they had not received the grace of God in vain.

I suspect by "sword and arms" these men were referring to Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' arms during the battle against Amalek, while Joshua and his chosen men fought and defeated Amalek with the sword (Exodus 17:8-16). My friends, we are in need not only a return to Word of God but also a return to prayer to God –– not only a return to the sword but to the arms! We have been experiencing some resurgence of Reformed preaching for which I am thankful –– but my question is this:  where is the resurgence in importunate prayer... where are the raised arms?

"What influence the rod of Moses had upon the battle (11): When Moses held up his hand in prayer (so the Chaldee explains it) Israel prevailed, but, when he let down his hand from prayer, Amalek prevailed. To convince Israel that the hand of Moses (with whom they had just now been chiding) contributed more to their safety than their own hands, his rod than their sword, the success rises and falls as Moses lifts up or lets down his hands. It seems, the scale wavered for some time, before it turned on Israel's side. Even the best cause must expect disappointments as an alloy to its successes; though the battle be the Lord's, Amalek may prevail for a time. The reason was, Moses let down his hands. Note, The church's cause is, commonly, more or less successful according as the church's friends are more or less strong in faith and fervent in prayer."

~ Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Exodus 17

Many of you may be familiar with the following verses in Malachi 4 –– the concluding words of the Old Testament –– after which there was silence for 400 years...

5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  6  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. (ESV)

5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (KJV)

In his message "Chief Cause for Decay in the Church" on Malachi 4:1-6, Iain Murray explains that though on first reading we might interpret these verses as a prophecy and a promise of "Gospel unity restored to families –– yet the Gospel often divides families." He went on to clarify that the Biblical meaning of the word "fathers" goes beyond that of the parents of the previous generation to "more remote ancestors" (see Romans 9:5). Murray explained that turning of hearts in this way:

The hearts which the fathers of the Old Testament possessed in the best and the brightest days of Israel, the hearts of the fathers, piety, would be found again in another generation. The piety and the devotion of the fathers –– this would be rekindled and it would reappear in the children. That is the meaning of the verse. He shall turn, he shall restore, He shall bring back the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.

So it is expounded in Luke 1:17 –– the Holy Spirit renders it: "He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." That is to say, hearts which are by nature disobedient – for these hearts will be restored the wisdom, the piety, the grace which was in the fathers. This then was the promise of the verse.

In his commentary on Malachi (included in "The Prophets of the Restoration, or Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: a New Translation with Notes"), Thomas V. Moore (1818-1871) expounds the passage similarly (see pp. 405-407, or pp. 176-178 in Banner of Truth's "A Commentary on Haggai and Malachi," reprinted 1960 & 1968):

The expression, "return the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to the fathers," has usually been explained to mean the restoration of domestic harmony among the people. But this is a very meagre sense of words that close up the utterances of God to his people for twelve generations. Want of domestic concord was not one of the sins charged upon the people, and its removal would hardly be the great work assigned to the Elijah messenger. The meaning is suggested in the words of the angel to Zacharias, in Luke 1:16, 17; where, instead of the clause, "the heart of the sons to the fathers," is put, "the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." This paraphrase indicates that the hearts of the devoted ancestors were to live again in the obedience of their repentant posterity, and that the backslidden sons were to be restored to the piety of their fathers. The piety of the fathers had been referred to repeatedly before, (see 1:2; 2:5, 6; 3:4,) and the promise is, that this piety should live again in the children, under the Elijah call to repentance; and it is threatened, that if this is not the result, the land shall be laid under the terrible herem. This was  a devotion to destruction, such as was done to the Canaanites by the judicial act of God. As these guilty nations were cut off because of their sins, so should the people who had taken their place on the soil of the land of promise, or those who in turn would take their place on the covenants of promise, if they imitated their sinful example. This was fulfilled five hundred years afterward, when the chosen people were finally rejected, and the awful blood was upon them and their children, according to their own imprecation. And to this hour, the soil that was wet with that blood lies under the terrible herem, and will so continue, until that Elijah call that shall bring back the heart of David, of Isaiah, and of Nathaniel to their exiled posterity, enabling them to see him whom they have pierced, and to cry, "My Lord and my God." And by the same principle of interpretation that we have applied to the previous verse, do we extend this warning to every age of the Church, and find in it the germ of the solemn admonition of Paul in discussing the same subject, (Rom. 11:20, 21,)  "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee." (HT: http://archive.org/stream/prophetsofrestor00moor/prophetsofrestor00moor_djvu.txt for the text.)

I wasn't familiar with the Hebrew word herem or cherem, so I looked it up in Strong's Concordance... "physical (as shutting in) a net (either literally or figuratively); usually a doomed object; abstr. extermination:--(ac-)curse(-d, -d thing), dedicated thing, things which should have been utterly destroyed, (appointed to) utter destruction, devoted (thing)."

May God turn the hearts of the fathers to us, and give us ears to hear, and impart to us a holy fear, that we might tremble at His Word and be shaken out of our sinful presumption, and repent and humble ourselves, that we might take heed to this grave warning, so we might cast off any and all fleshly means and scatter them as unclean things! ("There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.... In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death." ~ Prov. 14:12, 25-26)... so we might zealously embrace, jealously guard, and skillfully use God's own supernatural provision for His Church:  the sword and arms!

And by the same principle of interpretation that we have applied to the previous verse, do we extend this warning to every age of the Church, and find in it the germ of the solemn admonition of Paul in discussing the same subject, (Rom. 11:20, 21,)  "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee."

Just over four years ago, in March 2009, I began this website. In the years prior to that time, I'd begun to see things seemed awry and amiss in some way in the Church, and that somehow we were falling short of what God intended, but it was all pretty vague to me... At first I began to look into emergent/missional theology as a solution. But then, all glory to God, I was set right, as I purchased Martyn Lloyd-Jones' (the Doctor's) commentary on First John ("Life in Christ"). Through reading the Doctor's words there and elsewhere, I was enabled to begin to go back to the Word of God (to Whom can we go?!) to see God's diagnosis and God's solution for God's Church, which is found in Acts 6:4:  But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Or, as the 19th century Welsh Calvinistic fathers put it:  "the sword and arms" of the Church. (Please see my posts here and here for more on that.)

In regard to myself, over the past few years, God has given me a burden to pray for the Church to be reformed and revived, and He has continued to increase that burden. I recently wrote that "I am ten thousand times more convinced, if possible, or I would say I am ten thousand times ten thousand times more convinced of the vital necessity for us to be praying for revival than I was when I first started this blog four years ago." Part of my journey has been chronicled on this site. And, along with that burden, in spite of many temptations to despair and to quit, God has been faithful to sustain me and to work in me both the desire and the ability to pray for the Church to be reformed and revived ~ Phil. 2:12-14; Heb. 13:20-21. I still feel I am a tyro in prayer (that word "tyro" one ML-J used quite often). I don't believe I have really prayed through the power of the Holy Spirit and prevailed in prayer like Jacob more than a dozen times in my life –– but like Elijah, I have sometimes been surprised to find that in praying, the Holy Dove has descended, and I have prayed! Isaiah 26:12; Psalm 118:23; Psalm 115:1!

Both the Bible and Church history provide us with a plumb line by which we ought to judge ourselves. Studying the Bible as well as studying Church history are wholly necessary to the Church's spiritual health and welfare. It's far too easy for us to discard the Bible, and it's also far too easy for us to discard the rich heritage of Church history. It's too easy for us to engage in what C.S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery," –– to think that we in the 21st century are so far advanced that the Bible and our God-fearing fathers have nothing at all to teach us. Scripture has some very strong words for people with such attitudes:

Hosea 5
10  The princes of Judah have become
like those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11  Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after filth.
12  But I am like a moth to Ephraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

My friends, are we but grasshoppers compared with the fathers? Are we not in a day of small things? Has not our contentment with small things blighted us?

Along with the publishers of the Elias book, my prayer is that God may be pleased to use the pages of my blog (as well as my prayers) to remind us of the vital necessity of using the "sword and arms of the Church'"; "to further a recovery of the light and power of the gospel at a time when contentment with small things has blighted us all!;" and to strengthen us in faith and stir us up in fervent prayer...

Or, in the words of Malachi:  may God be gracious to us and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children!

Or, as Iain Murray put it:  may God restore to us "the wisdom, the piety and the grace that was in the fathers," that the hearts of the fathers for the sword and arms would appear in us, that our hearts here in the 21st century would be rekindled to treasure and to skillfully use the sword and arms, and prevail with God in prayer as the fathers did, that the Word of the Lord might speed ahead and be glorified throughout all the nations to the praise, honor, and glory of God!

"Prayers and pains through faith in Christ will do anything." ~ John Eliot

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At this point, I'm not expecting to do much of anything on my WP site until closer to the July 15 date. If Xanga does end up shutting down, Lord willing, I'm hoping to open up another site on WP devoted to carrying over this site there, but the name "tentofmeeting" was already taken there (Grr!), so I'm waiting on that. My naphtalideer.wordpress.com site will be a place of contact no matter what, because even if Xanga does continue, there will be some downtime to get things ported over to the new system here, so I'll be providing updates through my WordPress site. I'll be periodically repeating this announcement on my blog here in the coming month.

As I've considered this time of transition, there have been times I've sinned as I've taken my eyes off Jesus, and I've become distressed and worried; and I've continued to be tempted to feel the same way... but as I look back over my blogging years here at Xanga, and look ahead not knowing how things will look in just a month, all I can say is that I'm thankful to God for the opportunity He has given me here, and that it has been a privilege and blessing be able to blog here –– but first and foremost I am thankful that God unconditionally set His love upon me in Christ and chose me to be His child before time began, and has written my name in heaven! ~ Luke 10:20.

I usually devote the comments section below to prayer; so as God leads you, please feel free to add a prayer there. However, if you have any questions or there's any way I can assist you, I welcome your questions and comments below as well.

Yours in Christ, seeking your joy, for the reviving of Christ's Church, for the joy of the nations, for the joy and glory and renown of God Himself,

Karen

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In my last post, "Will YOU not pray with ME one hour?", I wrote about Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. As I recently reread those accounts (Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46), I was particularly encouraged by Luke's account in which we read that our Lord was strengthened by an angel.

Luke 22:39  And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40  And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41  And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42  saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43  And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45  And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46  and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

Here is the only begotten Son of God, Immanuel, God Incarnate, the Head of the Church, by Whom and for Whom all things were created –– and yet, what a Divine mystery it is to read of an angel coming to minister to our Lord Himself in the midst of this time of prayer! What a Divine reminder to us of our need for such strengthening as we seek God's face in prayer! Not that we ought to be praying specifically for an angel to strengthen us (though God might possibly choose to work that way, according to His sovereign good pleasure), but should we not cry out to God to strengthen us to walk in the works He has ordained for us, including this work of prayer? God forbid we forget that without Him we can do nothing!

Luke speaks of Jesus' agony (Luke 22:44), and in his commentary on Matthew 26, Matthew Henry describes that agony in three senses. One, in "His bearing the iniquities which the Father laid upon Him," and, two, of Christ having "a full and clear prospect of all the sufferings before Him." We know that agony in that first sense applies singularly to our Lord Himself, for He rendered Himself up as the spotless Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. And, in the second sense, though all who are Christ's will suffer, our Lord's sufferings were clearly distinct from ours in that He was bearing all our sins in His sinless body on the tree and was enduring the weight of the full wrath of God which we deserved.

Matthew Henry wrote of a third sense of Christ's agony which does apply to all Christians, that in which our Lord "engaged in an encounter with the powers of darkness" –– though yes, our Savior was engaged in an encounter the likes of which we can't begin to imagine, as all the powers of hell and darkness were unleashed on Him with all the devil's hatred, violence, fierceness, and fury. However, since we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and translated into God's marvelous light, having been born again through the Seed of the woman (through Christ), we are now enlisted as soldiers of Christ who are now at war with the devil. (Gen. 3:15  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.)

The word "agony" in Luke 22 is the Greek word "agonia" (74):  a struggle (properly, the state), i.e. (figuratively) anguish:--agony. (Please note: all references I'm using here are from Strong's Concordance). A related word,  agonizomai, is used to describing Ephaphras' labor of prayer for the Church at Colossae in Colossians 4:12 ("struggling" (ESV) or "labouring fervently" (KJV)).

12  Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13  For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

12  Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. 13  For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.

agonizomai (75):  to struggle, literally (to compete for a prize), figuratively (to contend with an adversary), or genitive case (to endeavor to accomplish something):--fight, labor fervently, strive.

Both agonizomai and agonia come from that same Greek root word agon (73):

properly, a place of assembly (as if led), i.e. (by implication) a contest (held there); figuratively, an effort or anxiety:--conflict, contention, fight, race.

So often we find ourselves saying things like this, "All I can do is pray," as if prayer is not work! How we have become dupes of the devil! May God have pity on us and may God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, lead us into all truth, plucking up and pulling down all false doctrine and all our misconceptions we have about prayer, and opening the eyes of our understanding to Biblical truth. As we look at these few definitions above, we can see that prayer is work! Struggle! Anguish! Agony! Contending! Endeavoring! Fighting! Laboring Fervently! Striving! A Contest! A Contention! A Fight! A Race!

Anytime the children of God are agonizing in prayer by the Spirit of God, according to the mind of Christ and according to the will of God, anytime we pray for God's Kingdom to come and the will of God to be done and not our own will, anytime we are praying for the Church of God to grow up and mature unto completion in Christ, and anytime we are praying for the Gospel of Christ to run swiftly, to have free course and be glorified throughout the earth, to the praise and renown of Jesus Christ in all the nations –– we too are engaged in "an encounter with the powers of darkness," we are indeed in a contest, an effort, a contention, a fight against the power of darkness – just as the apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:

12  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

How often do we forget that we are not in a fleshly battle and that we cannot expect to wage this warfare as God intends if we attempt to war according to our flesh...

II Corinthians 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6  being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

How often do we forget that we need the divine power of God to do all things, including to pray? The apostle Paul wrote that as he labored to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, he did so by struggling (ESV) / striving (KJV) (agonizomai) with divine power (not by his own power):

Colossians 1:29  For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Colossians 1:29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Many Christians talk about the whole armor of God, they may have even memorized and be able to recite all the parts of the armor –– and yet, how easy is it for us to neglect to take up one of the most vital parts of the armor –– that of prayer?

10  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15  and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17  and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18  praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19  and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20  for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

That is why the devil loves to distract us from using the whole armor of God, and, in particular, this labor of prayer, this agony of prayer –– for the whole armor is God's appointed means for God's people to be strong and to stand firm against the devil's schemes! Should not the people of God be earnest in putting on the armor of God? Sadly, we find many Christians and many churches have fallen into Satan's deceitful snare, and we end up being earnest about and busying ourselves with any and all things, sometimes each and every day of the week (and I'm not saying many of these activities or programs are bad things, per se) –– any and all things that is, except for prayer! How we have become like Martha, and have missed out on the one thing necessary!

Or, let's be clear about this –– if the devil can't get us distracted from this labor of prayer, he manages to distort our understanding of this labor of prayer. Remember that the devil is a liar and the father of lies. Many Christians do talk about prayer, and many Christians may even be engaged in prayer of some sort or another, but do we have a Biblical understanding of prayer? Do we settle for the devil's lie, and view prayer as merely a "domestic intercom" rather than the "wartime walkie-talkie" that God intends for it to be –– as John Piper describes below in this excerpt from his sermon "Put in the Fire for the Sake of Prayer" (John 16:16-24).

Christ for the World We Sing
(Samuel Wolcott, 1869)

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with loving zeal,
The poor and them that mourn, the faint and overborne,
Sin sick and sorrow worn, whom Christ doth heal.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with fervent prayer;
The wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed,
Redeemed at countless cost, from dark despair.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with one accord;
With us the work to share, with us reproach to dare,
With us the cross to bear, for Christ our Lord.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with joyful song;
The newborn souls, whose days, reclaimed from error’s ways,
Inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong.

Psalm 57:7  My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. 8  Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. 9  I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. 10  For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. 11  Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth. (KJV)

Fix our hearts, O God, on You and on Your Kingdom, so we might sing and give praise unto You with joyful song among the nations. We confess our hearts are often fixed on so many other things apart from You and Your Kingdom and Your purposes. And we confess that we may be choosing the good things, but they may not be the best things. Help us to lay aside each and every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us. Forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Renew us and turn our affections once again to You so we might praise You as we ought and offer ourselves to You with a whole heart to walk in the works You have ordained for us.

Fill our hearts with a loving zeal for Your Gospel and the glory and honor of Your name. Having been called out of darkness into Your marvelous light and having been given the ministry of reconciliation, may we walk worthy of the calling You have given us: to be ambassadors for Christ and to shine as lights in this dark world. Fill us with a loving zeal for the world so we might be fervent in prayer for the world and be bold in our proclamation of Your Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to a world filled with lost souls, for in the Gospel alone is Your righteousness revealed: the just shall live by faith and that there is salvation found in no other name but the name of Jesus.

Fill our hearts with a loving zeal for You and for our brothers and sisters in Christ. May our love for You knit us together with Your children who are born again by Your Spirit and filled with Your Spirit, all who are seeking Your will be done here on earth and Your glory to be manifested here on the earth in the revival of Your Church and the ingathering of lost souls to Your Kingdom by the lifting up of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. May Christ's love constrain and propel Your Church to stand fast in one spirit and strive together for the faith of the Gospel.

Lord Jesus, You are our Good Shepherd. We are Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, and we confess we are all prone to wander. Forgive us and have mercy upon us, for we know we too easily sway and gad about and how quickly our hearts become unfixed. Send Your Holy Spirit to purify us with Your holy fire, to awaken us out of our slumber and lethargy and lukewarmness so we might be zealous and repent. Make us single-eyed for You and Your Kingdom, so we might be diligent and make the most of the time, to work while it is day because the days are evil, that we might praise You among the peoples and sing unto You among the nations. How will the world know of Your great mercies and truth in Jesus Christ apart from our singing the new song You have put into our hearts?