The Kneeling Christian
THE KNEELING CHRISTIAN
By AN UNKNOWN CHRISTIAN
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
A traveller in China visited
a heathen temple on a great feast-day. Many were the
worshippers of the hideous idol enclosed in a sacred
shrine. The visitor noticed that most of the devotees
brought with them small pieces of paper on which prayers
had been written or printed. These they would wrap up in
little balls of stiff mud and fling at the idol. He
enquired the reason for this strange proceeding, and was
told that if the mud ball stuck fast to the idol, then the
prayer would assuredly be answered; but if the mud fell
off, the prayer was rejected by the god.
We may smile at this peculiar
way of testing the acceptability of a prayer. But is it not
a fact that the majority of Christian men and women who
pray to a Living God know very little about real prevailing
prayer? Yet prayer is the key which unlocks the door of
God's treasure-house.
It is not too much to say
that all real growth in the spiritual life-all victory over
temptation, all confidence and peace in the presence of
difficulties and dangers, all repose of spirit in times of
great disappointment or loss, all habitual communion with
God-depend upon the practice of secret prayer.
This book was written by
request, and with much hesitancy. It goes forth with much
prayer. May He Who said, "Men ought always to pray,
and not to faint," "teach us to pray."
1. GOD'S GREAT NEED
2. ALMOST INCREDIBLE PROMISES
3. "ASK OF ME AND I WILL GIVE"
4. ASKING FOR SIGNS
5. WHAT IS PRAYER?
6. HOW SHALL I PRAY?
7. MUST I AGONIZE?
8. DOES GOD ALWAYS ANSWER PRAYER?
9. ANSWERS TO PRAYER
10. HOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYER
11. HINDRANCES TO PRAYER
12. WHO MAY PRAY?
"GOD Wondered." This
is a very striking thought! The very boldness of the idea
ought surely to arrest the attention of every earnest
Christian man, woman and child. A wondering God! Why, how
staggered we might well be if we knew the cause of God's
"wonder"! Yet we find it to be, apparently, a very
little thing. But if we are willing to consider the matter
carefully, we shall discover it to be one of the greatest
possible importance to every believer on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nothing else is so momentous -- so vital -- to our
spiritual welfare.
God "wondered that there
was no intercessor" (Isa. lix. 16) -- 'none to
interpose" (R.V., marg.). But this was in the days of
long ago, before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
"full of grace and truth" -- before the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit, full of grace and power, "helping
our infirmity," "Himself making intercession for
us" and in us (Rom. viii. 26). Yes, and before the truly
amazing promises of our Savior regarding prayer; before men
knew very much about prayer; in the days when sacrifices for
their sins loomed larger in their eyes than supplication for
other sinners.
Oh, how great must be God's
wonder today! For how few there are among us who know what
prevailing prayer really is! Every one of us would confess
that we believe in prayer, yet how many of us truly believe
in the power of, prayer? Now, before we go a step farther,
may the writer most earnestly implore you not to read
hurriedly what is contained in these chapters. Much -- very
much -- depends upon the way in which every reader receives
what is here recorded. For everything depends upon
prayer.
Why are many Christians so
often defeated? Because they pray so little. Why are many
church-workers so often discouraged and disheartened? Because
they pray so little.
Why do most men see so few
brought "out of darkness to light" by their
ministry? Because they pray so little.
Why are not our churches simply
on fire for God? Because there is so little real prayer.
The Lord Jesus is as powerful
today as ever before. The Lord Jesus is as anxious for men to
be saved as ever before. His arm is not shortened that it
cannot save: but He cannot stretch forth His arm unless we
pray more -- and more really.
We may be assured of this --
the secret of all failure is our failure in secret
prayer.
If God "wondered" in
the days of Isaiah, we need not be surprised to find that in
the days of His flesh our Lord "marvelled." He
marvelled at the unbelief of some -- unbelief which actually
prevented Him from doing any mighty work in their cities
(Mark vi. 6).
But we must remember that those
who were guilty of this unbelief saw no beauty in Him that
they should desire Him, or believe on Him. What then must His
"marvel" be today, when He sees amongst us who do
truly love and adore Him, so few who really "stir
themselves up to take hold of God" (Isa. Ixiv. 7).
Surely there is nothing so absolutely astonishing as a
practically prayerless Christian? These are eventful and
ominous days. In fact, there are many evidences that these
are "the last days" in which God promised to pour
out His Spirit -- the Spirit of supplication -- upon all
flesh (Joel ii. 28). Yet the vast majority of professing
Christians scarcely know what "supplication" means;
and very many of our churches not only have no
prayer-meeting, but sometimes unblushingly condemn such
meetings, and even ridicule them.
The Church of England,
recognizing the importance of worship and prayer, expects her
clergy to read prayers in Church every morning and
evening.
But when this is done, is it
not often in an empty church? And are not the prayers
frequently raced through at a pace which precludes real
worship? "Common prayer," too, often must
necessarily be rather vague and indefinite.
And what of those churches
where the old-fashioned weekly prayer-meeting is retained?
Would not "weakly" be the more appropriate word? C.
H. Spurgeon had the joy of being able to say that he
conducted a prayer-meeting every Monday night "which
scarcely ever numbers less than from a thousand to twelve
hundred attendants."
My brothers, have we ceased to
believe in prayer? If you still hold your weekly gathering
for prayer, is it not a fact that the very great majority of
your church members never come near it? Yes, and never even
think of coming near it. Why is this? Whose fault is it?
"Only a
prayer-meeting" -- how often we have heard the
utterance! How many of those reading these words really enjoy
a prayer-meeting? Is it a joy or just a duty? Please forgive
me for asking so many questions and for pointing out what
appears to be a perilous weakness and a lamentable
shortcoming in our churches. We are not out to criticize --
far less to condemn. Anybody can do that. Our yearning desire
is to stir up Christians "to take hold of" God, as
never before. We wish to encourage, to enhearten, to
uplift.
We are never so high as when we
are on our knees.
Criticize? Who dare criticize
another? When we look back upon the past and remember how
much prayerlessness there has been in one's own life,
words of criticism of others wither away on the lips.
But we believe the time has
come when a clarion call to the individual and to the Church
is needed -- a call to prayer.
Now, dare we face this question
of prayer? It seems a foolish query, for is not prayer a part
and parcel of all religions? Yet we venture to ask our
readers to look at this matter fairly and squarely. Do I
really believe that prayer is a power? Is prayer the greatest
power on earth, or is it not? Does prayer indeed "move
the Hand that moves the world"?
Do God's prayer-commands
really concern Me? Do the promises of God concerning prayer
still hold good? We have all been muttering "Yes -- Yes
-- Yes" as we read these questions. We dare not say
"No" to any one of them. And yet -- !
Has it ever occurred to you
that our Lord never gave an unnecessary or an optional
command? Do we really believe that our Lord never made a
promise which He could not, or would not, fulfil? Our
Savior's three great commands for definite action were:
--
Pray
ye
Do this
Go ye!
Are we obeying Him? How often
His command, "Do this," is reiterated by our
preachers today! One might almost think it was His only
command! How seldom we are reminded of His bidding to
"Pray" and to "Go." Yet, without
obedience to the "Pray ye," it is of little or no
use at all either to "Do this" or to
"Go."
In fact, it can easily be shown
that all want of success, and all failure in the spiritual
life and in Christian work, is due to defective or
insufficient prayer. Unless we pray aright we cannot live
aright or serve aright. This may appear, at first sight, to
be gross exaggeration, but the more we think it over in the
light Scripture throws upon it, the more convinced shall we
be of the truth of this statement.
Now, as we begin once more to
see what the Bible has to say about this mysterious and
wonderful subject, shall we endeavor to read some of our
Lord's promises, as though we had never heard them
before. What will the effect be?
Some twenty years ago the
writer was studying in a Theological College. One morning,
early, a fellow-student -- who is today one of England's
foremost missionaries -- burst into the room holding an open
Bible in his hands. Although he was preparing for Holy
Orders, he was at that time only a young convert to
Christ.
He had gone up to the
University "caring for none of these things."
Popular, clever, athletic -- he had already won a place
amongst the smart set of his college, when Christ claimed
him. He accepted the Lord Jesus as a personal Savior, and
became a very keen follower of his Master. The Bible was,
comparatively, a new book to him, and as a result he was
constantly making "discoveries." On that memorable
day on which he invaded my quietude he cried excitedly -- his
face all aglow with mingled joy and surprise -- "Do you
believe this? Is it really true?" "Believe
what?" I asked, glancing at the open Bible with some
astonishment. "Why, this -- " and he read in eager
tones St. Matthew xxi. 21, 22: "'If ye have faith
and doubt not . . . all things whatsoever ye shall ask in
prayer, believing, ye shall receive.' Do you believe it?
Is it true?" "Yes," I replied, with much
surprise at his excitement, "of course it's true --
of course I believe it."
Yet, through my mind there
flashed all manner of thoughts! "Well, that's a very
wonderful promise," said he. "It seems to me to be
absolutely limitless! Why don't we pray more?" And
he went away, leaving me thinking hard. I had never looked at
those verses quite in that way. As the door closed upon that
eager young follower of the Master, I had a vision of my
Savior and His love and His power such as I never had before.
I had a vision of a life of prayer -- yes, and
"limitless" power, which I saw depended upon two
things only -- faith and prayer. For the moment I was
thrilled. I fell on my knees, and as I bowed before my Lord
what thoughts surged through my mind -- what hopes and
aspirations flooded my soul! God was speaking to me in an
extraordinary way. This was a great call to prayer. But -- to
my shame be it said -- I heeded not that call.
Where did I fail? True, I
prayed a little more than before, but nothing much seemed to
happen. Why? Was it because I did not see what a high
standard the Savior requires in the inner life of those who
would pray successfully?
Was it because I had failed to
measure up my life to the "perfect love" standard
so beautifully described in the thirteenth chapter of the
first Epistle to the Corinthians?
For, after all, prayer is not
just putting into action good resolutions "to
pray." Like David, we need to cry, "Create in me a
clean heart, O God" (Psa. li.) before we can pray
aright. And the inspired words of the Apostle of Love need to
be heeded today as much as ever before: "Beloved, if our
heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and [then]
whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him" (I John iii.
21).
"True -- and I believe
it." Yes, indeed, it is a limitless promise, and yet how
little we realize it, how little we claim from Christ. And
our Lord "marvels" at our unbelief. But if we could
only read the Gospels for the first time, what an amazing
book it would seem! Should not we "marvel" and
"wonder"? And today I pass on that great call to
you. Will you give heed to it? Will you profit by it? Or
shall it fall on deaf ears and leave you prayerless?
Fellow-Christians, let us
awake! The devil is blinding our eyes. He is endeavoring to
prevent us from facing this question of prayer. These pages
are written by special request. But it is many months since
that request came.
Every attempt to begin to write
has been frustrated, and even now one is conscious of a
strange reluctance to do so. There seems to be some
mysterious power restraining the hand. Do we realize that
there is nothing the devil dreads so much as prayer? His
great concern is to keep us from praying. He loves to see us
"up to our eyes" in work -- provided we do not
pray. He does not fear because we are eager and earnest Bible
students -- provided we are little in prayer. Someone has
wisely said, "Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our
wisdom, but trembles when we pray." All this is so
familiar to us -- but do we really pray? If not, then failure
must dog our footsteps, whatever signs of apparent success
there may be.
Let us never forget that the
greatest thing we can do for God or for man is to pray. For
we can accomplish far more by our prayers than by our work.
Prayer is omnipotent; it can do anything that God can do!
When we pray God works. All fruitfulness in service is the
outcome of prayer -- of the worker's prayers, or of those
who are holding up holy hands on his behalf. We all know how
to pray, but perhaps many of us need to cry as the disciples
did of old, "Lord, teach us to pray."
O
Lord, by Whom ye come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod;
Lord, teach us now to pray.
"WHEN we stand with Christ
in glory, looking o'er life's finished story,"
the most amazing feature of that life as it is looked back
upon will be its prayerlessness.
We shall be almost beside
ourselves with astonishment that we spent so little time in
real intercession. It will be our turn to
"wonder."
In our Lord's last
discourse to His loved ones, just before the most wonderful
of all prayers, the Master again and again held out His
kingly golden sceptre and said, as it were, "What is
your request? It shall be granted unto you, even unto the
whole of My kingdom!"
Do we believe this? We must do
so if we believe our Bibles. Shall we just read over very
quietly and thoughtfully one of our Lord's promises,
reiterated so many times? If we had never read them before,
we should open our eyes in bewilderment, for these promises
are almost incredible. From the lips of any mere man they
would be quite unbelievable. But it is the Lord of heaven and
earth Who speaks; and He is speaking at the most solemn
moment of His life. It is the eve of His death and passion.
It is a farewell message. Now listen!
"Verily, verily I say unto
you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do
also; and greater works than these shall he do: because I go
unto the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that
will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye
shall ask anything in My name, that will I do" (John
xiv. 13, 14). Now, could any words be plainer or clearer than
these? Could any promise be greater or grander? Has anyone
else, anywhere, at any time, ever offered so much?
How staggered those disciples
must have been! Surely they could scarcely believe their own
ears. But that promise is made also to you and to me.
And, lest there should be any
mistake on their part, or on ours, our Lord repeats Himself a
few moments afterwards. Yes, and the Holy Spirit bids St.
John record those words again. "If ye abide in Me, and
My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall
be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bare
much fruit; and so shall ye be My disciples" (John xv.
7, 8).
These words are of such grave
importance, and so momentous, that the Savior of the world is
not content even with a threefold utterance of them. He urges
His disciples to obey His command "to ask." In
fact, He tells them that one sign of their being His
"friends" will be the obedience to His commands in
all things (verse 14). Then He once more repeats His wishes:
"Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed
you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit
should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father, in My
name, He may give it you" (John xv. 16).
One would think that our Lord
had now made it plain enough that He wanted them to pray;
that He needed their prayers, and that without prayer they
could accomplish nothing. But to our intense surprise He
returns again to the same subject, saying very much the same
words.
"In that day ye shall ask
Me nothing" -- i.e., "ask Me no question"
(R.V., marg.) -- "Verily, verily I say unto you, if ye
ask anything of the Father, He will give it you in My name.
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall
receive, that your joy may be fulfilled" (John xvi. 23,
24).
Never before had our Lord laid
such stress on any promise or command -- never! This truly
marvelous promise is given us six times over. Six times,
almost in the same breath, our Savior commands us to ask
whatsoever we will. This is the greatest -- the most
wonderful -- promise ever made to man. Yet most men --
Christian men -- practically ignore it! Is it not so?
The exceeding greatness of the
promise seems to over-whelm us. Yet we know that He is
"able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask
or think" (Eph. iii. 20).
So our blessed Master gives the
final exhortation, before He is seized, and bound, and
scourged, before His gracious lips are silenced on the cross,
"Ye shall ask in My name . . . for the Father Himself
loveth you" (verse 26). We have often spent much time in
reflecting upon our Lord's seven words from the cross.
And it is well we should do so. Have we ever spent one hour
in meditating upon this, our Savior's sevenfold
invitation to pray?
Today He sits on the throne of
His Majesty on high, and He holds out to us the sceptre of
His power. Shall we touch it and tell Him our desires? He
bids us take of His treasures. He yearns to grant us
"according to the riches of His glory," that we may
"be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the
inner man." He tells us that our strength and our
fruitfulness depend upon our prayers. He reminds us that our
very joy depends upon answered prayer (John xvi. 24).
And yet we allow the devil to
persuade us to neglect prayer! He makes us believe that we
can do more by our own efforts than by our prayers -- by our
intercourse with men than by our intercession with God. It
passes one's comprehension that so little heed should be
given to our Lord's sevenfold invitation -- command --
promise! How dare we work for Christ without being much on
our knees? Quite recently an earnest Christian
"worker" -- a Sunday-school teacher and communicant
-- wrote me, saying, "I have never had an answer to
prayer in all my life." But why? Is God a liar? Is not
God trustworthy? Do His promises count for nought. Does He
not mean what He says? And doubtless there are many reading
these words who in their hearts are saying the same thing as
that Christian worker. Payson is right -- is Scriptural --
when he says: "If we would do much for God, we must ask
much of God: we must be men of prayer." If our prayers
are not answered -- always answered, but not necessarily
granted -- the fault must be entirely in ourselves, and not
in God. God delights to answer prayer; and He has given us
His word that He will answer.
Fellow-laborers in His
vineyard, it is quite evident that our Master desires us to
ask, and to ask much. He tells us we glorify God by doing so!
Nothing is beyond the scope of prayer which is not beyond the
will of God -- and we do not desire to go beyond His
will.
We dare not say that our
Lord's words are not true. Yet somehow or other few
Christians really seem to believe them. What holds us back?
What seals our lips? What keeps us from making much of
prayer? Do we doubt His love? Never! He gave His life for us
and to us. Do we doubt the Father's love? Nay. "The
Father Himself loveth you," said Christ when urging His
disciples to pray.
Do we doubt His power? Not for
a moment. Hath He not said, "All power hath been given
unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye . . . and lo, I am with
you alway . . ."? (Matt. xxviii. 18-20). Do we doubt His
wisdom? Do we mistrust His choice for us? Not for a moment.
And yet so very few of His followers consider prayer really
worth while. Of course, they would deny this -- but actions
speak louder than words. Are we afraid to put God to the
test? He has said we may do so. "Bring Me the whole
tithe into the storehouse . . . and prove Me now herewith,
saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not
be room enough to receive it" (Mal. iii. 10). Whenever
God makes us a promise, let us boldly say, as did St. Paul, I
believe God (Acts xxvii. 25), and trust Him to keep His
word.
Shall we begin today to be men
of prayer, if we have never done so before? Let us not put it
off till a more convenient season. God wants me to pray. The
dear Savior wants me to pray. He needs my prayers. So much --
in fact, everything -- depends upon prayer. How dare we hold
back? Let every one of us ask on our knees this question:
"If no one on earth prayed for the salvation of sinners
more fervently or more frequently than I do, how many of them
would be converted to God through prayer ?"
Do we spend ten minutes a day
in prayer? Do we consider it important enough for that?
Ten minutes a day on our knees
in prayer -- when the Kingdom of Heaven can be had for the
asking!
Ten minutes? It seems a very
inadequate portion of our time to spend in taking hold of God
(Isa. lxiv. 7) !
And is it prayer when we do
"say" our prayers, or are we just repeating daily a
few phrases which have become practically meaningless, whilst
our thoughts are wandering hither and thither?
If God were to answer the words
we repeated on our knees this morning should we know it?
Should we recognize the answer? Do we even remember what we
asked for? He does answer. He has given us His word for it.
He always answers every real prayer of faith.
But we shall see what the Bible
has to say on this point in a later chapter. We are now
thinking of the amount of time we spend in prayer.
"How often do you
pray?" was the question put to a Christian woman.
"Three times a day, and all the day beside," was
the quick reply. But how many are there like that? Is prayer
to me just a duty, or is it a privilege -- a pleasure -- a
real joy -- a necessity?
Let us get a fresh vision of
Christ in all His glory, and a fresh glimpse of all the
"riches of His glory" which He places at our
disposal, and of all the mighty power given unto Him. Then
let us get a fresh vision of the world and all its needs.
(And the world was never so needy as it is today.)
Why, the wonder is not that we
pray so little, but that we can ever get up from our knees if
we realize our own need; the needs of our home and our loved
ones; the needs of our pastor and the Church; the needs of
our city -- of our country -- of the heathen and Mohammedan
world! All these needs, can be met by the riches of God in
Christ Jesus. St. Paul had no doubt about this -- nor have
we. Yes! "My God shall supply all your need according to
His riches in glory, in Christ Jesus" (Phil. iv. 19).
But to share His riches we must pray, for the same Lord is
rich unto all that call upon Him (Rom. x. 12).
So great is the importance of
prayer that God has taken care to anticipate all the excuses
or objections we may be likely to make.
Men plead their weakness or
infirmity -- or they declare they do not know how to
pray.
God foresaw this inability long
ages ago. Did He not inspire St. Paul to say: "The
Spirit also helpeth our infirmity, for we know not how to
pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that
searcheth the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the
Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God" (Rom. viii. 26, 27).
Yes. Every provision is made
for us. But only the Holy Spirit can "stir us up"
to "take hold of God." And if we will but yield
ourselves to the Spirit's promptings we shall most
assuredly follow the example of the apostles of old, who
"gave themselves to prayer," and "continued
steadfastly in prayer" (R.V., Acts vi. 4).
We may rest fully assured of
this -- a man's influence in the world can be gauged not
by his eloquence, or his zeal, or his orthodox, or his
energy, but by his prayers. Yes, and we will go farther and
maintain that no man can live aright who does not pray
aright.
We may work for Christ from
morn till night; we may spend much time in Bible study; we
may be most earnest and faithful and "acceptable"
in our preaching and in our individual dealing, but none of
these things can be truly effective unless we are much in
prayer. We shall only be full of good works; and not
"bearing fruit in every good work" (Col. i. 10). To
be little with God in prayer is to be little for God in
service. Much secret prayer means much public power. Yet is
it not a fact that whilst our organizing is well nigh
perfect, our agonizing in prayer is well nigh lost?
Men are wondering why the
Revival delays its coming. There is only one thing that can
delay it, and that is lack of prayer. All Revivals have been
the outcome of prayer. One sometimes longs for the voice of
an archangel, but what would that avail if the voice of
Christ Himself does not stir us up to pray? It seems almost
impertinence for any man to take up the cry when our Savior
has put forth His "limitless" promises. Yet we feel
that something should be done, and we believe that the Holy
Spirit is prompting men to remind themselves and others of
Christ's words and power. No words of mine can impress
men with the value of prayer, the need of prayer, and the
omnipotence of prayer.
But these utterances go forth
steeped in prayer that God the Holy Spirit will Himself
convict Christian men and women of the sin of prayerlessness,
and drive them to their knees, to call upon God day and night
in burning, believing, prevailing intercession! The Lord
Jesus, now in the heavenlies, beckons to us to fall upon our
knees and claim the riches of His grace.
No man dare prescribe for
another how long a time he ought to spend in prayer, nor do
we suggest that men should make a vow to pray so many minutes
or hours a day. Of course, the Bible command is to "Pray
without ceasing." This is evidently the "attitude
of prayer" -- the attitude of one's life.
Here we are speaking of
definite acts of prayer. Have you ever timed your prayers? We
believe that most of our readers would be amazed and
confounded if they did time themselves!
Some years ago the writer faced
this prayer question. He felt that for himself at least one
hour a day was the minimum time that he should spend in
prayer. He carefully noted down every day a record of his
prayer-life. As time went on he met a working-man who was
being much used of God.
When asked to what he chiefly
attributed his success, this man quietly replied, "Well,
I could not get on without two hours a day of private
prayer."
Then there came across my path
a Spirit-filled missionary from overseas, who told very
humbly of the wonderful things God was doing through his
ministry. (One could see all along that God was given all the
praise and all the glory.) "I find it necessary,
oftentimes, to spend four hours a day in prayer," said
this missionary.
And we remember how the
Greatest Missionary of all used sometimes to spend whole
nights in prayer. Why? Our blessed Lord did not pray simply
as an example to us: He never did things merely as an
example. He prayed because He needed to pray. As perfect Man,
prayer to Him was a necessity. Then how much more is it
necessary to you and me?
"Four hours a day in
prayer!" exclaimed a man who is giving his whole life to
Christian work as a medical missionary. "Four hours?
Give me ten minutes and I'm done!" That was an
honest and a brave confession -- even if a sad one. Yet, if
some of us were to speak out as honestly --?
Now, it was not by accident
that these men crossed my path. God was speaking through
them. It was just another "call to prayer" from the
"God of patience," who is also a "God of
comfort" (Rom. xv. 5). and when their quiet message had
sunk into my soul a book came into my hands, "by
chance," as people say. It told briefly and simply the
story of John Hyde -- "Praying Hyde," as he came to
be called. Just as God sent St. John the Baptist to prepare
the way of our Lord at His first coming, so He sent in these
last days St. John the Pray-er, to make straight paths for
His coming again. "Praying Hyde" -- what a name! As
one read of this marvelous life of prayer, one began to ask,
"Have I ever prayed?"
I found others were asking the
same question. One lady, who is noted for her wonderful
intercession, wrote me, saying, "When I laid down this
book, I began to think I bad never in all my life really
prayed!"
But here we must leave the
matter. Shall we get on our knees before God and allow His
Holy Spirit to search us through and through? Are we sincere?
Do we really desire to do God's will? Do we really
believe His promises? If so, will it not lead us to spend
more time on our knees before God? Do not vow to pray
"so much" a day. Resolve to pray much, but prayer,
to be of value, must be spontaneous, and not from
constraint.
But we must bear in mind that
mere resolutions to take more time for prayer, and to conquer
reluctance to pray, will not prove lastingly effective unless
there is a wholehearted and absolute surrender to the Lord
Jesus Christ. If we have never taken this step, we must take
it now if we desire to be men of prayer.
I am quite certain of this
fact: God wants me to pray: wants you to pray. The question
is, are we willing to pray ?
Gracious Savior, pour out upon
us the fullness of the Holy Spirit, that we may indeed become
Kneeling Christians.
To
God your every want
In instant prayer display.
Pray always; pray and never faint:
Pray! Without ceasing, pray.
GOD wants me to pray, to be
much in prayer -- because all success in spiritual work is
dependent on prayer.
A preacher who prays little may
see some results of his labors, but if he does it will be
because someone, somewhere is praying for him. The
"fruit" is the pray-er's -- not the
preacher's. How surprised some of us preachers will be
one day, when the Lord shall "reward every man according
to his works." "Lord! Those were my converts! It
was I who conducted that mission at which so many were
brought into the fold." Ah, yes -- I did the preaching,
the pleading, the persuading; but was it "I" who
did the praying?
Every convert is the result of
the Holy Spirit's pleading in answer to the prayers of
some believer.
O God, grant that such surprise
may not be ours. O Lord, teach us to pray!
We have had a vision of a God
pleadingly calling for prayer from His children. How am I
treating that call? Can I say, with St. Paul, ."I am
'not disobedient to the heavenly vision' " ?
Again we repeat, if there are any regrets in heaven, the
greatest will be that we spent so little time in real
intercession whilst we were on earth.
Think of the wide sweep of
prayer! "Ask of Me, and I will give thee the heathen for
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for
thy possession" (Psalm ii. 8). Yet many people do not
trouble to bring even the little details of their own lives
to God in prayer, and nine out of ten Christian people never
think of praying for the heathen!
One is staggered at the
unwillingness of Christians to pray. Perhaps it is because
they have never experienced, or even heard of, convincing
answers to prayer.
In this chapter we are setting
out to do the "impossible." What is that? We long
to bring home to the heart and conscience of every reader the
power of prayer. We venture to describe this as
"impossible." For if men will not believe, and act
upon, our Lord's promises and commands, how can we expect
them to be persuaded by any mere human exhortations?
But do you remember that our
Lord, when speaking to His disciples, asked them to believe
that He was in the Father and the Father in Him? Then he
added: "If you cannot believe My bare word about this,
believe Me for the very works' sake" (John xiv. 11).
It was as if He said, "If My Person, My sanctified life,
and My wonderful words do not elicit belief in Me, then look
at My works: surely they are sufficient to compel belief?
Believe Me because of what I do."
Then He went on to promise that
if they would believe, they should do greater works than
these. It was after this utterance that He gave the first of
those six wonderful promises in regard to prayer. The
inference surely is that those "greater works" are
to be done only as the outcome of prayer.
May the disciple therefore
follow the Master's method? Fellow-worker, if you fail to
grasp, fail to trust our Lord's astounding promises
regarding prayer, will you not believe them "for the
very works' sake"? That is, because of those
"greater works" which men and women are performing
today -- or, rather, the works which the Lord Jesus is doing,
through their prayerful co-operation?
What are we "out
for"? What is our real aim in life? Surely we desire
most of all to be abundantly fruitful in the Master's
service. We seek not position, or prominence, or power. But
we do long to be fruitful servants. Then we must be much in
prayer. God can do more through our prayers than through our
preaching. A. J. Gordon once said, "You can do more than
pray, after you have prayed, but you can never do more than
pray until you have prayed." If only we would believe
this!
A lady in India was cast down
through the failure of her life and work. She was a devoted
missionary, but somehow or other conversions never resulted
from her ministry.
The Holy Spirit seemed to say
to her, "Pray more." But she resisted the
promptings of the Spirit for some time. "At
length," said she, "I set apart much of my time for
prayer. I did it in fear and trembling lest my fellow-workers
should complain that I was shirking my work. After a few
weeks I began to see men and women accepting Christ as their
Savior. Moreover, the whole district was soon awakened, and
the work of all the other missionaries was blessed as never
before. God did more in six months than I had succeeded in
doing in six years. And," she added, "no one ever
accused me of shirking my duty." Another lady missionary
in India felt the same call to pray. She began to give much
time to prayer. No opposition came from without, but it did
come from within. But she persisted, and in two years the
baptized converts increased sixfold!
God promised that He would
"pour out the Spirit of grace and supplication upon all
flesh" (Joel ii. 28). How much of that Spirit of
"supplication" is ours? Surely we must get that
Spirit at all costs? Yet if we are not willing to spend time
in "supplication," God must perforce withhold His
Spirit, and we become numbered amongst those who are
"resisting the Spirit," and possibly
"quenching" the Spirit. Has not our Lord promised
the Holy Spirit to them that ask? (Luke xi. 13).
Are not the very converts from
heathendom putting some of us to shame?
A few years ago, when in India,
I had the great joy of seeing something of Pandita
Ramabai's work. She had a boarding-school of 1,500 Hindu
girls. One day some of these girls came with their Bibles and
asked a lady missionary what St. Luke xii. 49 meant --
"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I, if
it is already kindled?" The missionary tried to put them
off with an evasive answer, not being very sure herself what
those words meant. But they were not satisfied, so they
determined to pray for this fire. And as they prayed -- and
because they prayed -- the very fire of heaven came into
their souls. A very Pentecost from above was granted them. No
wonder they continued to pray!
A party of these girls upon
whom God had poured the "Spirit of supplication"
came to a mission house where I spent some weeks. "May
we stay here in your town and pray for your work?" they
asked. The missionary did not entertain the idea with any
great enthusiasm. He felt that they ought to be at school,
and not "gadding about" the country. But they only
asked for a hall or barn where they could pray; and we all
value prayers on our behalf. So their request was granted,
and the good man sat down to his evening meal, thinking. As
the evening wore on, a native pastor came round. He broke
down completely. He explained, with tears running down his
face, that God's Holy Spirit had convicted him of sin,
and that he felt compelled to come and openly confess his
wrongdoing. He was quickly followed by one Christian after
another, all under deep conviction of sin.
There was a remarkable time of
blessing. Back-sliders were restored, believers were
sanctified, and heathen brought into the fold -- all because
a few mere children were praying.
God is no respecter of persons.
If anyone is willing to conform to His conditions, He for His
part will assuredly fulfill His promises. Does not our heart
burn within us, as we hear of God's wonderful power? And
that power is ours for the asking. I know there are
"conditions." But you and I can fulfill them all
through Christ. And those of us who cannot have the privilege
of serving God in India or any other overseas mission, may
yet take our part in bringing down a like blessing. When the
Revival in Wales was at its height, a Welsh missionary wrote
home begging the people to pray that India might be moved in
like manner. So the coal-miners met daily at the pit-mouth
half an hour before dawn to pray for their comrade overseas.
In a few weeks' time the welcome message was sent home:
"The blessing has come."
Isn't it just splendid to
know that by our prayers we can bring down showers of
blessing upon India, or Africa, or China, just as readily as
we can get the few drops needed for our own little plot?
Many of us will recall the
wonderful things which God did for Korea a few years ago,
entirely in answer to prayer. A few missionaries decided to
meet together to pray daily at noon. At the end of the month
one brother proposed that, "as nothing had
happened," the prayer-meeting should be discontinued.
"Let us each pray at home as we find it
convenient," said he. The others, however, protested
that they ought rather to spend even more time in prayer each
day. So they continued the daily prayer-meeting for four
months. Then suddenly the blessing began to be poured out.
Church services here and there were broken up by weeping and
confessing of sins. At length a mighty revival broke out. At
one place during a Sunday evening service the leading man in
the church stood up and confessed that he had stolen one
hundred dollars in administering a widow's legacy.
Immediately conviction of sin swept the audience. That
service did not end till 2 o'clock on Monday morning.
God's wondrous power was felt as never before. And when
the Church was purified, many sinners found salvation.
Multitudes flocked to the
churches out of curiosity. Some came to mock, but fear laid
hold of them, and they stayed to pray. Amongst the
"curious" was a brigand chief, the leader of a
robber band. He was convicted and converted. He went straight
off to the magistrate and gave himself up. "You have no
accuser," said the astonished official, "yet you
accuse yourself! We have no law in Korea to meet your
case." So he dismissed him.
One of the missionaries
declared, "It paid well to have spent several months in
prayer, for when God gave the Holy Spirit, He accomplished
more in half a day than all the missionaries together could
have accomplished in half a year." In less than two
months, more than 2,000 heathen were converted. The burning
zeal of those converts has become a byword. Some of them gave
all they had to build a church, and wept because they could
not give more. Needless to say, they realized the power of
prayer. Those converts were themselves baptized with the
"Spirit of supplication." In one church it was
announced that a daily prayer-meeting would be held at 4:30
every morning. The very first day 400 people arrived long
before the stated hour -- eager to pray! The number rapidly
increased to 600 as days went on. At Seoul, 1,100 is the
average attendance at the weekly prayer-meeting.
Heathen people came -- to see
what was happening. They exclaimed in astonishment, "The
living God is among you." Those poor heathen saw what
many Christians fail to see. Did not Christ say, "Where
two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in
the midst of them"? (Matt. xviii. 20). What is possible
in Korea is possible here. God is "no respecter" of
nations. He is longing to bless us, longing to pour His
Spirit upon us.
Now, if we -- here in this
so-called Christian country -- really believed in prayer,
i.e., in our Lord's own gracious promises, should we
avoid prayer-meetings? If we had any genuine concern for the
lost condition of thousands in our own land and tens of
thousands in heathen lands, should we withhold our prayers?
Surely we do not think, or we should pray more. "Ask of
Me -- I will give," says an almighty, all-loving God,
and we scarcely heed His words!
Verily, converts from
heathendom put us to shame. In my journeyings I came to Rawal
Pindi, in N.W. India. What do you think happened there? Some
of Pandita Ramabai's girls went there to camp. But a
little while before this, Pandita Ramabai had said to her
girls, "If there is any blessing in India, we may have
it. Let us ask God to tell us what we must do in order to
have the blessing."
As she read her Bible she
paused over the verse, "Wait for the promise of the
Father . . . ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you" (Acts i. 4-8). "'Wait'!
Why, we have never done this," she cried. "We have
prayed, but we have never expected any greater blessing today
than we had yesterday!" Oh, how they prayed! One
prayer-meeting lasted six hours. And what a marvelous
blessing God poured out in answer to their prayers.
Whilst some of these girls were
at Rawal Pindi, a lady missionary, looking out of her tent
towards midnight, was surprised to see a light burning in one
of the girls' tents -- a thing quite contrary to rules.
She went to expostulate, but found the youngest of those ten
girls -- a child of fifteen -- kneeling in the farthest
corner of the tent, holding a little tallow candle in one
hand and a list of names for intercession in the other. She
had 500 names on her list -- 500 out of the 1,500 girls in
Pandita Ramabai's school. Hour after hour she was naming
them before God. No wonder God's blessing fell wherever
those girls went, and upon whomsoever those girls prayed
for.
Pastor Ding Li Mei, of China,
has the names of 1,100 students on his prayer-list. Many
hundreds have been won to Christ through his prayers. And so
out-and-out are his converts that many scores of them have
entered the Christian ministry.
It would be an easy matter to
add to these amazing and inspiring stories of blessing
through prayer. But there is no need to do so. I know that
God wants me to pray. I know that God wants you to pray.
"If there is any blessing
in England we may have it." Nay, more -- if there is any
blessing in Christ we may have it. "Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ" (Eph. i. 3). God's great storehouse is full
of blessings. Only prayer can unlock that storehouse. Prayer
is the key, and faith both turns the key and opens the door,
and claims the blessing. Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God. And to see Him is to pray aright.
Listen! We have come -- you and
I -- once more to the parting of the ways. All our past
failure, all our past inefficiency and insufficiency, all our
past unfruitfulness in service, can be banished now, once and
for all, if we will only give prayer its proper place. Do it
today. Do not wait for a more convenient time.
Everything worth having depends
upon the decision we make. Truly God is a wonderful God! And
one of the most wonderful things about Him is that He puts
His all at the disposal of the prayer of faith. Believing
prayer from a wholly-cleansed heart never fails. God has
given us His word for it. Yet vastly more wonderful is the
amazing fact that Christian men and women should either not
believe God's word, or should fail to put it to the
test.
When Christ is "all in
all" -- when He is Savior and Lord and King of our whole
being, then it is really He Who prays our prayers. We can
then truthfully alter one word of a well-known verse and say
that the Lord Jesus ever liveth to make intercession in us.
Oh, that we might make the Lord Jesus "marvel" not
at our unbelief but at our faith! When our Lord shall again
"marvel," and say of us, "Verily . . . I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel" (Matt.
viii. 10), then indeed shall "palsy" -- paralysis
-- be transformed into power.
Has not our Lord come to
"cast fire" upon us? Are we "already
kindled"? Can He not use us as much as he used those
mere children of Khedgaon? God is no respecter of persons. If
we can humbly and truthfully say, "To me to live is
Christ" (Phil. i. 21), will He not manifest forth His
mighty power in us?
Some of us have been reading
about Praying Hyde. Truly, his intercession changed things.
Men tell us that they were thrilled when John Hyde prayed.
They were stirred to their inmost being when he just pleaded
the name "Jesus! -- Jesus! -- Jesus!" and a baptism
of love and power came upon them.
But it was not John Hyde, it
was the Holy Spirit of God whom one consecrated man, filled
with that Spirit, brought down upon all around him. May we
not all become "Praying Hydes"? Do you say
"No! He had a special gift of prayer"? Very well --
how did he get it? He was once just an ordinary Christian man
-- just like any of us.
Have you noticed that, humanly
speaking, he owed his prayer-life to the prayers of his
father's friend? Now get hold of this point. It is one of
greatest importance, and one which may profoundly affect your
whole life. Perhaps I may be allowed to tell the story fully,
for so much depends upon it. Shall we quote John Hyde
himself? He was on board a ship sailing for India, whither he
was going as a missionary. He says, "My father had a
friend who greatly desired to be a foreign missionary, but
was not permitted to go. This friend wrote me a letter
directed in care of the ship. I received it a few hours out
of New York harbor. The words were not many, but the purport
of them was this: 'I shall not cease praying for you,
dear John, until you are filled with the Holy Spirit.'
When I had read the letter I crumpled it up in anger and
threw it on the deck. Did this friend think I had not
received the baptism of the Spirit, or that I would think of
going to India without this equipment? I was angry. But by
and by better judgment prevailed, and I picked up the letter,
and read it again. Possibly I did need something which I had
not yet received. I paced up and down the deck, a battle
raging within. I felt uncomfortable: I loved the writer; I
knew the holy life he lived, and down in my heart there was a
conviction that he was right, and that I was not fit to be a
missionary. . . . This went on for two, or three days, until
I felt perfectly miserable. . . . At last, in a kind of
despair, I asked the Lord to fill me with the Holy Spirit;
and the moment I did this . . . I began to see myself, and
what a selfish ambition I had."
But he did not yet receive the
blessing sought. He landed in India and went with a
fellow-missionary to an open-air service. "The
missionary spoke," said John Hyde, "and I was told
that he was speaking about Jesus Christ as the real Savior
from sin. When he had finished his address, a
respectable-looking man, speaking good English, asked the
missionary whether he himself had been thus saved? The
question went home to my heart; for if it had been asked me,
I would have had to confess that Christ had not fully saved
me, because I knew there was a sin in my life which had not
been taken away. I realized what a dishonor it would be on
the name of Christ to have to confess that I was preaching a
Christ that had not delivered me from sin, though I was
proclaiming to others that He was a perfect Savior. I went
back to my room and shut myself in, and told the Lord that it
must be one of two things: either He must give me victory
over all my sins, and especially over the sin that so easily
beset me, or I must return to America and seek there for some
other work. I said I could not stand up to preach the Gospel
until I could testify of its power in my own life. I . . .
realized how reasonable this was, and the Lord assured me
that He was able and willing to deliver me from all sin. He
did deliver me, and I have not had a doubt of this
since."
It was then, and then only,
that John Hyde became Praying Hyde. And it is only by such a
full surrender and such a definite claiming to be delivered
from the power of sin in our lives that you and I can be men
of prevailing prayer. The point we wish to emphasize,
however, is the one already mentioned. A comparatively
unknown man prays for John Hyde, who was then unknown to the
world, and by his prayers brings down such a blessing upon
him that everyone knows of him now as "Praying
Hyde." Did you say in your heart, dear reader, a little
while ago, that you could not hope to be a Praying Hyde? Of
course we cannot all give so much time to prayer. For
physical or other reasons we may be hindered from
long-continued praying. But we may all have his spirit of
prayer. And may we not all do for others what the unnamed
friend did for John Hyde?
Can we not pray the blessing
down upon others -- upon your vicar or pastor? Upon your
friend? Upon your family? What a ministry is ours, if we will
but enter it! But to do so, we must make the full surrender
which John Hyde made. Have we done it? Failure in prayer is
due to fault in the heart. Only the "pure in heart"
can see God. And only those who "call on the Lord out of
a pure heart" (II Tim. ii. 22) can confidently claim
answers to their prayers.
What a revival would break out,
what a mighty blessing would come down if only everyone who
read these words would claim the fullness of the Holy Spirit
now!
Do you not see why it is that
God wants us to pray? Do you now see why everything worth
having depends upon prayer? There are several reasons, but
one stands out very clearly and vividly before us after
reading this chapter. It is just this: if we ask and God does
not give, then the fault is with us. Every unanswered prayer
is a clarion call to search the heart to see what is wrong
there; for the promise is unmistakable in its clearness:
"If ye shall ask anything in My name, that will I
do" (John xiv. 14).
Truly
he who prays puts, not God, but his own spiritual life to the
test!
Let me come closer to Thee, Jesus,
Oh, closer every day;
Let me lean harder on Thee, Jesus,
Yes, harder all the way.
"DOES God indeed answer
prayer?" is a question often on the lips of people, and
oftener still in their inmost hearts. "Is prayer of any
real use?" Somehow or other we cannot help praying; but
then even pagan savages cry out to someone or something to
aid them in times of danger and disaster and distress.
And those of us who really do
believe in prayer are soon faced with another question:
"Is it right to put God to the test?" Moreover, a
further thought flashes into our minds: "Dare we put God
to the test?" For there is little doubt failure in the
prayer-life is often -- always? -- due to failure in the
spiritual life. So many people harbor much unbelief in the
heart regarding the value and effectiveness of prayer; and
without faith, prayer is vain.
Asking for signs? Putting God
to the test? Would to God we could persuade Christian men and
women to do so. Why, what a test this would be of our own
faith in God, and of our own holiness of life. Prayer is the
touchstone of true godliness. God asks our prayers, values
our prayers, needs our prayers. And if those prayers fail, we
have only ourselves to blame. We do not mean by this that
effective prayer always gets just what it asks for. Now, the
Bible teaches us that we are allowed to put God to the test.
The example of Gideon in Old Testament days is sufficient to
show us that God honors our faith even when that faith is
faltering. He allows us to "prove Him" even after a
definite promise from Himself. This is a very great comfort
to us.
Gideon said unto God, "If
Thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as Thou hast said,
behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the floor; and if the
dew be on the fleece only . . . then shall I know that Thou
wilt save Israel by mine hand, as Thou has said." Yet,
although there was a "bowl full of water" in the
fleece the next morning, this did not satisfy Gideon! He
dares to put God to the test the second time, and to ask that
the fleece should be dry instead of wet the following night.
"And God did so that night" (Judges vi. 40).
It is all very wonderful, the
Almighty God just doing what a hesitating man asks Him to do!
We catch our breath and stand amazed, scarcely knowing which
startles us the more -- the daring of the man, or the
condescension of God! Of course, there is more in the story
than meets the eye. No doubt Gideon thought that the
"fleece" represented himself, Gideon.
If God would indeed fill him
with His Spirit, why, salvation was assured. But as he wrung
the fleece out, he began to compare himself with the
saturated wool. "How unlike this fleece am I! God
promises deliverance, but I do not feel full of the Spirit of
God. No inflow of the mighty power of God seems to have come
into me. Am I indeed fit for this great feat?" No! But
then, it is "Not I, but God." "O God, let the
fleece be dry -- canst Thou still work? Even if I do not feel
any superhuman power, any fullness of spiritual blessing
within me: even if I feel as dry as this fleece, canst Thou
still deliver Israel by my arm?" (Little wonder that he
prefaced his prayer with the words, "Let not Thine anger
be hot against me"!) "And God did so that night:
for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all
the ground" (verse 40).
Yes, there is more in the story
than can be seen at a glance. And is it not so in our own
case? The devil so often assures us that our prayers cannot
claim an answer because of the "dryness" of our
souls. Answers to prayer, however, do not depend upon our
feelings, but upon the trustworthiness of the Promiser.
Now, we are not urging that
Gideon's way of procedure is for us, or for anyone, the
normal course of action. It seems to reveal much hesitation
to believe God's Word. In fact, it looks gravely like
doubting God. And surely it grieves God when we show a faith
in Him which is but partial.
The higher and better and safer
way is to "ask, nothing doubting." But it is very
comforting and assuring to us to know that God allowed Gideon
to put Him to the test. Nor is this the only such case
mentioned in Scripture. The most surprising instance of
"proving God" happened on the Sea of Galilee. St.
Peter put our Lord Himself to the test. "If it be Thou
--" yet our Savior had already said, "It is
I." "If it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the
water." And our Lord said, "Come," and Peter
"walked on the water" (Matt. xiv. 28, 29). But this
"testing-faith" of Peter's soon failed him.
"Little faith" (verse 31) so often and so quickly
becomes "doubt." Remember that Christ did not
reprove him for coming. Our Lord did not say, "Wherefore
didst thou come?" but "Wherefore didst thou
doubt?"
To put God to the test is,
after all, not the best method. He has given us so many
promises contingent on believing prayer, and has so often
proved His power and His willingness to answer prayer, that
we ought, as a rule, to hesitate very much before we ask Him
for signs as well as for wonders!
But, someone may be thinking,
does not the Lord God Almighty Himself bid us to put Him to
the test? Did He not say, "Bring ye the whole tithe into
the storehouse . . . and prove Me now herewith, saith the
Lord of Hosts, if I will not open unto you the windows of
heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be
room enough to receive it"? (Mal. iii. 10).
Yes that is true: God does say,
"Prove Me: test Me." But it is really we ourselves
who are thus tested. If the windows of heaven are not opened
when we pray, and this blessing of fullness-to-overflowing is
not bestowed upon us, it can only be because we are not
whole-tithers. When we are in very deed wholly yielded to God
-- when we have brought the whole tithe into the storehouse
for God -- we shall find such a blessing that we shall not
need to put God to any test! This is a thing we shall have to
speak about when we come to the question of unanswered
prayer.
Meanwhile we want every
Christian to ask, "Have I ever fairly tested
prayer?" How long is it since you last offered up a
definite prayer? People pray for "a blessing" upon
an address, or a meeting, or a mission; and some blessing is
certain to come, for others are also pleading with God about
the matter. You ask for relief from pain or healing of
sickness: but Godless people, for whom no one appears to be
praying, often recover, and sometimes in a seemingly
miraculous way. And we may feel that we might have got better
even if no prayer had been offered on our behalf. It seems to
me that so many people cannot put their finger upon any
really definite and conclusive answer to prayer in their own
experience. Most Christians do not give God a chance to show
His delight in granting His children's petitions; for
their requests are so vague and indefinite. If this is so, it
is not surprising that prayer is so often a mere form -- an
almost mechanical repetition, day by day, of certain phrases;
a few minutes' "exercise" morning and
evening.
Then there is another point.
Have you, when in prayer, ever had the witness borne in upon
you that your request was granted? Those who know something
of the private life of men of prayer are often amazed at the
complete assurance which comes over them at times that their
prayers are answered, long before the boon they seek is
actually in their possession. One prayer-warrior would say,
"A peace came over my soul. I was confident my request
was granted me." He then just thanked God for what he
was quite sure God had done for him. And his assurance would
prove to be absolutely well founded.
Our Lord Himself always had
this assurance, and we should ever bear in mind that,
although He was God, He lived His earthly life as a perfect
Man, depending upon the Holy Spirit of God.
When He stood before the opened
tomb of Lazarus, before He had actually called upon the dead
to come forth, He said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou
hast heard Me. And I know that Thou hearest Me always"
(John xi. 41, 42). Why, then, did He utter His thanks?
"Because of the people which stand by I said it, that
they may believe that Thou hast sent Me." If Christ is
dwelling in our hearts by faith: if the Holy Spirit is
breathing into us our petitions, and we are "praying in
the Holy Ghost," ought we not to know that the Father
"hears" us? (Jude 20). And will not those who stand
by begin to recognize that we, too, are God-sent?
Men of prayer and women of
prayer will agonize before God for something which they know
is according to His will, because of some definite promise on
the page of Scripture. They may pray for hours, or even for
days, when suddenly the Holy Spirit reveals to them in no
uncertain way that God has granted their request; and they
are confident that they need no longer send up any more
petitions to God about the matter. It is as if God said in
clear tones: "Thy prayer is heard and I have granted
thee the desire of thy heart." This is not the
experience of only one man, but most men to whom prayer is
the basis of their life will bear witness to the same fact.
Nor is it a solitary experience in their lives: it occurs
again and again.
Then prayer must give place to
action. God taught Moses this: "Wherefore criest thou
unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go
forward" (Exod. xiv. 15).
We are not surprised to find
that Dr. Goforth, a much-used missionary in China, often has
this assurance given him that his petitions are granted.
"I knew that God had answered. I received definite
assurance that He would open the way." For why should
anyone be surprised at this? The Lord Jesus said, "Ye
are My friends, if ye do the things I command you. No longer
do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his
lord doeth: but I have called you friends" (John xv. 14,
15). Do you think it surprising, then, if the Lord lets us,
His "friends," know something of His plans and
purposes?
The question at once arises,
does God mean this to be the experience of only a few chosen
saints, or does He wish all believers to exercise a like
faith, and to have a like assurance that their prayers are
answered?
We know that God is no
respecter of persons, and therefore we know that any true
believer in Him may share His mind and will. We are His
friends if we do the things He commands us. One of those
things is "prayer." Our Savior begged His disciples
to "have faith in God" (the literal translation is
"Have the faith of God"). Then, He declares, you
can say to a mountain, "Be thou taken up and cast into
the sea," and if you believe and doubt not, it shall
come to pass. Then He gives this promise: "All things
whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received
them [that is, in heaven], and ye shall have them [on
earth]" (Mark xi. 24). Now, this is exactly the
experience we have been talking about. This is just what real
men of prayer do. Such things naturally pass the
comprehension of unbelievers. Such things are perplexing to
the half-believers. Our Lord, however, desires that men
should know that we are His disciples, sent as He was sent
(John xvii. 18 and xx. 21). They will know this if we love
one another (John xiii. 35). But another proof is provided,
and it is this: if we know and they see that "God
heareth us always" (John xi. 42).
Some of us at once recall to
mind George Muller's wonderful prayer-life. On one
occasion, when crossing from Quebec to Liverpool, he had
prayed very definitely that a chair he had written to New
York for should arrive in time to catch the steamer, and he
was quite confident that God had granted his petition. About
half an hour before the tender was timed to take the
passengers to the ship, the agents informed him that no chair
had arrived, and that it could not possibly come in time for
the steamer. Now, Mrs. Muller suffered much from
sea-sickness, and it was absolutely essential that she should
have the chair. Yet nothing would induce Mr. Muller to buy
another one from a shop near by. "We have made special
prayer that our Heavenly Father would be pleased to provide
it for us, and we will trust Him to do so," was his
reply; and he went on board absolutely sure that his trust
was not misplaced, and would not miscarry. Just before the
tender left, a van drove up, and on the top of the load it
carried was Mr. Muller's chair. It was hurried on board
and placed into the hands of the very man who had urged
George Muller to buy another one! When he handed it to Mr.
Muller, the latter expressed no surprise, but quietly removed
his hat and thanked his Heavenly Father. To this man of God
such an answer to prayer was not wonderful, but natural. And
do you not think that God allowed the chair to be held back
till the very last minute as a lesson to Mr. Muller's
friends-and to us? We should never have heard of that
incident but for that delay.
God does all He can to induce
us to pray and to trust, and yet how slow we are to do so!
Oh, what we miss through lack of faith and want of prayer! No
one can have very real and deep communion with God who does
not know how to pray so as to get answers to prayer.
If one has any doubt as to
God's willingness to be put to the test, let him read a
little book called Nor Scrip (Marshall, Morgan and Scott,
Ltd.). Miss Amy Wilson Carmichael tells us in its pages how
again and again she "proved God." One gets the
impression from the book that it was no accident that led her
to do so. Surely God's hand was in it? For instance, in
order to rescue a Hindu child from a life of
"religious" shame, it was necessary to spend a
hundred rupees. Was she justified in doing so? She could help
many girls for such a sum: ought she to spend it on one? Miss
Wilson Carmichael felt led to pray that God would send her
the round sum of a hundred rupees -- no more, no less -- if
it was His will that the money should be spent in this way.
The money came -- the exact amount -- and the sender of it
explained that she had sat down to write a check for a broken
sum, but had been impelled to make it just a hundred
rupees.
That happened over fifteen
years ago, and since that time this same missionary has put
God to the test over and over again, and He has never failed
her. This is what she says: "Never once in fifteen years
has a bill been left unpaid; never once has a man or woman
been told when we were in need of help; but never once have
we lacked any good thing. Once, as if to show what could be
done if it were required, 25 pounds came by telegram!
Sometimes a man would emerge from the clamoring crowd at a
railway station, and slip some indispensable gift of money
into the hand, and be lost in the crowd again before the
giver could be identified."
Is it wonderful? Wonderful!
Why, what does St. John say, speaking by the Spirit of God?
"And this is the boldness which we have towards Him,
that if we ask anything, according to His will, He heareth
us; and if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we
know that we have the petitions which we have asked of
Him" (I John v.14, 15). Have you and I such
"boldness"? If not, why not?
To call it wonderful is to show
our want of faith. It is natural to God to answer prayer:
normal, not extraordinary.
The fact is -- let us be quite
honest and straightforward about it -- the fact is so many of
us do not believe God. We may just as well be quite candid
about it. If we love God we ought to pray, because He wants
us to pray, and commands us to pray. If we believe God we
shall pray because we cannot help doing so: we cannot get on
without it. Fellow-Christian, you believe in God, and you
believe on Him (John iii. 16), but have you advanced far
enough in the Christian life to believe Him; that is, to
believe what He says and all He says? Does it not sound
blasphemous to ask such a thing of a Christian man? Yet how
few believers really believe God! -- God forgive us! Has it
ever struck you that we trust the word of our fellow-man more
easily than we trust God's word? And yet, when a man does
"believe God," what miracles of grace God works in
and through him! No man ever lived who has been revered and
respected by so many peoples and tongues as that man of whom
we are told three times over in the New Testament that
"He believed God" (Rom. iv. 3; Gal. iii. 6; James
ii. 23). Yes, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned
unto him for righteousness." And today, Christian and
Jew and Moslem vie with each other in honoring his name. We
implore every believer on Christ Jesus never to rest till he
can say, "I believe God, and will act on that
belief" (Acts xxvii. 25).
But before we leave the
question of testing God, we should like to point out that
sometimes God leads us on "to prove Him." Sometimes
God has put it into the heart of Miss Wilson Carmichael to
ask for things she saw no need for. Yet she felt impelled by
the Holy Spirit to ask. Not only were they granted her, but
they also proved an inestimable boon. Yes, God knows what
things we have need of, whether we want them or not, before
we ask (Matt. vi. 8). Has not God said, "I will in no
wise fail thee"?
Oftentimes the temptation would
come to Miss Wilson Carmichael to let others know of some
special need. But always the inner assurance would come, as
in the very voice of God, "I know, and that is
enough." And, of course, God was glorified. During the
trying days of the war, even the heathen used to say,
"Their God feeds them." "Is it not known all
the country round," said a worldly heathen, "that
your God hears prayer?"
Oh, what glory to God was
brought about by their simple faith! Why do not we believe
God? Why do we not take God at His word? Do believers or
unbelievers ever say of us, "We know your prayers are
answered"? Ye missionaries the wide world over, listen!
(Oh, that these words might reach every ear, and stir every
heart!) It is the yearning desire of God -- of our loving
Savior Jesus Christ -- that every one of us should have the
same strong faith as that devoted lady missionary we are
speaking about.
Our loving Father does not wish
any child of His to have one moment's anxiety or one
unsatisfied need. No matter how great our need may be; no
matter how numerous our requirements, if we only "prove
Him" in the manner He bids us, we shall never have room
enough to receive all the blessing He will give (Mal. iii.
10).
Oh,
what peace we often forfeit !
Oh, what needless pain we bear!
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer;
or all because, when we do
"carry it," we do not believe God's word. Why
is it we find it so hard to trust Him? Has He ever failed us?
Has He not said over and over and over again that He will
grant all petitions offered out of a pure heart, "in His
name"? "Ask of Me"; "Pray ye";
"Prove Me"; "Try Me." The Bible is full
of answers to prayer -- wonderful answers, miraculous
answers; and yet somehow our faith fails us, and we dishonor
God by distrusting Him!
If
our faith were but more simple
We should take Him at His word,
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the bounties of our Lord.
But our eye must be
"single" if our faith is to be simple and our
"whole body full of light" (Matt. vi. 22). Christ
must be the sole Master. We cannot expect to be free from
anxiety if we are trying to serve God and Mammon (Matt. vi.
24, 25). Again we are led back to the Victorious Life! When
we indeed present our bodies "a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God" (Rom. xii. 1); when we present our
members "as servants to righteousness and
sanctification" (Rom. vi. 19); then He presents Himself
to us and fills us with all the fullness of God (Eph. iii.
19).
Let us ever bear in mind that
real faith not only believes that God can, but that He does
answer prayer. We may be slothful in prayer, but "the
Lord is not slack concerning His promise" (II Peter iii.
9). Is not that a striking expression?
Perhaps the most extraordinary
testing of God which that Dohnavur missionary tells us of is
the following. The question arose of purchasing a rest-house
in the hills near by. Was it the right thing to do? Only God
could decide. Much prayer was made. Eventually the petition
was offered up that if it was God's will that the house
should be purchased, the exact sum of 100 pounds should be
received. That amount came at once. Yet they still hesitated.
Two months later they asked God to give them again the same
sign of His approval of the purchase. That same day another
check for 100 pounds came. Even now they scarcely liked to
proceed in the matter. In a few days' time, how-
ever, another round sum of 100
pounds was received, earmarked for the purchase of such a
house. Does it not flood our hearts with joy to remember that
our gracious Savior is so kind? It is St. Luke the physician
who tells us that God is kind (Luke vi. 35). Love is always
"kind" (I Cor. xiii. 4); and God is Love. Think
over it when you pray. Our Lord is "kind." It will
help us in our intercessions. He bears so patiently with us
when our faith would falter. "How precious is Thy
lovingkindness, O God" (Psalm xxxvi.7); "Thy
lovingkindness is better than life" (Psalm lxiii.
3).
The danger is that we read of
such simple faith in prayer, and say, "How
wonderful!" and forget that God desires every one of us
to have such faith and such prayer. God has no favorites! He
wants me to pray; He wants you to pray. He allows such things
to happen as we have described above, and suffers them to
come to our knowledge, not to surprise us, but to stimulate
us. One sometimes wishes that Christian people would forget
all the man-made rules with which we have hedged prayer
about! Let us be simple. Let us be natural. Take God at His
word. Let us remember that "the kindness of God our
Savior, and His love toward man," has appeared (Titus
iii. 4). God sometimes leads men into the prayer-life.
Sometimes, however, God has to drive us into such a life.
As some of us look back over
our comparatively prayerless life, what a thrill of wonder
and of joy comes over us as we think of the kindness and
"patience of Christ" (II Thess. iii. 5). Where
should we have been without that? We fail Him, but, blessed
be His name, He has never failed us, and He never will do so.
We doubt Him, we mistrust His love and His providence and His
guidance; we "faint because of the way"; we murmur
because of the way; yet all the time He is there blessing us,
and waiting to pour out upon us a blessing so great that
there shall not be room to receive it.
The promise of Christ still
holds good: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that
will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son"
(John xiv. 14).
Prayer
changes things -- and yet how blind
And slow we are to taste and see
The blessedness that comes to those
Who trust in Thee.
But henceforth we will just believe God.
MR. MOODY was once addressing a
crowded meeting of children in Edinburgh. In order to get
their attention he began with a question: "What is
prayer?" -- looking for no reply, and expecting to give
the answer himself.
To his amazement scores of
little hands shot up all over the hall. He asked one lad to
reply; and the answer came at once, clear and correct,
"Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for
things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with
confession of our sins and thankful, acknowledgment of His
mercies." Mr. Moody's delighted comment was,
"Thank God, my boy, that you were born in
Scotland." But that was half a century ago. What sort of
answer would he get today? How many English children could
give a definition of prayer? Think for a moment and decide
what answer you yourself would give.
What do we mean by prayer? I
believe the vast majority of Christians would say,
"Prayer is asking things from God." But surely
prayer is much more than merely "getting God to run our
errands for us," as someone puts it. It is a higher
thing than the beggar knocking at the rich man's
door.
The word "prayer"
really means "a wish directed towards," that is,
towards God. All that true prayer seeks is God Himself, for
with Him we get all we need. Prayer is simply "the
turning of the soul to God." David describes it as the
lifting up of the living soul to the living God. "Unto
Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul" (Psa. xxv. 1). What
a beautiful description of prayer that is! When we desire the
Lord Jesus to behold our souls, we also desire that the
beauty of holiness may be upon us.
When we lift up our souls to
God in prayer it gives God an opportunity to do what He will
in us and with us. It is putting ourselves at God's
disposal. God is always on our side. When man prays, it is
God's opportunity. The poet says:
Prayer
is the soul's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
"Prayer," says an old
Jewish mystic, "is the moment when heaven and earth kiss
each other."
Prayer, then, is certainly not
persuading God to do what we want God to do. It is not
bending the will of a reluctant God to our will. It does not
change His purpose, although it may release His power.
"We must not conceive of prayer as overcoming God's
reluctance," says Archbishop Trench, "but as laying
hold of His highest willingness."
For God always purposes our
greatest good. Even the prayer offered in ignorance and
blindness cannot swerve Him from that, although, when we
persistently pray for some harmful thing, our wilfulness may
bring it about, and we suffer accordingly. "He gave them
their request," says the Psalmist, "but sent
leanness into their soul" (Psa. cvi. 15). They brought
this "leanness" upon themselves. They were
"cursed with the burden of a granted prayer."
Prayer, in the minds of some
people, is only for emergencies! Danger threatens, sickness
comes, things are lacking, difficulties arise -- then they
pray. Like the infidel down a coal mine: when the roof began
to fall he began to pray. An old Christian standing by
quietly remarked, "Aye, there's nowt like cobs of
coal to make a man pray."
Prayer is, however, much more
than merely asking God for something, although that is a very
valuable part of prayer if only because it reminds us of our
utter dependence upon God. It is also communion with God --
intercourse with God -- talking with (not only to) God. We
get to know people by talking with them. We get to know God
in like manner. The highest result of prayer is not
deliverance from evil, or the securing of some coveted thing,
but knowledge of God. "And this is life eternal, that
they should know Thee, the only true God" (John xvii.
3). Yes, prayer discovers more of God, and that is the
soul's greatest discovery. Men still cry out, "O,
that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to
His seat" (Job xxiii. 3).
The kneeling Christian always
"finds" Him, and is found of Him. The heavenly
vision of the Lord Jesus blinded the eyes of Saul of Tarsus
on his downward course, but he tells us, later on, that when
he was praying in the temple at Jerusalem he fell into a
trance and saw Jesus. "I . . . saw him" (Acts xxii.
18). Then it was that Christ gave him his great commission to
go to the Gentiles. Vision is always a precursor of vocation
and venture. It was so with Isaiah. "I saw the Lord high
and lifted up, and his train filled the temple" (Isa vi.
1). The prophet was evidently in the sanctuary praying when
this happened. This vision also was a prelude to a call to
service, "Go. . . ." Now, we cannot get a vision of
God unless we pray. And where there is no vision the soul
perishes.
A vision of God! Brother
Lawrence once said, "Prayer is nothing else than a sense
of God's presence" -- and that is just the practice
of the presence of God.
A friend of Horace Bushnell was
present when that man of God prayed. There came over him a
wonderful sense of God's nearness. He says: "When
Horace Bushnell buried his face in his hands and prayed, I
was afraid to stretch out my hand in the darkness, lest I
should touch God." Was the Psalmist of old conscious of
such a thought when he cried, "My soul, wait thou only
upon God"? (Psa. lxii. 5.) I believe that much of our
failure in prayer is due to the fact that we have not looked
into this question, "What is prayer?" It is good to
be conscious that we are always in the presence of God. It is
better to gaze upon Him in adoration. But it is best of all
to commune with Him as a Friend -- and that is prayer.
Real prayer at its highest and
best reveals a soul athirst for God -- just for God alone.
Real prayer comes from the lips of those whose affection is
set on things above. What a man of prayer Zinzendorf was.
Why? He sought the Giver rather than His gifts. He said:
"I have one passion: it is He, He alone." Even the
Mohammedan seems to have got hold of this thought. He says
that there are three degrees in prayer. The lowest is that
spoken only by the lips. The next is when, by a resolute
effort, we succeed in fixing our thoughts on Divine things.
The third is when the soul finds it hard to turn away from
God. Of course, we know that God bids us "ask" of
Him. We all obey Him so far; and we may rest well assured
that prayer both pleases God and supplies all our need. But
he would be a strange child who only sought his father's
presence when he desired some gift from him! And do we not
all yearn to rise to a higher level of prayer than mere
petition? How is it to be done?
It seems to me that only two
steps are necessary -- or shall we say two thoughts? There
must be, first of all, a realization of God's glory, and
then of God's grace. We sometimes sing:
Grace
and glory flow from Thee;
Shower, O shower them, Lord, on me.
Nor is such a desire fanciful,
although some may ask what God's glory has to do with
prayer.
But ought we not to remind
ourselves Who He is to Whom we pray? There is logic in the
couplet:
Thou
art coming to a King;
Large petitions with thee bring.
Do you think that any one of us
spends enough time in pondering over, yes, and marveling
over, God's exceeding great glory? And do you suppose
that any one of us has grasped the full meaning of the word
"grace"? Are not our prayers so often ineffective
and powerless -- and sometimes even prayerless -- because we
rush unthinkingly and unpreparedly into God's presence,
without realizing the majesty and glory of the God Whom we
are approaching, and without reflecting upon the exceeding
great riches of His glory in Christ Jesus, which we hope to
draw upon? We must "think magnificently of
God."
May we then suggest that before
we lay our petitions before God we first dwell in meditation
upon His glory and then upon His grace -- for He offers us
both. We must lift up the soul to God. Let us place
ourselves, as it were, in the presence of God and direct our
prayer to the King of kings, and Lord of lords, Who only hath
immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable . . . to Whom
be honor and power eternal (I Tim. vi. 16). Let us then give
Him adoration and praise because of His exceeding great
glory. Consecration is not enough. There must be
adoration.
"Holy, holy, holy, is the
Lord of Hosts," cry the seraphim; "the whole earth
is full of his glory" (Isa. vi. 3). "Glory to God
in the highest," cries the "whole multitude of the
heavenly host" (Luke ii. 14). Yet some of us try to
commune with God without stopping to "put off our shoes
from off our feet" (Exod. iii. 5).
Lips
cry "God be merciful"
That ne'er cry "God be praised."
O come let us adore Him!
And we may approach His glory
with boldness. Did not our Lord pray that His disciples might
behold His glory? (John xvii. 24). Why? And why is "the
whole earth full of His glory"? The telescope reveals
His infinite glory. The microscope reveals His uttermost
glory. Even the unaided eye sees surpassing glory in
landscape, sunshine, sea and sky. What does it all mean?
These things are but a partial revelation of God's glory.
It was not a desire for self-display that led our Lord to
pray, "Father, glorify Thy Son" . . . "O
Father, glorify Thou Me" (John xvii. 1, 3). Our dear
Lord wants us to realize His infinite trustworthiness and
unlimited power, so that we can approach Him in simple faith
and trust.
In heralding the coming of
Christ the prophet declared that "glory of the Lord
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together"
(Isa. xl. 5). Now we must get a glimpse of that glory before
we can pray aright. So our Lord said, "When ye pray, say
Our Father, Who art in heaven [the realm of glory], hallowed
be Thy name." There is nothing like a glimpse of glory
to banish fear and doubt. Before we offer up our petitions
may it not help us to offer up our adoration in the words of
praise used by some of the saints of old? Some devout souls
may not need such help. We are told that Francis of Assisi
would frequently spend an hour or two in prayer on the top of
Mount Averno, whilst the only word which escaped his lips
would be "God" repeated at intervals. He began with
adoration -- and often stopped there!
But most of us need some help
to realize the glory of the invisible God before we can
adequately praise and adore Him. Old William Law said,
"When you begin to pray, use such expressions of the
attributes of God as will make you sensible of His greatness
and power."
This point is of such
tremendous importance that we venture to remind our readers
of helpful words. Some of us begin every day with a glance
heavenwards whilst saying, "Glory be to the Father, and
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." The prayer, "O
Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and merciful
Savior!" is often enough to bring a solemn awe and a
spirit of holy adoration upon the soul. The Gloria in
Excelsis of the Communion Service is most uplifting:
"Glory be to God on high and in earth peace. . . . We
praise Thee; we bless Thee; we worship Thee; we glorify Thee;
we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory, O Lord God,
heavenly King, God the Father Almighty." Which of us can
from the heart utter praise like that and remain unmoved,
unconscious of the very presence and wondrous majesty of the
Lord God Almighty? A verse of a hymn may serve the same
purpose.
My
God. how wonderful Thou art!
Thy majesty how bright.
How beautiful Thy mercy-seat
In depths of burning light!
How wonderful, how beautiful
The sight of Thee must be;
Thine endless wisdom, boundless power
And awful purity.
This carries us into the very heavenlies, as also do the
words:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
All Thy works shall praise Thy name
In earth, and sky, and sea.
We need to cry out, and to cry
often, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Savior" (Luke i. 46, 47). Can we
catch the spirit of the Psalmist and sing, "Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy
name"? (Psa. ciii. 1.) "Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, Thou art very great; Thou are clothed with
honor and majesty" (Psa. civ. 1). When shall we learn
that "in His temple everything saith Glory!" (Psa.
xxix. 9, R.V.) Let us, too, cry, Glory!
Such worship of God, such
adoration and praise and thanksgiving, not only put us into
the spirit of prayer, but in some mysterious way they help
God to work on our behalf. Do you remember those wonderful
words, "Whoso, offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
glorifyeth Me and prepareth a way that I may show him the
salvation of God"?, (Psa. l. 23, R.V., marg.) Praise and
thanksgiving not only open the gates of heaven for me to
approach God, but also "prepare a way" for God to
bless me. St. Paul cries, "Rejoice evermore!"
before he says, "Pray without ceasing." So then our
praise, as well as our prayers, is to be without ceasing.
At the raising of Lazarus our
Lord's prayer had as its first utterance a note of
thanksgiving. "Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest
Me" (John xi. 41). He said it for those around to hear.
Yes, and for us to hear.
You may perhaps be wondering
why it is that we should specially give thanks to God for His
great glory when we kneel in prayer; and why we should spend
any time in thinking of and gazing upon that glory. But is He
not the King of Glory? All He is and all He does is glory.
His holiness is "glorious" (Exod. xv. 11). His name
is glorious (Deut. xxviii. 58). His work is
"glorious" (Psa. cxi. 3). His power is glorious
(Col. i. 11). His voice is glorious (Isa. xxx. 30).
All
things bright and beautiful
All creatures great and small.
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
for His glory.
"For of him and through
him and unto him are all things; to whom be glory for
ever" (Rom. xi. 36). And this is the God who bids us
come to Him in prayer. This God is our God, and He has
"gifts for men" (Psa. lxviii. 18). God says that
everyone that is called by His name has been created for His
glory (Isa. xliii. 7). His Church is to be a
"glorious" Church -- holy and without blemish (Eph.
v. 27). Have you ever fully realized that the Lord Jesus
desires to share with us the glory we see in Him? This is His
great gift to you and me, His redeemed ones. Believe me, the
more we have of God's glory, the less shall we seek His
gifts. Not only in that day "when he shall come to be
glorified in his saints" (II Thess. i. 10) is there
glory for us, but here and now -- today. He wishes us to be
partakers of His glory. Did not our Lord Himself say so?
"The glory which thou has given me, I have given unto
them," He declares (John xvii. 22). What is God's
command? "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Nay, more than
this: "His glory shall be seen upon thee," says the
inspired prophet (Isa. Ix. 1, 2).
God would have people say of us
as St. Peter said of the disciples of old: "The Spirit
of Glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you" (I
Peter iv. 14). Would not that be an answer to most of our
prayers? Could we ask for anything better? How can we get
this glory? How are we to reflect it? Only as the result of
prayer. It is when we pray, that the Holy Spirit takes of the
things of Christ and reveals them unto us (John xvi. 15).
It was when Moses prayed,
"Show me, I pray thee, thy glory," that he not only
saw somewhat of it, but shared something of that glory, and
his own face shone with the light of it (Exod. xxxiii. 18,
xxxiv. 29). And when we, too, gaze upon the "glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. iv. 6), we
shall see not only a glimpse of that glory, but we shall gain
something of it ourselves.
Now, that is prayer, and the
highest result of prayer. Nor is there any other way of
securing that glory, that God may be glorified in us (Isa.
Ix. 21).
Let us often meditate upon
Christ's glory -- gaze upon it and so reflect it and
receive it. This is what happened to our Lord's first
disciples. They said in awed tones, "We beheld his
glory!" Yes, but what followed? A few plain, unlettered,
obscure fishermen companied with Christ a little while,
seeing His glory; and lo! they themselves caught something of
that glory. And then others marveled and "took knowledge
of them that they had been with Jesus" (Acts iv. 13).
And when we can declare, with St. John, "Yea, and our
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus
Christ" (I John i. 3), people will say the same of us:
"They have been with Jesus!"
As we lift up our soul in
prayer to the living God, we gain the beauty of holiness as
surely as a flower becomes beautiful by living in the
sunlight. Was not our Lord Himself transfigured when He
prayed? And the "very fashion" of our countenance
will change, and we shall have our Mount of Transfiguration
when prayer has its rightful place in our lives. And men will
see in our faces "the outward and visible sign of an
inward and spiritual grace." Our value to God and to man
is in exact proportion to the extent in which we reveal the
glory of God to others.
We have dwelt so much upon the
glory of Him to Whom we pray, that we must not now speak of
His grace.
What is prayer? It is a sign of
spiritual life. I should as soon expect life in a dead man as
spiritual life in a prayerless soul! Our spirituality and our
fruitfulness are always in proportion to the reality of our
prayers. If, then, we have at all wandered away from home in
the matter of prayer, let us today resolve, "I will
arise and go unto my Father, and say unto Him, Father
--."
At this point I laid down my
pen, and on the page of the first paper I picked up were
these words: "The secret of failure is that we see men
rather than God. Romanism trembled when Martin Luther saw
God. The 'great awakening' sprang into being when
Jonathan Edwards saw God. The world became the parish of one
man when John Wesley saw God. Multitudes were saved when
Whitfield saw God. Thousands of orphans were fed when George
Muller saw God. And He is 'the same yesterday, today, and
forever.' "
Is it not time that we got a
new vision of God -- of God in all His glory? Who can say
what will happen when the Church sees God? But let us not
wait for others. Let us, each one for himself, with unveiled
face and unsullied heart, get this vision of the glory of the
Lord.
"Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. v. 8). No
missioner whom it has been my joy to meet ever impressed me
quite as much as Dr. Wilbur Chapman. He wrote to a friend:
"I have learned some great lessons concerning prayer. At
one of our missions in England the audiences were exceedingly
small. But I received a note saying that an American
missionary . . . was going to pray God's blessing down
upon our work. He was known as 'Praying Hyde.' Almost
instantly the tide turned. The hall became packed, and at my
first invitation fifty men accepted Christ as their Savior.
As we were leaving I said, 'Mr. Hyde, I want you to pray
for me.' He came to my room, turned the key in the door,
and dropped on his knees, and waited five minutes without a
single syllable coming from his lips. I could hear my own
heart thumping and his beating. I felt the hot tears running
down my face. I knew I was with God. Then, with upturned
face, down which the tears were streaming, he said 'O
God!' Then for five minutes at least he was still again;
and then, when he knew that he was talking with God . . .
there came up from the depth of his heart such petitions for
men as I had never heard before. I rose from my knees to know
what real prayer was. We believe that prayer is mighty, and
we believe it as we never did before."
Dr. Chapman used to say,
"It was a season of prayer with John Hyde that made me
realize what real prayer was. I owe to him more than I owe to
any man for showing me what a prayer-life is, and what a real
consecrated life is. . . . Jesus Christ became a new Ideal to
me, and I had a glimpse of His prayer-life; and I had a
longing which has remained to this day to be a real praying
man." And God the Holy Spirit can so teach us.
Oh,
ye who sigh and languish
And mourn your lack of power,
Hear ye this gentle whisper:
"Could ye not watch one hour?"
For fruitfulness and blessing
There is no royal road;
The power for holy service
Is intercourse with God.
How shall I pray? Could there
be a more important question for a Christian man to ask? How
shall I approach the King of Glory?
When we read Christ's
promises regarding prayer we are apt to think that He puts
far too great a power into our hands -- unless, indeed, we
hastily conclude that it is impossible for Him to act as He
promises. He says, ask "anything,"
"whatsoever," "what ye will," and it
shall be done.
But then He puts in a
qualifying phrase. He says that we are to ask in His name.
That is the condition, and the only one, although, as we
shall remind ourselves later on, it is sometimes couched in
different words.
If, therefore, we ask and do
not receive, it can only be that we are not fulfilling this
condition. If then, we are true disciples of His -- if we are
sincere -- we shall take pains (infinite pains, if need be)
to discover just what it means to ask in His name; and we
shall not rest content until we have fulfilled that
condition. Let us read the promise again to be quite sure
about it. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will
I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye
shall ask anything in my name, I will do it" (John xiv.
13, 14).
This was something quite new,
for our Lord said so. "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in
my name," but now, "ask and ye shall receive, that
your joy may be full" (John xvi. 24).
Five times over our Lord
repeats this simple condition, "In my name" (John
xiv. 13, 14; xv. 16; xvi. 23, 24, 26). Evidently something
very important is here implied. It is more than a condition
-- it is also a promise, an encouragement, for our Lord's
biddings are always His enablings. What, then, does it mean
to ask in His name? We must know this at all costs, for it is
the secret of all power in prayer. And it is possible to make
a wrong use of those words. Our Lord said, "Many shall
come in my name, saying, 'I am Christ,' and shall
deceive many" (Matt. xxiv. 5). He might well have said,
"And many shall think they are praying to the Father in
my name, whilst deceiving themselves."
Does it mean just adding the
words, "and all this we ask in the name of Jesus
Christ," at the end of our prayers?
Many people apparently think
that it does. But have you never heard -- or offered --
prayers full of self-will and selfishness which ended up in
that way, "for Christ's sake. Amen"?
God could not answer the
prayers St. James refers to in his epistle just because those
who offered them added, "we ask these things in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ." Those Christians were asking
"amiss" (James iv. 3). A wrong prayer cannot be
made right by the addition of some mystic phrase!
And a right prayer does not
fail if some such words are omitted. No! It is more than a
question of words. Our Lord is thinking about faith and facts
more than about some formula. The chief object of prayer is
to glorify the Lord Jesus. We are to ask in Christ's name
"that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John
xiv. 13). Listen! We are not to seek wealth or health,
prosperity or success, ease or comfort, spirituality or
fruitfulness in service simply for our own enjoyment or
advancement or popularity, but only for Christ's sake --
for His glory. Let us take three steps to a right
understanding of those important words, "in my
name."
(1) There is a sense in which
some things are done only "for Christ's sake"
-- because of His atoning death. Those who do not believe in
the atoning death of Christ cannot pray "in His
name." They may use the words, but without effect. For
we are "justified by His blood" (Rom. v. 9), and
"we have redemption through His blood, even the
forgiveness of sins" (Eph. i. 7; Col. i. 14). In these
days when Unitarianism under its guileful name of Modernism
has invaded all sects, it is most important to remember the
place and work of the shed blood of Christ, or
"prayer" -- so-called -- becomes a delusion and a
snare.
Let us illustrate this point by
an experience which happened quite early in Mr. Moody's
ministry. The wife of an infidel judge -- a man of great
intellectual gifts -- begged Mr. Moody to speak to her
husband. Moody, however, hesitated at arguing with such a
man, and told him so quite frankly. "But," he
added, "if ever you are converted will you promise to
let me know?" The judge laughed cynically, and replied,
"Oh, yes, I'll let you know quick enough if I am
ever converted!" Moody went his way, relying upon
prayer. That judge was converted, and within a year. He kept
his promise and told Moody just how it came about. "I
began to grow very uneasy and .miserable one night when my
wife was at a prayer-meeting. I went to bed before she came
home. I could not sleep all that night. Getting up early the
next morning, I told my wife I should not need any breakfast,
and went off to my office. Telling the clerks they could take
a holiday, I shut myself up in my private room. But I became
more and more wretched. Finally, I fell on my knees and asked
God to forgive me my sins, but I would not say 'for
Jesus' sake,' for I was Unitarian, and I did not
believe in the atonement. In an agony of mind I kept praying,
'O God, forgive me my sins,' but no answer came. At
last, in desperation, I cried, 'O God, for Christ's
sake forgive my sins.' Then I found peace at
once."
That judge had no access to the
presence of God until he sought it in the name of Jesus
Christ. When he came in Christ's name he was at once
heard and forgiven. Yes, to pray "in the name" of
the Lord Jesus is to ask for things which the blood of Christ
has secured -- "purchased" -- for us. We have
"boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of
Jesus" (Heb. x. 19). There is entrance by no other
way.
But this is not all that those
words "In my Name" mean.
(2) The most familiar
illustration of coming "in the name" of Christ is
that of drawing money from a bank by means of a check. I can
draw from my bank account only up to the amount of my deposit
there. In my own name, I can go no farther. In the Bank of
England I have no money whatsoever, and can therefore draw
nothing therefrom. But suppose a very wealthy man who has a
big account there gives me a blank check bearing his
signature, and bids me fill it in to any amount I choose. He
is my friend. What shall I do? Shall I just satisfy my
present need, or shall I draw as much as I dare? I shall
certainly do nothing to offend my friend, or to lower myself
in his esteem.
Well, we are told by some that
heaven is our bank. God is the Great Banker, for "every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father" (James i. 17). We need a
"check" wherewith to "draw" upon this
boundless store. The Lord Jesus gives us a blank check in
prayer. "Fill it in," says He, "to any amount;
ask 'anything,' 'what ye will,' and you shall
have it. Present your check in My name, and your request will
be honored." Let me put this in the words of a
well-known evangelist of today. "That is what happens
when I go to the bank of heaven-when I go to God in prayer. I
have nothing deposited there; I have no credit there; and if
I go in my own name I will get absolutely nothing. But Jesus
Christ has unlimited credit in heaven, and He has granted me
the privilege of going with His name on my checks; and when I
thus go my prayers will be honored to any extent. To pray,
then, in the name of Christ is to pray, not on the ground of
my credit, but His."
This is all very delightful,
and, in a sense, very true.
If the check were drawn on a
Government account, or upon some wealthy corporation, one
might be tempted to get all one could. But remember we are
coming to a loving Father to Whom we owe all, and Whom we
love with all our heart, and to Whom we may come repeatedly.
In cashing our checks at the bank of heaven we desire chiefly
His honor and His glory. We wish to do only that which is
pleasing in His sight. To cash some of our "checks"
-- to answer some of our prayers -- would only bring dishonor
to His name, and discredit and discomfort to us. True, His
resources are unlimited; but His honor is assailable.
But experience makes argument
unnecessary! Dear reader, have we not -- all of us -- often
tried this method only to fail?
How many of us dare say we have
never come away from the bank of heaven without getting what
we asked for, although we have apparently asked "in
Christ's name"? Wherein do we fail? Is it because we
do not seek to learn God's will for us? We must not try
to exceed His will.
May I give a personal
experience of my own which has never been told in public, and
which is probably quite unique? It happened over thirty years
ago, and now I see why. It makes such a splendid illustration
of what we are now trying to learn about prayer.
A well-to-do friend, and an
exceedingly busy one, wished to give me one pound towards a
certain object. He invited me to his office, and hastily
wrote out a check for the amount. He folded the check and
handed it to me, saying, "I will not cross it. Will you
kindly cash it at the bank?" On arriving at the bank I
glanced at my name on the check without troubling to verify
the amount, endorsed it, and handed it to a clerk. "This
is rather a big sum to cash over the counter," he said,
eyeing me narrowly. "Yes, I replied laughingly,
"one pound!" "No," said the clerk:
"this is made out for 'one thousand pounds!'
"
And so it was! My friend was,
no doubt, accustomed to writing big checks; and he had
actually written "one thousand" instead of
"one" pound. Now, what was my position legally? The
check was truly in his name. The signature was all right. My
endorsement was all right. Could I not demand the 1,000
pounds, provided there was sufficient in the account? The
check was written deliberately, if hurriedly, and freely to
me -- why should I not take the gift? Why not?
But I was dealing with a friend
-- a generous friend to whom I owed many deeds of
lovingkindness. He had revealed his mind to me. I knew his
wishes and desires.
He meant to give me one pound,
and no more. I knew his intention, his "mind," and
at once took back the all-too-generous check, and in due time
I received just one pound, according to his will. Had that
donor given me a blank check the result would have been
exactly the same. He would have expected me to write in one
pound, and my honor would have been at stake in my doing so.
Need we draw the lesson? God has His will for each one of us,
and unless we seek to know that will we are likely to ask for
"a thousand," when He knows that "one"
will be best for us. In our prayers we are coming to a Friend
-- a loving Father. We owe everything to Him. He bids us come
to Him whenever we like for all we need. His resources are
infinite.
But He bids us to remember that
we should ask only for those things that are according to His
will -- only for that which will bring glory to His name.
John says, "If we ask anything according to His will, He
heareth us" (I John v.14). So then our Friend gives us a
blank check, and leaves us to fill in "anything";
but He knows that if we truly love Him we shall never put
down -- never ask for -- things He is not willing to give us,
because they would be harmful to us.
Perhaps with most of us the
fault lies in the other direction. God gives us a blank check
and says, Ask for a pound -- and we ask for a shilling! Would
not my friend have been insulted had I treated him thus? Do
we ask enough? Do we dare to ask "according to His
riches in glory"?
The point we are dwelling upon,
however, is this -- we cannot be sure that we are praying
"in His name" unless we learn His will for us.
(3) But even now we have not
exhausted the meaning of those words, "In my Name."
We all know what it is to ask for a thing "in the
name" of another. But we are very careful not to allow
anyone to use our name who is not to be trusted, or he might
abuse our trust and discredit our name. Gehazi, the trusted
servant, dishonestly used Elisha's name when he ran after
Naaman. In Elisha's name he secured riches, but also
inherited a curse for his wickedness.
A trusted clerk often uses his
employer's name and handles great sums of money as if
they were his own. But this be does only so long as he is
thought to be worthy of such confidence in him. And he uses
the money for his master, and not for himself. All our money
belongs to our Master, Christ Jesus. We can go to God for
supplies in His name if we use all we get for His glory.
When I go to cash a check
payable to me, the banker is quite satisfied if the signature
of his client is genuine and that I am the person authorized
to receive the money. He does not ask for references to my
character. He has no right whatever to enquire whether I am
worthy to receive the money or to be trusted to use it
aright. It is not so with the Bank of Heaven. Now, this is a
point of greatest importance. Do not hurry over what is now
to be said.
When I go to heaven's bank
in the name of the Lord Jesus, with a check drawn upon the
unsearchable riches of Christ, God demands that I shall be a
worthy recipient. Not "worthy" in the sense that I
can merit or deserve anything from a holy God -- but worthy
in the sense that I am seeking the gift not for m own glory
or self-interest, but only for the glory of God.
Otherwise I may pray and not
get. "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss that
ye may spend it in your pleasures" (James iv. 3,
R.V.).
The great Heavenly Banker will
not cash checks for us if our motives are not right. Is not
this why so many fail in prayer? Christ's name is the
revelation of His character.
To pray "in His name"
is to pray in His character, as His representative sent by
Him: it is to pray by His Spirit and according to His will;
to have His approval in our asking, to seek what He seeks, to
ask help to do what He Himself would wish to be done, and to
desire to do it not for our own glorification, but for His
glory alone. To pray "in His name" we must have
identity of interests and purpose. Self and its aims and
desires must be entirely controlled by God's Holy Spirit,
so that our wills are in complete harmony with Christ's
will.
We must reach the attitude of
St. Augustine when he, cried, "O Lord, grant that I may
do Thy will as if it were my will, so that Thou mayest do my
will as if it were Thy will."
Child of God, does this seem to
make prayer "in His name" quite beyond us? That was
not our Lord's intention. He is not mocking us! Speaking
of the Holy Spirit our Lord used these words: "The
Comforter . . . Whom the Father will send in my name"
(John xiv. 26). Now, our Savior wants us to be so controlled
by the Holy Spirit that we may act in Christ's name.
"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God" (Rom. viii. 14). And only sons can say,
"Our Father."
Our Lord said of Saul of
Tarsus: "He is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name
before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of
Israel" (Acts ix. 15). Not to them, but before them. So
St. Paul says: "It pleased God to reveal his Son in
me." We cannot pray in Christ's name unless we bear
that name before people. And this is only possible so long as
we "abide in" Him and His words abide in us. So we
come to this -- unless the heart is right the prayer must be
wrong.
Christ said, "If ye abide
in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you" (John xv. 7).
Those three promises are really
identical -- they express the same thought in different
words. Look at them --
Ask anything in my name, I will
do it (John xiv. 13, 14).
Ask what ye will (if ye abide
in me and my words abide in you), and it shall be done (John
xv. 7).
Ask anything, according to his
will, we have the petitions (I John v. 14).
And we could sum them all up in
the words of St. John, "'Whatsoever we ask, we
receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the
things which are pleasing in his sight" (I John iii.
22). When we do what He bids, He does what we ask! Listen to
God and God will listen to you. Thus our Lord gives us
"power of attorney" over His kingdom, the kingdom
of heaven, if only we fulfil the condition of abiding in
Him.
Oh, what a wonder is this! How
eagerly and earnestly we should seek to know His
"mind," His wish, His will! -- How amazing it is
that any one of us should by our own self-seeking miss such
unsearchable riches! We know that God's will is the best
for us. We know that He longs to bless us and make us a
blessing. We know that to follow our own inclination is
absolutely certain to harm us and to hurt us and those whom
we love. We know that to turn away from His will for us is to
court disaster. O child of God, why do we not trust Him fully
and wholly? Here we are, then, once again brought face to
face with a life of holiness. We see with the utmost
clearness that our Savior's call to prayer is simply a
clarion call to holiness. "Be ye holy!" for without
holiness no man can see God, and prayer cannot be
efficacious.
When we confess that we
"never get answers to our prayers," we are
condemning not God, or His promises, or the power of prayer,
but ourselves. There is no greater test of spirituality than
prayer. The man who tries to pray quickly discovers just
where he stands in God's sight.
Unless we are living the
Victorious Life we cannot truly pray "in the name"
of Christ, and our prayer-life must of necessity be feeble,
fitful and oft-times unfruitful.
And "in His name"
must be "according to His will." But can we know
His will? Assuredly we can. St. Paul not only says, "Let
this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus . . ."
(Phil. ii. 5); he also boldly declares, "We have the
mind of Christ" (I Cor. ii. 16). How, then, can we get
to know God's will?
We shall remember that
"the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him"
(Psa. xxv. 14).
In the first place, we must not
expect God to reveal His will to us unless we desire to know
that will and intend to do that will. Knowledge of God's
will and the performance of that will go together. We are apt
to desire to know God's will so that we may decide
whether we will obey or not. Such an attitude is disastrous.
"If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the
teaching" (John vii. 17).
God's will is revealed in
His Word in Holy Scriptures. What He promises in His Word I
may know to be according to His will.
For example, I may confidently
ask for wisdom, because His Word says, "If any . . .
lack wisdom, let him ask of God . . . and it shall be given
him" (James i. 5). We cannot be men of prevailing prayer
unless we study God's Word to find out His will for
us.
But it is the Holy Spirit of
God Who is prayer's great Helper. Read again those
wonderful words of St. Paul: "In the same way the Spirit
also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what
prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them, but the
Spirit Himself pleads for us in yearnings that can find no
words, and the Searcher of hearts knows what the Spirit's
meaning is, because His intercessions for God's people
are in harmony with God's will" (Rom. viii. 26, 27;
Weymouth).
What comforting words!
Ignorance and helplessness in prayer are indeed blessed
things if they cast us upon the Holy Spirit. Blessed be the
name of the Lord Jesus! We are left without excuse. Pray we
must: pray we can.
Remember our Heavenly Father is
pledged to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him (Luke
xi. 13) -- and any other "good thing" too (Matt.
vii. 11).
Child of God, you have often
prayed. You have, no doubt, often bewailed your feebleness
and slackness in prayer. But have you really prayed in His
name?
It is when we have failed and
know not "what prayers to offer" or "in what
way," that the Holy Spirit is promised as our
Helper.
Is it not worth while to be
wholly and whole-heartedly yielded to Christ? The
half-and-half Christian is of very little use either to God
or man. God cannot use him, and man has no use for him, but
considers him a hypocrite. One sin allowed in the life wrecks
at once our usefulness and our joy, and robs prayer of its
power.
Beloved, we have caught a fresh
glimpse of the grace and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is willing and waiting to share with us both His glory and
His grace. He is willing to make us channels of blessing.
Shall we not worship God in sincerity and truth, and cry
eagerly and earnestly, "Lord, what shall I do?"
(Acts xxii. 10, R.V.) and then, in the power of His might, do
it?
St. Paul once shot up that
prayer to heaven; "What shall I do?" What answer
did he get? Listen! He tells us in his counsel to believers
everywhere just what it meant to him, and should mean to us:
"Beloved, put on . . . a heart of compassion, kindness,
humility, longsuffering; . . .above all things put on love
and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. . . . Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. . . .
And whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through
him" (Col. iii. 12-17).
It is only when whatsoever we
do is done in His name that He will do whatsoever we ask in
His name.
PRAYER is measured, not by
time, but by intensity. Earnest souls who read of men like
Praying Hyde are today anxiously asking, "Am I expected
to pray like that?"
They hear of others who
sometimes remain on their knees before God all day or all
night, refusing food and scorning sleep, whilst they pray and
pray and pray. They naturally wonder, "Are we to do the
same? Must all of us follow their examples?" We must
remember that those men of prayer did not pray by time. They
continued so long in prayer because they could not stop
praying.
Some have ventured to think
that in what has been said in earlier chapters I have hinted
that we must all follow in their train. Child of God, do not
let any such thought -- such fear? -- distress you. Just be
willing to do what He will have you do -- what He leads you
to do. Think about it; pray about it. We are bidden by the
Lord Jesus to pray to our loving Heavenly Father. We
sometimes sing, "Oh, how He loves!" And nothing can
fathom that love.
Prayer is not given us as a
burden to be borne, or an irksome duty to fulfil, but to be a
joy and power to which there is no limit. It is given us that
we "may find grace to help us in time of need"
(Heb. iv. 16, R.V.). And every time is a "time of
need." "Pray ye" is an invitation to be
accepted rather than a command to be obeyed. Is it a burden
for a child to come to his father to ask for some boon? How a
father loves his child, and seeks its highest good! How he
shields that little one from any sorrow or pain or suffering!
Our heavenly Father loves us infinitely more than any earthly
father. The Lord Jesus loves us infinitely more than any
earthly friend. God forgive me if any words of mine, on such
a precious theme as prayer, have wounded the hearts or
consciences of those who are yearning to know more about
prayer. "Your heavenly Father knoweth," said our
Lord: and if He knows, we can but trust and not be
afraid.
A schoolmaster may blame a boy
for neglected homework, or unpunctual attendance, or frequent
absence; but the loving father in the home knows all about
it. He knows all about the devoted service of the little
laddie in the home circle, where sickness or poverty throws
so many loving tasks in his way. Our dear, loving Father
knows all about us. He sees. He knows how little leisure some
of us have for prolonged periods of prayer.
For some of us God makes
leisure. He makes us lie down (Psa. xxiii. 2) that He may
make us look up. Even then, weakness of body often prevents
prolonged prayer. Yet I question if any of us, however great
and reasonable our excuses, spend enough thought over our
prayers. Some of us are bound to be much in prayer. Our very
work demands it. We may be looked upon as spiritual leaders;
we may have the spiritual welfare or training of others. God
forbid that we should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray
enough for them (I Sam. xii. 23). Yes, with some it is our
very business -- almost our life's work-to pray, Others
--
Have
friends who give them pain,
Yet have not sought a friend in Him.
For them they cannot help
praying. If we have the burden of souls upon us we shall
never ask, "How long need I pray?"
But how well we know the
difficulties which surround the prayer-life of many! A little
pile of letters lies before me as I write. They are full of
excuses, and kindly protests, and reasonings it is true. But
is that why they are written? No! No! Far from it. In every
one of them there is an undercurrent of deep yearning to know
God's will, and how to obey the call to prayer amid all
the countless claims of life.
Those letters tell of many who
cannot get away from others for times of secret prayer; of
those who share even bedrooms; of busy mothers, and maids,
and mistresses who scarcely know how to get through the
endless washing and cooking, mending and cleaning, shopping
and visiting; of tired workers who are too weary to pray when
the day's work is done.
Child of God, our heavenly
Father knows all about it. He is not a taskmaster. He is our
Father. if you have no time for prayer, or no chance of
secret prayer, why, just tell Him all about it -- and you
will discover that you are praying!
To those who seem unable to get
any solitude at all, or even the opportunity of stealing into
a quiet church for a few moments, may we point to the
wonderful prayer-life of St. Paul ? Did it ever occur to you
that lie was in prison when he wrote most of those marvelous
prayers of his which we possess? Picture him. He was chained
to a Roman soldier day and night, and was never alone for a
moment. Epaphias was there part of the time, and caught
something of his master's passion for prayer. St. Luke
may have been there. What prayer-meetings! No opportunity for
secret prayer. No! but how much we owe to the uplifting of
those chained hands! You and I may be never, or rarely ever,
alone, but at least our hands are not fettered with chains,
and our hearts are not fettered, nor our lips.
Can we make time for prayer? I
may be wrong, but my own belief is that it is not God's
will for most of us -- and perhaps not for any of us -- to
spend so much time in prayer as to injure our physical health
through getting insufficient food or sleep. With very many it
is a physical impossibility, because of bodily weakness, to
remain long in the spirit of intense prayer.
The posture in which we pray is
immaterial. God will listen whether we kneel, or stand, or
sit, or walk, or work.
I am quite aware that many have
testified to the fact that God sometimes gives special
strength to those who curtail their hours of rest in order to
pray more. At one time the writer tried getting up very early
in the morning -- and every morning -- for prayer and
communion with God. After a time he found that his daily work
was suffering in intensity and effectiveness, and that it was
difficult to keep awake during the early evening hours! But
do we pray as much as we might do? It is a lasting regret to
me that I allowed the days of youth and vigor to pass by
without laying more stress upon those early hours of
prayer.
Now, the inspired command is
clear enough: "Pray without ceasing" (I Thess. v.
17). Our dear Lord said, "Men ought always to pray, and
not to faint" -- "and never lose heart"
(Weymouth) (Luke xviii. 1).
This, of course, cannot mean
that we are to be always on our knees. I am convinced that
God does not wish us to neglect rightful work in order to
pray. But it is equally certain that we might work better and
do more work if we gave less time to work and more to
prayer.
Let us work well. We are to be
"not slothful in business" (Rom. xii. 11). St. Paul
says, "We exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and
more; and that ye. . . do your own business, and to work with
your hands. . . that ye may walk honestly . . . and have need
of nothing" (I Thess. iv. 11, 12). "If any will not
work, neither let him eat" (I Thess. iii. 10).
But are there not endless
opportunities during every day of "lifting, up holy
hands" -- or at least holy hearts -- in prayer to our
Father? Do we seize the opportunity, as we open our eyes upon
each new day, of praising and blessing our Redeemer? Every
day is an Easter day to the Christian. We can pray as we
dress. Without a reminder we shall often forget. Stick a
piece of stamp-paper in the corner of your looking-glass,
bearing the words, -- "Pray without ceasing." Try
it. We can pray as we go from one duty to another. We can
often pray at our work. The washing and the writing, the
mending and the minding, the cooking and the cleaning will be
done all the better for it.
Do not children, both young and
old, work better and play better when some loved one is
watching? Will it not help us ever to remember that the Lord
Jesus is always with us, watching? Aye, and helping. The very
consciousness of His eye upon us will be the consciousness of
His power within us.
Do you not think that St. Paul
had in his mind this habitual praying rather than fixed
seasons of prayer when he said, "The Lord is at
hand" -- i.e., is near (Weymouth). "In nothing be
anxious, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God"
(Phil. iv. 5, 6)? Does not "in everything" suggest
that, as thing after thing befalls us, moment by moment, we
should then and there make it a "thing" of prayer
and praise to the Lord Who is near? (Why should we limit this
"nearness" to the Second Advent?)
What a blessed thought: prayer
is to a near-God. When our Lord sent His disciples forth to
work, He said, "Lo, I am with you alway."
Sir Thomas Browne, the
celebrated physician, had caught this spirit. He made a vow
"to pray in all places where quietness inviteth; in any
house, highway or street; and to know no street in this city
that may not witness that I have not forgotten God and my
Savior in it; and that no town or parish where I have been
may not say the like. To take occasion of praying upon the
sight of any church which I see as I ride about. To pray
daily and particularly for my sick patients, and for all sick
people, under whose care soever. And at the entrance into the
house of the sick to say, 'The peace and the mercy of God
be upon this house.' After a sermon to make a prayer and
desire a blessing, and to pray for the minister."
But we question if this
habitual communion with our blessed Lord is possible unless
we have times -- whether long or brief -- of definite prayer.
And what of these prayer seasons? We have said earlier that
prayer is as simple as a little child asking something of its
father. Nor would such a remark need any further comment were
it not for the existence of the evil one.
There is no doubt whatever that
the devil opposes our approach to God in prayer, and does all
he can to prevent the prayer of faith. His chief way of
hindering us is to try to fill our minds with the thought of
our needs, so that they shall not be occupied with thoughts
of God, our loving Father, to Whom we pray. He wants us to
think more of the gift than of the Giver. The Holy Spirit
leads us to pray for a brother. We get as far as "O God,
bless my brother" -- and away go our thoughts to the
brother, and his affairs, and his difficulties, his hopes and
his fears, and away goes prayer!
How hard the devil makes it for
us to concentrate our thoughts upon God! This is why we urge
people to get a realization of the glory of God, and the
power of God, and the presence of God, before offering up any
petition. If there were no devil there would be no difficulty
in prayer, but it is the evil one's chief aim to make
prayer impossible. That is why most of us find it hard to
sympathize with those who profess to condemn what they call
"vain repetitions" and "much speaking" in
prayer -- quoting our Lord's words in His sermon on the
mount.
A prominent London vicar said
quite recently, "God does not wish us to waste either
His time or ours with long prayers. We must be business-like
in our dealings with God, and just tell Him plainly and
briefly what we want, and leave the matter there." But
does our friend think that prayer is merely making God
acquainted with our needs? If that is all there is in it,
why, there is no need of prayer! "For your Father
knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him,"
said our Lord when urging the disciples to pray.
We are aware that Christ
Himself condemned some "long prayers" (Matt. xxiii.
14). But they were long prayers made "for a
pretense," "for a show" (Luke xx. 47). Dear
praying people, believe me, the Lord would equally condemn
many of the "long prayers" made every week in some
of our prayer-meetings -- prayers which kill the
prayer-meeting, and which finish up with a plea that God
would hear these "feeble breathings," or
"unworthy utterings."
But he never condemns long
prayers that are sincere. Let us not forget that our Lord
sometimes spent long nights in prayer. We are told of one of
these -- we do not know how frequently they were (Luke vi.
12). He would sometimes rise a "great while before
day" and depart to a solitary place for prayer (Mark i.
35). The perfect Man spent more time in prayer than we do. It
would seem an undoubted fact that with God's saints in
all ages nights of prayer with God have been followed by days
of power with men.
Nor did our Lord excuse Himself
from prayer -- as we, in our ignorance, might think He could
have done -- because of the pressing calls to service and
boundless opportunities of usefulness. After one of His
busiest days, at a time when His popularity was at its
highest, just when everyone sought His company and His
counsel, He turned His back upon them all and retired to a
mountain to pray (Matt. xiv. 23).
We are told that once
"great multitudes came together to hear Him, and to be
healed of their infirmities." Then comes the remark,
"But Jesus himself constantly withdrew into the desert,
and there prayed" (Luke v. 15, 16, Weymouth). Why?
Because He knew that prayer was then far more potent than
"service."
We say we are too busy to pray.
But the busier our Lord was, the more He prayed. Sometimes He
had no leisure so much as to eat (Mark iii. 20); and
sometimes He had no leisure for needed rest and sleep (Mark
vi. 31). Yet He always took time to pray. If frequent prayer,
and, at times, long hours of prayer, were necessary for our
Savior, are they less necessary for us?
I do not write to persuade
people to agree with me: that is a very small matter. We only
want to know the truth. Spurgeon once said: "There is no
need for us to go beating about the bush, and not telling the
Lord distinctly what it is that we crave at His hands. Nor
will it be seemly for us to make any attempt to use fine
language; but let us ask God in the simplest and most direct
manner for just the things we want. . . . I believe in
business prayers. I mean prayers in which you take to God one
of the many promises which He has given us in His Word, and
expect it to be fulfilled as certainly as we look for the
money to be given us when we go to the bank to cash a check.
We should not think of going there, lolling over the counter
chattering with the clerks on every conceivable subject
except the one thing for which we had gone to the bank, and
then coming away without the coin we needed; but we should
lay before the clerk the promise to pay the bearer a certain
sum, tell him in what form we wished to take the amount,
count the cash after him, and then go on our way to attend to
other business. That is just an illustration of the method in
which we should draw supplies from the Bank of Heaven."
Splendid!
But -- ? By all means let us be
definite in prayer; by all means let us put eloquence aside
-- if we have any! By all means let us avoid needless
"chatter," and come in faith, expecting to
receive.
But would the bank clerk pass
me the money over the counter so readily if there stood by my
side a powerful, evil-countenanced, well-armed ruffian whom
he recognized to be a desperate criminal waiting to snatch
the money before my weak hands could grasp it? Would he not
wait till the ruffian had gone? This is no fanciful picture.
The Bible teaches us that, in some way or other, Satan can
hinder our prayers and delay the answer. Does not St. Peter
urge certain things upon Christians, that their "prayers
be not hindered"? (I Peter iii. 7.) Our prayers can be
hindered. "Then cometh the evil one and snatcheth away
that which hath been sown in the heart" (Matt. xiii. 19,
R.V.).
Scripture gives us one instance
-- probably only one out of many -- where the evil one
actually kept back -- delayed -- for three weeks an answer to
prayer. We only mention this to show the need of repeated
prayer, persistence in prayer, and also to call attention to
the extraordinary power which Satan possesses. We refer to
Daniel x. 12, 13: "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first
day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to
humble thyself before God, thy words were heard: and I am
come for thy word's sake. But the prince of the kingdom
of Persia withstood me one and twenty days. But lo, Michael,
one of the chief princes, came to help me."
We must not overlook this
Satanic opposition and hindrance to our prayers. If we were
to be content to ask God only once for some promised thing or
one we deemed necessary, these chapters would never have been
written. Are we never to ask again? For instance, I know that
God willeth not the death of a sinner. So I come boldly in
prayer: "O God, save my friend." Am I never to ask
for his conversion again? George Muller prayed daily -- and
oftener -- for sixty years for the conversion of a friend.
But what light does the Bible throw upon
"business-like" prayers? Our Lord gave two parables
to teach persistence and continuance in prayer. The man who
asked three loaves from his friend at midnight received as
many as he needed "because of his importunity" --
or persistency (Weymouth), i.e., his
"shamelessness," as the word literally means (Luke
xi. 8). The widow who "troubled" the unjust judge
with her "continual coming" at last secured
redress. Our Lord adds "And shall not God avenge his
elect which cry unto him day and night, and he is
longsuffering over them?" (Luke xviii. 7, R.V.)
How delighted our Lord was with
the poor Syro-Phoenician woman who would not take refusals or
rebuffs for an answer! Because of her continual request He
said: "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even
as thou wilt" (Matt. xv. 28). Our dear Lord, in His
agony in Gethsemane, found it necessary to repeat even His
prayer. "And he left them and went away and prayed a
third time, saying again the same words" (Matt. xxvi.
44). And we find St. Paul, the apostle of prayer, asking God
time after time to remove his thorn in the flesh.
"Concerning this thing," says he, "I besought
the Lord thrice that it might depart from me" (II Cor.
xii. 8).
God cannot always grant our
petitions immediately. Sometimes we are not fitted to receive
the gift. Sometimes He says "No" in order to give
us something far better. Think, too, of the days when St.
Peter was in prison. If your boy was unjustly imprisoned,
expecting death at any moment, would you -- could you -- be
content to pray just once, a "business-like"
prayer: "O God, deliver my boy from the hands of these
men"? Would you not be very much in prayer and very much
in earnest?
This is how the Church prayed
for St. Peter. "Long and fervent prayer was offered to
God by the Church on his behalf" (Acts xii. 5,
Weymouth). Bible students will have noticed that the A.V.
rendering, "without ceasing," reads
"earnestly" in the R.V. Dr. Torrey points out that
neither translation gives the full force of the Greek. The
word means literally "stretched-out-ed-ly." It
represents the soul on the stretch of earnest and intense
desire. Intense prayer was made for St. Peter. The very same
word is used of our Lord in Gethsemane: "And being in an
agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became as it
were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground"
(Luke xxii. 44).
Ah! there was earnestness, even
agony in prayer. Now, what about our prayers? Are we called
upon to agonize in prayer? Many of God's dear saints say
"No!" They think such agonizing in us would reveal
great want of faith. Yet most of the experiences which befell
our Lord are to be ours. We have been crucified with Christ,
and we are risen with Him. Shall there be, with us, no
travailing for souls?
Come back to human experience.
Can we refrain from agonizing in prayer over dearly beloved
children who are living in sin? I question if any believer
can have the burden of souls upon him -- a passion for souls
-- and not agonize in prayer.
Can we help crying out, like
John Knox, "O God, give me Scotland or I die"? Here
again the Bible helps us. Was there no travail of soul and
agonizing in prayer when Moses cried out to God, "O,
this people have sinned a great sin, and have made gods of
gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin --; and if not,
blot, me, I pray thee, out of thy book"? (Exod. xxxii.
32.)
Was there no agonizing in
prayer when St. Paul said, "I could wish" --
("pray," R.V. marg.) -- "that I myself were
anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake"? (Rom.
ix. 3.)
We may, at all events, be quite
sure that our Lord, Who wept over Jerusalem, and Who
"offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying
and tears" (Heb. v. 7), will not be grieved if He sees
us weeping over erring ones. Nay, will it not rather gladden
His heart to see us agonizing over the sin which grieves Him?
In fact, may not the paucity of conversions in so many a
ministry be due to lack of agonizing in prayer?
We are told that "As soon
as Zion travailed she brought forth her children" (Isa.
lxvi. 8). Was St. Paul thinking of this passage when he wrote
to the Galatians, "My little children, of whom I am
again in travail until Christ be formed in you"? (Gal.
iv. 19.) And will not this be true of spiritual children? Oh,
how cold our hearts often are! How little we grieve over the
lost! And shall we dare to criticise those who agonize over
the perishing? God forbid! No; there is such a thing as
wrestling in prayer. Not because God is unwilling to answer,
but because of the opposition of the "world-rulers of
this darkness" (Eph. vi. 12, R.V.).
The very word used for
"striving" in prayer means "a contest."
The contest is not between God and ourselves. He is at one
with us in our desires. The contest is with the evil one,
although he is a conquered foe (I John iii. 8). He desires to
thwart our prayers.
"We wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. vi. 12). We,
too, are in these "heavenly places in Christ" (Eph.
i. 3); and it is only in Christ that we can be victorious.
Our wrestling may be a wrestling of our thoughts from
thinking Satan's suggestions, and keeping them fixed on
Christ our Savior -- that is, watching as well as praying
(Eph. vi. 18); "watching unto prayer."
We are comforted by the fact
that "the Spirit helpeth our infirmities: for we know
not how to pray as we ought" (Rom. viii. 26) How does
the Spirit "help" us, teach us, if not by example
as well as by precept? How does the Spirit "pray"?
"The Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom. viii. 26). Does the
Spirit "agonize" in prayer as the Son did in
Gethsemane?
If the Spirit prays in us,
shall we not share His "groanings" in prayer? And
if our agonizing in prayer weakens our body at the time, will
angels come to strengthen us, as they did our Lord? (Luke
xxii. 43.) We may, perhaps, like Nehemiah, weep, and mourn,
and fast when we pray before God (Neh. i. 4).
"But," one asks, "may not a godly sorrow for
sin and a yearning desire for the salvation of others induce
in us an agonizing which is unnecessary, and dishonoring to
God?"
May it not reveal a lack of
faith in God's promises? Perhaps it may do so. But there
is little doubt that St. Paul regarded prayer -- at least
sometimes -- as a conflict (see Rom. xv. 30). In writing to
the Colossian Christians he says: "I would have you know
how greatly I strive for you . . . and for as many as have
not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts may be
comforted" (Col. ii. 1, 2). Undoubtedly he refers to his
prayers for them.
Again, he speaks of Epaphras as
one who is "always striving for you in his prayers, that
ye may stand perfect, and fully assured in all the will of
God" (Col. iv. 12).
The word for "strive"
is our word "agonize," the very word used of our
Lord being "in an agony" when praying Himself (Luke
xxii. 44).
The apostle says again,
Epaphras "hath much labor for you," that is, in his
prayers. St. Paul saw him praying there in prison, and
witnessed his intense striving as he engaged in a long,
indefatigable effort on behalf of the Colossians. How the
Praetorian guard to whom St. Paul was chained must have
wondered -- yes, and have been deeply touched -- to see these
men at their prayers. Their agitation, their tears, their
earnest supplications as they lifted up chained hands in
prayer must have been a revelation to him! What would they
think of our prayers?
No doubt St. Paul was speaking
of his own custom when he urged the Ephesian Christians and
others "to stand," "with all prayer and
supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and
watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for
all saints, and on my behalf . . . an ambassador in
chains." (Eph. vi. 18-20). That is a picture of his own
prayer-life, we may be sure.
So then prayer meets with
obstacles, which must be prayed away. That is what men mean
when they talk about praying through. We must wrestle with
the machinations of Satan. It may be bodily weariness or
pain, or the insistent claims of other thoughts, or doubt, or
the direct assaults of spiritual hosts of wickedness. With
us, as with St. Paul, prayer is something of a
"conflict," a "wrestle," at least
sometimes, which compels us to "stir" ourselves up
"to lay hold on God" (Isa. Ixiv. 7). Should we be
wrong if we ventured to suggest that very few people ever
wrestle in prayer? Do we? But let us never doubt our
Lord's power and the riches of His grace.
The author of The
Christian's Secret of a Happy Life told a little circle
of friends, just before her death, of an incident in her own
life. Perhaps I may be allowed to tell it abroad. A lady
friend who occasionally paid her a visit for two or three
days was always a great trial, a veritable tax upon her
temper and her patience. Every such visit demanded much
prayer-preparation. The time came when this "critical
Christian" planned a visit for a whole week! She felt
that nothing but a whole night of prayer could fortify her
for this great testing. So, providing herself with a little
plate of biscuits, she retired in good time to her bedroom,
to spend the night on her knees before God, to beseech Him to
give her grace to keep sweet and loving during the impending
visit. No sooner had she knelt beside her bed than there
flashed into her mind the words of Phil. iv. 19: "God
shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory
by Christ Jesus." Her fears vanished. She said,
"When I realized that, I gave Him thanks and praised Him
for His goodness. Then I jumped into bed and slept the night
through. My guest arrived the next day, and I quite enjoyed
her visit.
No one can lay down hard and
fast rules of prayer, even for himself. God's gracious
Holy Spirit alone can direct us moment by moment. There,
however, we must leave the matter. God is our judge and our
Guide. But let us remember that prayer is a many-sided thing.
As Bishop Moule says, "True prayer can be uttered under
innumerable circumstances." Very often
Prayer
is the burden of a sigh
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye
When none but God is near.
It may be just letting your
request be made known unto God (Phil. iv. 6). We cannot think
that prayer need always be a conflict and a wrestle. For if
it were, many of us would soon become physical wrecks,
suffering from nervous breakdown, and coming to an early
grave.
And with many it is a physical
impossibility to stay any length of time in a posture of
prayer. Dr. Moule says: "Prayer, genuine and victorious,
is continually offered without the least physical effort or
disturbance. It is often in the deepest stillness of soul and
body that it wins its longest way. But there is another side
of the matter. Prayer is never meant to be indolently easy,
however simple and reliant it may be. It is meant to be an
infinitely important transaction between man and God. And
therefore, very often . . . it has to be viewed as a work
involving labor, persistence, conflict, if it would be prayer
indeed."
No one can prescribe for
another. Let each be persuaded in his own mind how to pray,
and the Holy Spirit will inspire us and guide us how long to
pray. And let us all be so full of the love of God our Savior
that prayer, at all times and in all places, may be a joy as
well as a means of grace.
Shepherd
Divine, our wants relieve
In this and every day;
To all Thy tempted followers give
The power, to watch and pray.
The spirit of interceding grace
Give us the faith to claim;
To wrestle till we see Thy face
And know Thy hidden Name.
WE now come to one of the most
important questions that any man can ask. Very much depends
upon the answer we are led to give. Let us not shrink from
facing the question fairly and honestly. Does God always
answer prayer? Of course, we all grant that He does answer
prayer -- some prayers, and sometimes. But does He always
answer true prayer. Some so-called prayers He does not
answer, because He does not hear them. When His people were
rebellious, He said, "When ye make many prayers, I will
not hear" (Isa. i. 15).
But a child of God ought to
expect answers to prayer. God means every prayer to have an
answer; and not a single real prayer can fail of its effect
in heaven.
And yet that wonderful
declaration of St. Paul: "All things are yours, for ye
are Christ's" (I Cor. iii. 21), seems so plainly and
so tragically untrue for most Christians. Yet it is not so.
They are ours, but so many of us do not possess our
possessions. The owners of Mount Morgan, in Queensland,
toiled arduously for years on its barren slopes, eking out a
miserable existence, never knowing that under their feet was
one of the richest sources of gold the world has ever known.
There was wealth, vast, undreamt of, yet unimagined and
unrealized. It was "theirs," yet not theirs.
The Christian, however, knows
of the riches of God in glory in Christ Jesus, but he does
not seem to know how to get them.
Now, our Lord tells us that
they are to be had for the asking. May He indeed give us all
a right judgment in "prayer-things." When we say
that no true prayer goes unanswered we are not claiming that
God always gives just what we ask for. Have you ever met a
parent so foolish as to treat his child like that? We do not
give our child a red-hot poker because he clamors for it!
Wealthy people are the most careful not to allow their
children much pocket-money.
Why, if God gave us all we
prayed for, we should rule the world, and not He! And surely
we would all confess that we are not capable of doing that.
Moreover, more than one ruler of the world is an absolute
impossibility!
God's answer to prayer may
be "Yes," or it may be "No." It may be
"Wait," for it may be that He plans a much larger
blessing than we imagined, and one which involves other lives
as well as our own.
God's answer is sometimes
"No." But this is not necessarily a proof of known
and wilful sin in the life of the suppliant, although there
may be sins of ignorance. He said "No" to St. Paul
sometimes (II Cor. xii. 8, 9). More often than not the
refusal is due to our ignorance or selfishness in asking.
"For we know not how to pray as we ought" (Rom.
viii. 26). That was what was wrong with the mother of
Zebedee's children. She came and worshipped our Lord and
prayed to Him. He quickly replied, "Ye know not what ye
ask" (Matt. xx. 22). Elijah, a great man of prayer,
sometimes had "No" for an answer. But when he was
swept up to glory in a chariot of fire, did he regret that
God said "No" when he cried out "O Lord, take
away my life"?
God's answer is sometimes
"Wait." He may delay the answer because we are not
yet fit to receive the gift we crave -- as with wrestling
Jacob. Do you remember the famous prayer of Augustine --
"O God, make me pure, but not now"? Are not our
prayers sometimes like that? Are we always really willing to
"drink the cup" -- to pay the price of answered
prayer? Sometimes He delays so that greater glory may be
brought to Himself.
God's delays are not
denials. We do not know why He sometimes delays the answer
and at other times answers "before we call" (Isa.
lxv. 24). George Muller, one of the greatest men of prayer of
all time, had to pray over a period of more than sixty-three
years for the conversion of a friend! Who can tell why?
"The great point is never to give up until the answer
comes," said Muller. "I have been praying for
sixty-three years and eight months for one man's
conversion. He is not converted yet, but he will be! How can
it be otherwise? There is the unchanging promise of Jehovah,
and on that I rest." Was this delay due to some
persistent hindrance from the devil? (Dan. x. 13). Was it a
mighty and prolonged effort on the part of Satan to shake or
break Muller's faith? For no sooner was Muller dead than
his friend was converted -- even before the funeral.
Yes, his prayer was granted,
though the answer tarried long in coming. So many of George
Muller's petitions were granted him that it is no wonder
that he once exclaimed, "Oh, how good, kind, gracious
and condescending is the One with Whom we have to do! I am
only a poor, frail, sinful man, but He has heard my prayers
ten thousands of times."
Perhaps some are asking, How
can I discover whether God's answer is "No" or
"Wait"? We may rest assured that He will not let us
pray sixty-three years to get a "No"! Muller's
prayer, so long repeated, was based upon the knowledge that
God "willeth not the death of a sinner"; "He
would have all men to be saved" (I Tim. ii. 4).
Even as I write, the postman
brings me an illustration of this. A letter comes from one
who very rarely writes me, and did not even know my address
-- one whose name is known to every Christian worker in
England. A loved one was stricken down with illness. Is he to
continue to pray for her recovery? Is God's answer
"No," or is it, "Go on praying -- wait"?
My friend writes: "I had distinct guidance from God
regarding my beloved . . . that it was the will of God she
should be taken . . . I retired into the rest of surrender
and submission to His will. I have much to praise God
for." A few hours later God took that loved one to be
with Him in glory.
Again may we urge our readers
to hold on to this truth: true prayer never goes
unanswered.
If we only gave more thought to
our prayers we should pray more intelligently. That sounds
like a truism. But we say it because some dear Christian
people seem to lay their common sense and reason aside before
they pray. A little reflection would show that God cannot
grant some prayers. During the war every nation prayed for
victory. Yet it is perfectly obvious that all countries could
not be victorious. Two men living together might pray, the
one for rain and the other for fine weather. God cannot give
both these things at the same time in the same place!
But the truthfulness of God is
at stake in this matter of prayer. We have all been reading
again those marvelous prayer-promises of our Lord, and have
almost staggered at those promises -- the wideness of their
scope, the fullness of their intent, the largeness of the one
word "Whatsoever." Very well! "Let God be
found true" (Rom. iii. 4). He certainly will always be
"found true."
Do not stop to ask the writer
if God has granted all his prayers. He has not. To have said
"Yes" to some of them would have spelt curse
instead of blessing. To have answered others was, alas! a
spiritual impossibility -- he was not worthy of the gifts he
sought. The granting, of some of them would but have fostered
spiritual pride and self-satisfaction. How plain all these
things seem now, in the fuller light of God's Holy
Spirit!
As one looks back and compares
one's eager, earnest prayers with one's poor,
unworthy service and lack of true spirituality, one sees how
impossible it was for God to grant the very things He longed
to impart! It was often like asking God to put the ocean of
His love into a thimble-heart! And yet, how God just yearns
to bless us with every spiritual blessing! How the dear
Savior cries again and again, "How often would I . . .
but ye would not"! (Matt. xxiii. 37.) The sadness of it
all is that we often ask and do not receive because of our
unworthiness -- and then we complain because God does not
answer our prayers! The Lord Jesus declares that God gives
the Holy Spirit -- who teaches us how to pray -- just as
readily as a father gives good gifts to his children. But no
gift is a "good gift" if the child is not fit to
use that gift. God never gives us something that we cannot,
or will not, use for His glory (I am not referring to
talents, for we may abuse or "bury" those, but to
spiritual gifts).
Did you ever see a father give
his baby boy a razor when he asked for it, because he hoped
the boy would grow into a man and then find the razor useful?
Does a father never say to his child, "Wait till you are
older, or bigger, or wiser, or better, or stronger"? May
not our loving heavenly Father also say to us,
"Wait"? In our ignorance and blindness we must
surely sometimes say,
In
very love refuse
Whate'er Thou seest
Our weakness would abuse.
Rest assured that God never
bestows tomorrow's gift today. It is not unwillingness on
His part to give. It is not that God is ever straitened in
Himself. His resources are infinite, and His ways are past
finding out. It was after bidding His disciples to ask that
our Lord goes on to hint not only at His providence, but at
His resources. "Look at the wild birds" (Matt. vi.
26, Moffatt); "your heavenly Father feedeth them."
How simple it sounds. Yet have you ever reflected that not a
single millionaire, the wide world over, is wealthy enough to
feed all "the birds of the air," even for one day?
Your heavenly Father feedeth them every day, and is none the
poorer for it. Shall He not much more feed you, clothe you,
take care of you?
Oh, let us rely more upon
prayer! Do we not know that "He is a Rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him"? (Hebrews xi. 6.) The
"oil" of the Holy Spirit will never cease to flow
so long as there are empty vessels to receive it (I Kings iv.
6). It is always we who are to blame when the Spirit's
work ceases. God cannot trust some Christians with the
fullness of the Holy Spirit. God cannot trust some workers
with definite spiritual results in their labors. They would
suffer from pride and vainglory. No! we do not claim that God
grants every Christian everything he prays for.
As we saw in an earlier
chapter, there must be purity of heart, purity of motive,
purity of desire, if our prayers are to be in His name. God
is greater than His promises, and often gives more than
either we desire or deserve -- but He does not always do so.
So, then, if any specific petition is not granted, we may
feel sure that God is calling us to examine our hearts. For
He has undertaken to grant every prayer that is truly offered
in His name. Let us repeat His blessed words once more -- we
cannot repeat them too often -- "Whatsoever ye shall ask
in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified
in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, that will I
do" (John xiv. 13, 14).
Remember that it was impossible
for Christ to offer up any prayer which was not granted. He
was God -- He knew the mind of God -- He had the mind of the
Holy Spirit.
Does He once say, "Father,
if it be possible, let. . ." as He kneels in agony in
Gethsemane's garden, pouring out strong crying and tears?
Yes, and "He was heard for His reverential awe"
(Heb. v. 7, Dr. Moule). Surely not the "agony," but
the son-like fear, gained the answer? Our prayers are heard
not so much because they are importunate but because they are
filial.
Brother Christian, we cannot
fully understand that hallowed scene of dreadful awe and
wonder. But this we know -- that our Lord never yet made a
promise which He cannot keep, or does not mean to fulfil. The
Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us (Rom. viii. 26), and
God cannot say Him "Nay." The Lord Jesus makes
intercession for us (Hebrews vii. 25), and God cannot say Him
"Nay." His prayers are worth a thousand of ours,
but it is He who bids us pray!
"But was not St. Paul
filled with the Holy Spirit?" you ask, "and did he
not say, 'We have the mind of Christ?' Yet he asked
thrice over that God would remove the 'thorn' in his
flesh -- and yet God distinctly tells him He would not do
so."
It is a very singular thing,
too, that the only petition recorded of St. Paul seeking
something for his own individual need was refused! The
difficulty, however, is this: Why did St. Paul, who had the
"mind" of Christ, ask for something which he soon
discovered was contrary to God's wishes? There are
doubtless many fully-consecrated Christians reading these
words who have been perplexed because God has not given some
things they prayed for.
We must remember that we may be
filled with the Spirit and yet err in judgment or desire. We
must remember, too, that we are never filled with God's
Holy Spirit once for all. The evil one is always on the watch
to put his mind into us, so as to strike at God through us.
At any moment we may become disobedient or unbelieving, or
may be betrayed into some thought or act contrary to the
Spirit of love.
We have an astonishing example
of this in the life of St. Peter. At one moment, under the
compelling influence of God's Holy Spirit, he cries,
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!"
Our Lord turns, and with words of high commendation says,
"Blessed art thou, Simon, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but My Father, which is in
heaven." Yet, a very little while after, the devil gets
his mind into St. Peter, and our Lord turns and says unto
him, "Get thee behind me, Satan!" (Matt. xvi. 17,
23.) St. Peter was now speaking in the name of Satan! Satan
still "desires to have" us.
St. Paul was tempted to think
that he could do far better work for his beloved Master if
only that "thorn" could be removed. But God knew
that Paul would be a better man with the "thorn"
than without it.
Is it not a comfort to us to
know that we may bring more glory to God under something
which we are apt to regard as a hindrance or handicap, than
if that undesired thing was removed? "My grace is
sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in
weakness" (II Cor. xii. 9). Remember that
God
nothing does, nor suffers to be done,
But what thou would'st thyself
Did'st thou but see
The end of all He does as well as He.
St. Paul was not infallible --
nor was St. Peter, or St. John; nor is the Pope or any other
man. We may -- and do -- offer up mistaken prayers. The
highest form of prayer is not, "Thy way, O God, not
mine," but "My way, O God, is Thine!" We are
taught to pray, not "Thy will be changed," but
"Thy will be done."
May we, in conclusion, give the
testimony of two who have proved that God can be trusted?
Sir H. M. Stanley, the great
explorer, wrote: "I for one must not dare to say that
prayers are inefficacious. Where I have been in earnest, I
have been answered. When I prayed for light to guide my
followers wisely through the perils that beset them, a ray of
light has come upon the perplexed mind, and a clear road to
deliverance has been pointed out. You may know when prayer is
answered, by the glow of content which fills one who has
flung his cause before God, as he rises to his feet. I have
evidence, satisfactory to myself, that prayers are
granted."
Mary Slessor, the story of
whose life in West Africa has surely thrilled us all, was
once asked what prayer meant to her. She replied, "My
life is one long, daily, hourly record of answered prayer for
physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given
marvelously, for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to
the Gospel subdued, for food provided at the exact hour
needed, for everything that goes to make up life and my poor
service. I can testify with a full and often wonder-stricken
awe that I believe God answers prayer. I know God answers
prayer!"
MERE human nature would choose
a more startling title to this chapter. Remarkable answers --
wonderful answers -- amazing answers. But we must allow God
to teach us that it is as natural to Him to answer prayer as
it is for us to ask. How He delights to hear our petitions,
and how He loves to answer them! When we hear of some wealthy
person giving a treat to poverty-stricken people, or wiping
out some crushing deficit in a missionary society, we
exclaim, "How nice to be able to do a thing like
that!" Well, if it is true that God loves us -- and we
know it is true -- do you not think it gives Him great joy to
give us what we ask? We should like, therefore, to recount
one or two answers to prayer out of very many which have come
to our notice, so that we may have greater boldness in coming
to the Throne of Grace. God saves men for whom we pray. Try
it.
In talking over this question
with a man of prayer a few days ago, he suddenly asked me,
"Do you know St. M-'s Church, L-?"
"Quite well -- have been
there several times."
"Let me tell you what
happened when I lived there. We had a prayer-meeting each
Sunday before the 8 o'clock communion service. As we rose
from our knees one Sunday a sidesman said, 'Vicar, I wish
you would pray for my boy. He is twenty-two years old now,
and has not been to church for years.' 'We can spare
five minutes now,' replied the vicar. They knelt down
again and offered up earnest supplication on behalf of that
man. Although nothing was said to him about this, that youth
came to church that same evening. Something in the sermon
convicted him of sin. He came into the vestry broken-hearted,
and accepted Jesus Christ as, his Savior."
On Monday morning my friend,
who was working as a Church Army captain in the parish, was
present at the weekly meeting of the staff. He said to the
vicar, "That conversion last night is a challenge to
prayer -- a challenge from God. Shall we accept it?"
"What do you mean?" asked the vicar.
"Well," said he, "shall we single out the
worst man in the parish and pray for him?" By unanimous
consent they fixed upon K- as the worst man they knew. So
they "agreed" in prayer for his conversion. At the
end of that week, as they were conducting a Saturday night
prayer-meeting in the mission hall, and whilst his very name
was on their lips, the door swung open and in staggered K-,
much the worse for liquor. He had never been in that mission
hall before. Without thinking of removing his cap he sank on
a chair near the door and buried his face in his hands. The
prayer-meeting suddenly became an enquiry-room. Even as he
was -- in drink -- he sought the Lord Who was seeking him.
Nor did he ever go back. Today he is one of the finest
dockyard missioners in the land.
Oh, why do we not pray for our
unconverted friends? They may not listen to us when we plead
with them, but they cannot hold out if we pray for them. Let
two or three agree in prayer over the salvation of the worst,
and then see what God will do! Tell God and then trust God.
God works in a wonderful way, as well as in a
"mysterious" way, His wonders to perform.
Dan Crawford told us recently
that when returning to his mission field after a furlough, it
was necessary to make all possible haste. But a deep stream,
which had to be crossed, was in flood, and no boats were
available, or usable, for that matter. So he and his party
camped and prayed. An infidel might well have laughed aloud.
How could God get them across that river! But, as they
prayed, a tall tree which had battled with that river for
scores of years began to totter and fall. It fell clear
across the stream! As Mr. Crawford says, "The Royal
Engineers of heaven had laid a pontoon bridge for God's
servants."
Many young people will be
reading these prayer-stories. May we remind them that God
still hears the voice of the lad -- yes, and the lass? (Gen.
xxi. 17.) For them may we be allowed to add the following
story, with the earnest desire that prayer may be their
heritage, their very life; and that answered prayer may be
their daily experience.
Some little time ago, a Chinese
boy of twelve years old, named Ma-Na-Si, a boarder in the
mission school at Chefoo, went home for the holidays. He is
the son of a native pastor.
Whilst standing on the doorstep
of his father's house he espied a horseman galloping
towards him. The man -- a heathen -- was in a great state of
perturbation. He eagerly enquired for the
"Jesus-man" -- the pastor. The boy told him that
his father was away from home. The poor man was much
distressed, and hurriedly explained the cause of his visit.
He had been sent from a heathen village some miles away to
fetch the "holy man" to cast a devil out of the
daughter-in-law of a heathen friend. He poured out his sad
story of this young woman, torn by devils, raving and
reviling, pulling out her hair, clawing her face, tearing her
clothes, smashing up furniture, and dashing away dishes of
food. He told of her spirit of sacrilege, and outrageous
impiety, and brazen blasphemy and how these outbursts were
followed by foaming at the mouth, and great exhaustion, both
physical and mental "But my father is not at home,"
the boy kept reiterating. At length the frenzied man seemed
to understand. Suddenly he fell on his knees, and, stretching
out his hands in desperation, cried, "You, too, are a
Jesus-man; will you come ?"
Think of it -- a boy of twelve!
Yes, but even a lad, when fully yielded to his Savior, is not
fearful of being used by that Savior. There was but one
moment of surprise, and a moment of hesitation, and then the
laddie put himself wholly at his Master's disposal. Like
little Samuel of old he was willing to obey God in all
things. He accepted the earnest entreaty as a call from God.
The heathen stranger sprang into the saddle, and, swinging
the Christian boy up behind him, he galloped away.
Ma-Na-Si began to think over
things. He had accepted an invitation to cast out a devil in
the name of Christ Jesus. But was he worthy to be used of God
in this way? Was his heart pure and his faith strong? As they
galloped along he carefully searched his own heart for sin to
be confessed and repented of. Then he prayed for guidance
what to say and how to act, and tried to recall Bible
instances of demoniacal possession and how they were dealt
with. Then he simply and humbly cast himself upon the God of
power and of mercy, asking His help for the glory of the Lord
Jesus. On arrival at the house they found that some of the
members of the family were by main force holding down the
tortured woman upon the bed. Although she had not been told
that a messenger had gone for the native pastor, yet as soon
as she heard footsteps in the court outside she cried,
"All of you get out of my way quickly, so that I can
escape. I must flee! A 'Jesus-man' is coming. I
cannot endure him. His name is Ma-Na-Si."
Ma-Na-Si entered the room, and
after a ceremonial bow knelt down and began to pray. Then he
sang a Christian hymn to the praise of the Lord Jesus. Then,
in the name of the Risen Lord, glorified and omnipotent, he
commanded the demon to come out of the woman. At once she was
calm, though prostrate with weakness. From that day she was
perfectly whole. She was amazed when they told her that she
had uttered the name of the Christian boy, for she had never
heard of it or read of it before, for the whole of that
village was heathen. But that day was veritably a
"beginning of days" to those people, for from it
the Word of the Lord had free course and was glorified.
Beloved reader, I do not know
how this little narrative affects you. It is one that moves
me to the very depths of my being. It seems to me that most
of us know so little of the power of God -- so little of His
overwhelming, irresistible love. Oh, what love is His! Now,
every time we pray, that wonderful love envelops us in a
special way.
If we really loved our blessed
Savior, should we not oftener seek communion with Him in
prayer? Fellow Christian, is it because we pray so little
that we criticise so much? Oh, let us remember that we, like
our dear Savior, are not sent into the world to condemn, to
judge, the world, "but that the world should be saved
through Him" (John iii. 17).
Will any thoughtless word of
criticism of anyone move anyone nearer to Christ? Will it
even help the utterer of that fault-finding to be more like
the Master? Oh, let us lay aside the spirit of criticism, of
blaming, of fault-finding, of disparaging others or their
work. Would not St. Paul say to us all, "And such were
some of you, but ye are washed"? (II Cor. vi. 11.)
Do you see what we are aiming
at? All the evil dispositions and failings we detect in
others are due to the devil. It is the evil one in the heart
who causes those words and deeds which we are so ready to
condemn and to exaggerate. Demon-possession is not unknown in
England, but it takes a different form, perhaps. Our very
friends and acquaintances, so kindly and lovable, are often
tied and bound by some besetting sin -- "whom Satan hath
bound, lo, these many years."
We may plead with them in vain.
We may warn them in vain. Courtesy and charity -- and our own
failings and shortcomings -- forbid us standing over them
like Ma-Na-Si and exercising the evil spirit! But have we
tried prayer -- prayer always backed up by love which cannot
be "provoked"? (I Cor. xiii. 5.)
God answers prayer from old and
young, when there is a clean heart, a holy life, and a simple
faith. God answers prayer. We are but frail and faulty
servants at the best. Sincere as we may be, we shall
sometimes ask amiss. But God is faithful that promised, and
He will guard us from all harm and supply every need.
Can
I have the things I pray for?
God knows best;
He is wiser than His children.
I can rest.
"Beloved, if our heart
condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and whatsoever
we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments,
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight" (I
John iii. 21.)
FOR man fully to understand God
and all His dealings with us is an utter impossibility.
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his
ways past tracing out!" (Rom. xi. 33.) True, but we need
not make difficulties where none exists. If God has all power
and all knowledge, surely prayer has no difficulties, though
occasionally there may be perplexities. We cannot discover
God's method, but we know something of His manner of
answering prayer.
But at the very outset may we
remind ourselves how little we know about ordinary things?
Mr. Edison, whose knowledge is pretty profound, wrote in
August, 1921, "We don't know the millionth part of
one per cent about anything. We don't know what water is.
We don't know what light is. We don't know what
gravitation is. We don't know what enables us to keep on
our feet to stand up. We don't know what electricity is.
We don't know what heat is. We don't know anything
about magnetism. We have a lot of hypotheses, but that is
all." But we do not allow our ignorance about all these
things to deprive us of their use! We do not know much about
prayer, but surely this need not prevent us from praying! We
do know what our Lord has taught us about prayer. And we do
know that He has sent the Holy Spirit to teach us all things
(John xiv. 26). How, then, does God answer prayer? One way is
just this: --
He reveals His mind to those
who pray. His Holy Spirit puts fresh ideas into the minds of
praying people. We are quite aware that the devil and his
angels are busy enough putting bad thoughts into our minds.
Surely, then, God and His holy angels can give us good
thoughts? Even poor, weak, sinful men and women can put good
thoughts into the minds of others. That is what we try to do
in writing! We do not stop to think what a wonderful thing it
is that a few peculiar-shaped black marks on this white paper
can uplift and inspire, or depress and cast down, or even
convict of sin! But, to an untutored savage, it is a
stupendous miracle. Moreover, you and I can often read
people's thoughts or wishes from an expression on the
face or a glance of the eye. Even thought transference
between man and man is a commonplace today. And God can in
many ways convey His thoughts to us. A remarkable instance of
this was related by a speaker last year at Northfield. Three
or four years ago, he met an old whaling captain who told him
this story.
"A good many years ago, I
was sailing in the desolate seas off Cape Horn, hunting
whales. One day we were beating directly south in the face of
a hard wind. We had been tacking this way and that all the
morning, and were making very little headway. About 11
o'clock, as I stood at the wheel, the idea suddenly came
into my mind, 'Why batter the ship against these waves?
There are probably as many whales to the north as to the
south. Suppose we run with the wind instead of against it? In
response to that sudden idea I changed the course of the
ship, and began to sail north instead of south. One hour
later, at noon, the look-out at the masthead shouted
'Boats ahead!' Presently we overtook four lifeboats,
in which were fourteen sailors, the only survivors of the
crew of a ship which had burned to the water's edge ten
days before. Those men had been adrift in their boats ever
since, praying God frantically for rescue; and we arrived
just in time to save them. They could not have survived
another day."
Then the old whaler added,
"I don't know whether you believe in religion or
not, but I happen to be a Christian. I have begun every day
of my life with prayer that God would use me to help someone
else, and I am convinced that God, that day, put the idea
into my mind to change the course of my ship. That idea was
the means of saving fourteen lives."
God has many things to say to
us. He has many thoughts to put into our minds. We are apt to
be so busy doing His work that we do not stop to listen to
His Word. Prayer gives God the opportunity of speaking to us
and revealing His will to us. May our attitude often be:
"Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth."
God answers other prayers by
putting new thoughts into the minds of those we pray for. At
a series of services dealing with the Victorious Life, the
writer one afternoon urged the congregation to
"makeup" their quarrels if they really desired a
holy life. One lady went straight home, and after very
earnest prayer wrote to her sister, with whom, owing to some
disagreement, she had had nothing to do for twenty years! Her
sister was living thirty miles away. The very next morning
the writer of that note received a letter from that very
sister asking forgiveness and seeking reconciliation. The two
letters had crossed in the post. While the one sister was
praying to God for the other, God was speaking to that other
sister, putting into her mind the desire for
reconciliation.
You may say, Why did not God
put that desire there before? It may be that He foresaw that
it would be useless for the distant sister to write asking
forgiveness until the other sister was also willing to
forgive. The fact remains that, when we pray for others,
somehow or other it opens the way for God to influence those
we pray for. God needs our prayers, or He would not beg us to
pray.
A little time back, at the end
of a weekly prayer-meeting, a godly woman begged those
present to pray for her husband, who would never go near a
place of worship. The leader suggested that they should
continue in prayer then and there. Most earnest prayers were
offered up. Now, the husband was devoted to his wife, and
frequently came to meet her. He did so that night, and
arrived at the hall while the prayer-meeting was still in
progress. God put it into his mind to open the door and wait
inside -- a thing he had never done before. As he sat on a
chair near the door, leaning his head upon his hand, he
overheard those earnest petitions. During the homeward walk
he said, "Wife, who was the man they were praying for
tonight?" "Oh," she replied, "it is the
husband of one of our workers." "Well, I am quite
sure he will be saved," said he; "God must answer
prayers like that." A little later in the evening he
again asked, "Who was the man they were praying
for?" She replied in similar terms as before. On
retiring to rest he could not sleep. He was under deep
conviction of sin. Awaking his wife, he begged her to pray
for him.
How clearly this shows us that
when we pray, God can work! God could have prompted that man
to enter that prayer-meeting any week. But had he done so it
is a question whether any good at all would have come from
it. When once those earnest, heartfelt petitions were being
offered up on his behalf God saw that they would have a
mighty influence upon that poor man.
It is when we pray that God can
help us in our work and strengthen our resolves. For we can
answer many of our own prayers. One bitter winter a
prosperous farmer was praying that God would keep a neighbor
from starving. When the family prayers were over, his little
boy said, "Father, I don't think I should have
troubled God about that. Why not?" he asked.
"Because it would be easy enough for you to see that
they don't starve!" There is not the slightest doubt
that if we pray for others we shall also try to help
them.
A young convert asked his vicar
to give him some Christian work. "Have you a chum?"
"Yes," replied the boy. "Is he a
Christian?" "No, he is as careless as I was."
"Then go and ask him to accept Christ as his
Savior." "Oh, no!" said the lad, "I could
never do that. Give me anything but that."
"Well," said the vicar, "promise me two
things: that you will not speak to him about his soul, and
that you will pray to God twice daily for his
conversion." "Why, yes, I'll gladly do
that," answered the boy. Before a fortnight was up he
rushed round to the vicarage. "Will you let me off my
promise? I must speak to my chum!" he cried. When he
began to pray God could give him strength to witness.
Communion with God is essential before we can have real
communion with our fellow-man. My belief is that men so
seldom speak to others about their spiritual condition
because they pray so little for them.
The writer has never forgotten
how his faith in prayer was confirmed when, as a lad of
thirteen, he earnestly asked God to enable him on a certain
day to secure twenty new subscribers for missions overseas.
Exactly twenty new names were secured before night closed in.
The consciousness that God would grant that prayer was an
incentive to eager effort, and gave an unwonted courage in
approaching others.
A cleric in England suggested
to his people that they should each day pray for the worst
man or woman and then go to them and tell them about Jesus.
Only six agreed to do so. On arrival home he began to pray.
Then he said, "I must not leave this to my people. I
must take it up myself. I don't know the bad people.
I'll have to go out and enquire." Approaching a
rough-looking man at a street corner, he asked, "Are you
the worst man in this district?" "No, I'm
not." "Would you mind telling me who is?"
"I don't mind. You'll find him at No. 7, down
that street."
He knocked at No. 7 and
entered. "I'm looking for the worst man in my
parish. They tell me it might be you?" "Whoever
told you that? Fetch him here, and I'll show him
who's the worst man! No, there are lots worse than
me." "Well, who is the worst man you know?"
"Everybody knows him. He lives at the end house in that
court. He's the worst man." So down the court he
went and knocked at the door. A surly voice cried, "Come
in!"
There were a man and his wife.
"I hope you'll excuse me, but I'm the minister
of the chapel along the round. I'm looking for the worst
man in my district, because I have something to tell him. Are
you the worst man?" The man turned to his wife and said,
"Lass, tell him what I said to you five minutes
ago." "No, tell him yourself." "What were
you saying?" enquired the visitor. "Well, I've
been drinking for twelve weeks. I've had the D.T's
and have pawned all in the house worth pawning. And I said to
my wife a few minutes ago, 'Lass, this thing has to stop,
and if it doesn't, I'll stop it myself -- I'll go
and drown myself.' Then you knocked at the door! Yes,
sir, I'm the very worst man. What have you got to say to
me?" "I'm here to tell you that Jesus Christ is
the greatest Savior, and that He can make out of the worst
man one of the best. He did it for me, and He will do it for
you." "D'you think He can do it even for
me?" "I'm sure He can. Kneel down and ask
Him."
Not only was the poor drunkard
saved from his sins, but he is today a radiant Christian man,
bringing other drunken people to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Surely none of us finds it
difficult to believe that God can, in answer to prayer, heal
the body, send rain or fair weather, dispel fogs, or avert
calamities?
We have to do with a God whose
knowledge is infinite. He can put it into the mind of a
doctor to prescribe a certain medicine, or diet, or method of
cure. All the doctor's skill is from God. "He
knoweth our frame" -- for He made it. He knows it far
better than the cleverest doctor or surgeon. He made, and He
can restore. We believe that God desires us to use medical
skill, but we also believe that God, by His wonderful
knowledge, can heal, and sometimes does heal, without human
co-operation. And God must be allowed to work in His own way.
We are so apt to tie God down to the way we approve of.
God's aim is to glorify His name in answering our
prayers. Sometimes He sees that our desire is right, but our
petition wrong. St. Paul thought he could bring more glory to
God if only the thorn in the flesh could be removed. God knew
that he would be a better man and do better work with the
thorn than without it. So God said No-No-No to his prayer,
and then explained why!
So it was with Monica, who
prayed so many years for the conversion of Augustine, her
licentious son. When he was determined to leave home and
cross the seas to Rome she prayed earnestly, even
passionately, that God would keep him by her side, and under
her influence. She went down to a little chapel on the
seashore to spend the night in prayer close by where the ship
lay at anchor. But, when morning came, she found that the
ship had sailed even while she prayed! Her petition was
refused, but her real desire was granted. For it was in Rome
that Augustine met the sainted Ambrose, who led him to
Christ. How comforting it is to know that God knows what is
best!
But we should never think it
unreasonable that God should make some things dependent upon
our prayers. Some people say that if God really loves us He
would give us what is best for us whether we ask Him or not.
Dr. Fosdick has so beautifully pointed out that God has left
man many things to do for himself. He promises seedtime and
harvest. Yet man must prepare the soil, sow, and till, and
reap in order to allow God to do His share. God provides us
with food and drink. But He leaves us to take, and eat, and
drink. There are some things God cannot, or at least will
not, do without our help. God cannot do some things unless we
think. He never emblazons His truth upon the sky. The laws of
science have always been there. But we must think, and
experiment, and think again if we would use those laws for
our own good and God's glory.
God cannot do some things
unless we work. He stores the hills with marble, but He has
never built a cathedral. He fills the mountains with iron
ore, but He never makes a needle or a locomotive. He leaves
that to us. We must work.
If, then, God has left many
things dependent upon man's thinking and working, why
should He not leave some things dependent upon man's
praying? He has done so. "Ask and ye shall
receive." And there are some things God will not give us
unless we ask. Prayer is one of the three ways in which man
can co-operate with God; and the greatest of these is
prayer.
Men of power are without
exception men of prayer. God bestows His Holy Spirit in His
fullness only on men of prayer. And it is through the
operation of the Spirit that answers to prayer come. Every
believer has the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him. For
"if any have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
his." But a man of prevailing prayer must be filled with
the Spirit of God.
A lady missionary wrote
recently that it used to be said of Praying Hyde that he
never spoke to an unconverted man but that he was soundly
converted. But if he ever did fail at first to touch a heart
for God, he went back to his room and wrestled in prayer till
he was shown what it was in himself that had hindered his
being used by God. Yes, when we are filled with the Spirit of
God, we cannot help influencing others God-ward. But, to have
power with men, we must have power with God.
The momentous question for you
and me is not, however, "How does God answer
prayer?" The question is, "Do I really pray?"
What a marvelous power God places at our disposal! Do we for
a moment think that anything displeasing to God is worth our
while holding on to? Fellow-Christian, trust Christ wholly,
and you will find Him wholly true.
Let us give God the chance of
putting His mind into us, and we shall never doubt the power
of prayer again.
THE, poet said, and we often
sing --
What
various hindrances we meet
In coming to the mercy-seat.
Yes, indeed, they are various.
But here again, most of those hindrances are our own
making.
God wants me to pray. The devil
does not want me to pray, and does all he can to hinder me.
He knows that we can accomplish more through our prayers than
through our work. He would rather have us do anything else
than pray.
We have already referred to
Satan's opposition to prayer:
Angels
our march oppose
Who still in strength excel
Our secret, sworn, relentless foes,
Countless, invisible.
But we need not fear them, nor
heed them, if our eyes are ever unto the Lord. The holy
angels are stronger than fallen angels, and we can leave the
celestial hosts to guard us. We believe that to them -- the
hosts of evil -- we owe those wandering thoughts which so
often wreck prayer. We no sooner kneel than we
"recollect" something that should have been done,
or something which had better be seen to at once.
These thoughts come from
without, and are surely due to the promptings of evil
spirits. The only cure for wandering thoughts is to get our
minds fixed upon God. Undoubtedly a man's worst foe is
himself. Prayer is for a child of God -- and one who is
living as a child of God should pray.
The great question is: Am I
harboring any foes in my heart? Are there traitors within?
God cannot give us His best spiritual blessings unless we
fulfil conditions of trust, obedience and service. Do we not
often ask earnestly for the highest spiritual gifts, without
even any thought of fulfilling the necessary requirements? Do
we not often ask for blessings we are not fitted to receive?
Dare we be honest with ourselves, alone in the presence of
God? Dare we say sincerely, "Search me, O God, and see
--"? Is there anything in me which is hindering
God's blessing for me and through me? We discuss the
"problem of prayer"; we are the problem that needs
discussing or dissecting! Prayer is all right! There is no
problem in prayer to the heart which is absolutely stayed on
Christ.
Now, we shall not quote the
usual Bible texts which show how prayer may be frustrated. We
merely desire that everyone should get a glimpse of his own
heart. No sin is too small to hinder prayer, and perhaps to
turn the very prayer itself into sin, if we are not willing
to renounce that sin. The Moslems in West Africa have a
saying, "If there is no purity, there is no prayer; if
there is no prayer, there is no drinking of the water of
heaven." This truth is so clearly taught in Scripture
that it is amazing that any should try to retain both sin and
prayer. Yet very many do this. Even David cried, long ages
ago, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will
not hear" (Psa. lxvi. 18).
And Isaiah says, "Your
iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your
sins have hid his face from you" (Isa. lix. 2). Surely
we must all agree that it is sin in us, and not the
unwillingness of Christ to hear, that hinders prayer. As a
rule, it is some little sin, so-called, that mars and spoils
the prayer-life. There may be:
(1) Doubt. Now, unbelief is
possibly the greatest hindrance to prayer. Our Lord said that
the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin -- "of
sin because they believe not on Me" (St. John xvi. 9).
We are not "of the world," yet is there not much
practical unbelief in many of us? St. James, writing to
believers, says: "Ask in faith, nothing doubting; for he
that doubteth . . . let not that man think he shall receive
anything of the Lord" (St. James i. 6-8). Some have not
because they ask not. Others "have not" because
they believe not. Did you think it a little strange that we
spent so much time over adoration and thanksgiving before we
came to the "asking"? But surely, if we get a
glimpse of the glorious majesty of our Lord, and the wonders
of His love and grace, unbelief and doubt will vanish away as
mists before the rising sun? Was this not the reason that
Abraham "staggered not," "wavered not through
unbelief," in that he gave God the glory due unto His
name, and was therefore "fully assured that what He had
promised He was able also to perform"? (Rom. iv. 20,
21). Knowing what we do of God's stupendous love, is it
not amazing that we should ever doubt?
(2) Then there is Self -- the
root of all sin. How selfish we are prone to be even in our
"good works"! How we hesitate to give up anything
which "self" craves for. Yet we know that a full
hand cannot take Christ's gifts. Was this why the Savior,
in the prayer He first taught, coupled us with everything
else? "Our" is the first word. "Our Father . .
. give us . . . forgive us . . . deliver us . . ."
Pride prevents prayer, for
prayer is a very humbling thing. How hateful pride must be in
the sight of God! It is God who gives us all things
"richly to enjoy." "What hast thou that thou
didst not receive?" asks St. Paul (I Cor. iv. 7).
Surely, surely we are not going to let pride, with its
hateful, ugly sister, jealousy, ruin our prayer-life? God
cannot do great things for us whereby we may be glad if they
are going to "turn our heads." Oh, how foolish we
can be! Sometimes, when we are insistent, God does give us
what we ask, at the expense of our holiness. "He gave
them their request, but sent leanness into their soul"
(Psa. cvi. 15). O God, save us from that -- save us from
self! Again, self asserts itself in criticising others. Let
this thought burn itself into your memory -- the more like
Jesus Christ a man becomes, the less he judges other people.
It is an infallible test. Those who are always criticising
others have drifted away from Christ. They may still be His,
but have lost His Spirit of love. Beloved reader, if you have
a criticising nature, allow it to dissect yourself and never
your neighbor. You will be able to give it full scope, and it
will never be unemployed! Is this a harsh remark? Does it
betray a tendency to commit the very sin -- for it is sin --
it condemns? It would do so were it spoken to any one
individual. But its object is to pierce armor which is
seemingly invulnerable. And no one who, for one month, has
kept his tongue "from picking and stealing" the
reputation of other people will ever desire to go back again
to back-biting. "Love suffereth long and is kind"
(I Cor. xiii. 4). Do we? Are we?
We are ourselves no better
because we have managed to paint other people in worse colors
than ourselves. But, singularly enough, we enhance our own
spiritual joy and our own living witness for Christ when we
refuse to pass on disparaging information about others, or
when we refrain from "judging" the work or lives of
other people. It may be hard at first, but it soon brings
untold joy, and is rewarded by the love of all around. It is
most hard to keep silent in the face of "modern"
heresies. Are we not told to "contend earnestly for the
faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints"?
(Jude 3.) Sometimes we must speak out -- but let it always be
in the spirit of love. "Rather let error live than love
die."
Even in our private prayers
fault-finding of others must be resolutely avoided. Read once
more the story of John Hyde praying for the "cold
brother." Believe me, a criticising spirit destroys
holiness of life more easily than anything else, because it
is such an eminently respectable sin, and makes such easy
victims of us. We need scarcely add that when a believer is
filled with the Spirit of Christ.-- who is Love -- he will
never tell others of the unchristian behavior he may discern
in his friends. "He was most rude to me"; "He
is too conceited"; "I can't stand that
man"; and such-like remarks are surely unkind,
unnecessary, and often untrue.
Our dear Lord suffered the
contradiction of sinners against Himself, but He never
complained or published abroad the news to others. Why should
we do so? Self must be dethroned if Christ is to reign
supreme. There must be no idols in the heart. Do you remember
what God said of some leaders of religion? "These men
have taken their idols into their heart . . . ; should I be
inquired of at all by them?" (Ezek. xiv. 3.)
When our aim is solely the
glory of God, then God can answer our prayers. Christ Himself
rather than His gifts should be our desire. "Delight
thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the petitions of
thine heart" (Psa. xxxvii. 4, R.V., marg.).
"Beloved, if our heart
condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and whatsoever
we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments
and do the things that are pleasing in his sight" (I
John iii. 21, 22).
It is as true today as in the
early days of Christianity that men ask, and receive not,
because they ask amiss that they may spend it on their
pleasures --.i.e., self (James iv. 3).
(3) Unlove in the heart is
possibly the greatest hindrance to prayer. A loving spirit is
a condition of believing prayer. We cannot be wrong with man
and right with God. The spirit of prayer is essentially the
spirit of love. Intercession is simply love at prayer.
He
prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the great God Who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
Dare we hate or dislike those
whom God loves? If we do, can we really possess the Spirit of
Christ? We really must face these elementary facts in our
faith if prayer is to be anything more than a mere form. Our
Lord not only says, "And pray for those that persecute
you; that ye may be sons of your Father who is in
heaven" (Matt. v. 44, 45).
We venture to think that large
numbers of so-called Christians have never faced this
question. To hear how many Christian workers -- and prominent
ones, too -- speak of others from whom they disagree, one
must charitably suppose they have never heard that command of
our Lord!
Our daily life in the world is
the best indication of our power in prayer. God deals with my
prayers not according to the spirit and tone which I exhibit
when I am praying in public or private, but according to the
spirit I show in my daily life.
Hot-tempered people can make
only frigid prayers. If we do not obey our Lord's command
and love one another, our prayers are well-nigh worthless. If
we harbor an unforgiving spirit it is almost wasted time to
pray. Yet a prominent Dean of one of our cathedrals was
recently reported to have said that there are some people we
can never forgive! If so, we trust that he uses an abridged
form of the Lord's prayer. Christ taught us to say
"Forgive us . . . as we forgive." And He goes
farther than this. He declares, "If ye forgive not men
their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive
your trespasses" (Matt. vi. 15). May we ever exhibit the
Spirit of Christ, and not forfeit our own much-needed
forgiveness. How many of our readers who have not the
slightest intention of forgiving their enemies, or even their
offending friends, repeated the Lord's prayer today?
Many Christians have never
given prayer a fair chance. It is not through conscious
insincerity, but from want of thought. The blame for it
really rests upon those of us who preach and teach. We are
prone to teach doctrines rather than doings. Most men desire
to do what is right, but they regard the big things rather
than the little failings in the life of love.
Our Lord goes so far as to say
that even our gifts are not to be presented to God if we
remember that our brother "hath ought against us"
(Matt. v. 23). If He will not accept our gifts, is it likely
He will answer our prayers? It was when Job ceased contending
with his enemies (whom the Bible calls his
"friends") that the Lord "turned his
captivity" and gave him twice as much as he had before
(Job xlii. 10).
How slow we are -- how
unwilling we are -- to see that our lives hinder our prayers!
And how unwilling we are to act on love-lines. Yes, we desire
to "win" men. Our Lord shows us one way. Don't
publish abroad his wrongdoings. Speak to him alone, and
"thou hast gained thy brother" (Matt. xviii. 15).
Most of us have rather pained our brothers!
Even the home-life may hinder
the prayer-life. See what Peter says about how we should so
live in the home that our "prayers be not hindered"
(I Peter iii. 1-10). We would venture to urge every reader to
ask God to search his heart once again and to show him if
there is "any root of bitterness" towards anyone.
We all desire to do what is pleasing to God. It would be an
immense gain to our spiritual life if we would resolve not to
attempt to pray until we had done all in our power to make
peace and harmony between ourselves and any with whom we have
quarreled. Until we do this as far as lies in our power, our
prayers are just wasted breath. Unkindly feelings towards
another hinder God from helping us in the way He desires.
A loving life is an essential
condition of believing prayer. God challenges us again,
today, to become fit persons to receive His superabundant
blessings. Many of us have to decide whether we will choose a
bitter, unforgiving spirit, or the tender mercies and
loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is it not amazing
that any man can halt between two opinions with such a choice
in the balance? For bitterness harms the bitter more than
anyone else.
"Whensoever ye stand
praying, forgive if ye have ought against anyone; that your
Father also, who is in heaven, may forgive you" (Mark
xi. 25). So said the blessed Master. Must we not then either
forgive, or cease trying to pray? What shall it profit a man
if he gain all his time to pretend to pray, if he harbors
unlove in his heart to prevent real prayer? How the devil
laughs at us because we do not see this truth!
We have God's word for it
that eloquence, knowledge, faith, liberality, and even
martyrdom profit a man nothing -- get hold of it -- nothing,
unless his heart is filled with love (I Cor. xiii.).
"Therefore give us love."
(4) Refusal to do our part may
hinder God answering our prayers. Love calls forth compassion
and service at the sight of sin and suffering, both here and
overseas. Just as St. Paul's heart was
"stirred" -- "provoked" -- within him as
he beheld the city full of idols (Acts xvii. 16). We cannot
be sincere when we pray "Thy kingdom come" unless
we are doing what we can to hasten the coming of that kingdom
-- by our gifts, our prayers and our service.
We cannot be quite sincere in
praying for the conversion of the ungodly unless we are
willing to speak a word, or write a letter, or make some
attempt to bring him under the influence of the Gospel.
Before one of Moody's great missions he was present at a
meeting for prayer asking for God's blessing. Several
wealthy men were there. One began to pray that God would send
sufficient funds to defray the expenses. Moody at once
stopped him. "We need not trouble God about that,"
he said quietly, "we are able to answer that
prayer!"
(5) Praying only in secret may
be a hindrance. Children of a family should not always meet
their father separately. It is remarkable how often our Lord
refers to united prayer -- "agreed" prayer.
"When ye pray, say, Our Father"; "If two of
you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask,
it shall be done for them. . . . For where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of
them" (Matt. xviii. 19, 20).
We feel sure that the weakness
in the spiritual life of many churches is to be traced to an
inefficient prayer-meeting, or the absence of meetings for
prayer. Daily matins and evensong, even when reverent and
without the unseemly haste which is so often associated with
them, cannot take the place of less formal gatherings for
prayer, in which everyone may take part. Can we not make the
weekly prayer-meeting a live thing and a living force?
(6) raise is as important as
prayer. We must enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and
into His courts with praise, and give thanks unto Him and
bless His name (Ps. c. 4). At one time in his life Praying
Hyde was led to ask for four souls a day to be brought into
the fold by his ministry. If on any day the number fell short
of this, there would be such a weight on his heart that it
was positively painful, and he could neither eat nor sleep.
Then. in prayer he would ask the Lord to show him what was
the obstacle in himself. He invariably found that it was the
want of praise in his life. He would confess his sinfulness
and pray for a spirit of praise. He said that as he praised
God seeking souls would come to him. We do not imply that we,
too, should limit God to definite numbers or ways of working;
but we do cry: "Rejoice! Praise God with heart and mind
and soul."
It is not by accident that we
are so often bidden to "rejoice in the Lord." God
does not want miserable children; and none of His children
has cause for misery. St. Paul, the most persecuted of men,
was a man of song. Hymns of praise came from his lips in
prison and out of prison: day and night he praised His
Savior. The very order of his exhortations is significant.
"Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything
give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to
you" (I Thess. v. 16-18).
The will of God. Get that
thought into your mind. It is not an optional thing.
REJOICE: PRAY: GIVE THANKS
That is the order, according to
the will of God -- for you, and for me. Nothing so pleases
God as our praises -- and nothing so blesses the man who
prays as the praises he offers! "Delight thyself also in
the Lord; and he shall give thee the petitions of thine
heart" (Ps. xxxvii. 4, R.V., marg.).
A missionary who had received
very bad news from home, was utterly cast down. Prayer
availed nothing to relieve the darkness of his soul. He went
to see another missionary, no doubt seeking comfort. There on
the wall was a motto-card: "Try Thanksgiving!" He
did; and in a moment every shadow was gone, never to
return.
Do we praise enough to get our
prayers answered? If we truly trust Him, we shall always
praise Him. For
God
nothing does nor suffers to be done
But thou would'st do thyself
Could'st thou but see
The end of all events as well as He.
One who once overheard Luther
praying said, "Gracious God! What spirit and what faith
is there in his expressions! He petitions God with as much
reverence as if he were in the Divine presence, and yet with
as firm a hope and confidence as he would address a father or
a friend." That child of God seemed quite unconscious
that "hindrances to prayer" existed!
After all that has been said,
we see that everything can be summed up under one head. All
hindrance to prayer arises from ignorance of the teaching of
God's Holy Word on the life of holiness He has planned
for all His children, or from an unwillingness to consecrate
ourselves fully to Him.
When we can truthfully say to
our Father, "All that I am and have is thine," then
He can say to us, "All that is mine is thine."
IT is only two centuries ago
that six undergraduates were expelled from the University of
Oxford solely because they met together in each other's
rooms for extempore prayer! Whereupon George Whitefield wrote
to the Vice-Chancellor, "It is to be hoped that, as some
have been expelled for extempore praying, we shall hear of
some few others of a contrary stamp being expelled for
extempore swearing." Today, thank God, no man in our
land is hindered by his fellow-men from praying. Any man may
pray -- but has every man a right to pray? Does God listen to
anyone ?
Who may pray? Is it the
privilege -- the right -- of all men? Not everyone can claim
the right to approach the King of our realm. But there are
certain persons and bodies of people who have the privilege
of immediate access to our sovereign. The Prime Minister has
that privilege. The ancient Corporation of the City of London
can at anytime lay its petition at the feet of the King. The
ambassador of a foreign power may do the same. He has only to
present himself at the gate of the palace of the King, and no
power can stand between him and the monarch. He can go at
once into the royal presence and present his request. But
none of these has such ease of access and such loving welcome
as the Kings own son.
But there is the King of kings
-- the God and Father of us all. Who may go to Him? Who may
exercise this privilege -- yes, this power -- with God? We
are told -- and there is much truth in the remark -- that in
the most skeptical man or generation prayer is always
underneath the surface, waiting. Has it the right to come
forth at anytime? In some religions it has to wait. Of all
the millions in India living in the bondage of Hinduism, none
may pray except the Brahmins! A millionaire merchant of any
other caste must perforce get a Brahmin -- often a mere boy
at school! -- to say his prayers for him.
The Mohammedan cannot pray
unless he has learned a few phrases in Arabic, for his
"god" only hears prayers offered in what they
believe to be the holy language. Praise be to God, no such
restrictions of caste or language stand between us and our
God. Can any man, therefore, pray?
Yes, you reply, anyone. But the
Bible does not say so. Only a child of God can truly pray to
God. Only a son can enter His presence. It is gloriously true
that anyone can cry to Him for help -- for pardon and mercy.
But that is scarcely prayer. Prayer is much more than that.
Prayer is going into "the secret place of the Most
High," and abiding under the shadow of the Almighty (Ps.
xci. 1). Prayer is a making known to God our wants and
desires, and holding out the hand of faith to take His gifts.
Prayer is the result of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
It is communion with God. Now, there can scarcely be
communion between a king and a rebel. What communion hath
light with darkness? (II Cor. vi. 14.) In ourselves we have
no right to pray. We have access to God only through the Lord
Jesus Christ (Eph. iii. 18, ii. 12).
Prayer is much more than the
cry of a drowning man -- of a man sinking in the whirlpool of
sin: "Lord, save me! I am lost! I am undone! Redeem me!
Save me!" Anyone can do this, and that is a petition
which is never unanswered, and one, if sincere, to which the
answer is never delayed. For "man cannot be God's
outlaw if he would." But that is not prayer in the Bible
sense. Even the lions, roaring after their prey, seek their
meat from God; but that is not prayer.
We know that our Lord said,
"Everyone that asketh receiveth" (Matt. vii. 8). He
did say so, but to whom? He was speaking to His disciples
(Matt. v. 1, 2). Yes, prayer is communion with God: the
"home-life" of the soul, as one describes it. And I
much question whether there can be any communion with Him
unless the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart, and we have
"received" the Son, and so have the right to be
called "children of God" (John i. 12).
Prayer is the privilege of a
child. Children of God alone can claim from the heavenly
Father the things which He hath prepared for them that love
Him. Our Lord told us that in prayer we should call God
"our Father." Surely only children can use that
word? St. Paul says that it is "because ye are sons God
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying,
'Abba, Father'" (Gal. iv. 6). Is this what was
in God's mind when, in dealing with Job's
"comforters," He said, "My servant Job shall
pray for you; for him will I accept"? (Job xlii. 8.) It
looked as if they would not have been "accepted" in
the matter of prayer. But as soon as one becomes a "son
of God" he must enter the school of prayer.
"Behold, he prayeth," said our Lord of a man as
soon as he was converted. Yet that man had "said"
prayers all his life (Acts ix. 11). Converted men not only
may pray, but must pray -- each man for himself, and, of
course, for others. But, unless and until we can truthfully
call God "Father," we have no claim to be treated
as children -- as "sons," "heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ" -- no claim at all. Do you say
this is hard? Nay, surely it is natural. Has a
"child" no privileges?
But do not misunderstand me.
This does not shut any man out of the kingdom of heaven.
Anyone, anywhere, .can cry, "God be merciful to me, a
sinner!" Any man who is outside the fold of Christ,
outside the family of God, however bad he may be, or however
good he thinks he is, can this very moment become a child of
God, even as he reads these words. One look to Christ in
faith is sufficient "Look and live." God did not
even say "see" -- He says just look! Turn your face
to God.
How did those Galatian
Christians become "sons of God"? By faith in
Christ. "For ye are all sons of God through faith in
Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 26). Christ will make any man a
son of God by adoption and grace the moment he turns to Him
in true repentance and faith. But we have no rightful claim
even upon God's providence unless we are His children. We
cannot say with any confidence or certainty, "I shall
not want," unless we can say, with confidence and
certainty, "The Lord is my Shepherd."
A child, however, has a right
to his father's care, and love, and protection, and
provision. Now, a child can only enter a family by being born
into it. We become children of God by being "born
again," "born from above" (John iii. 3, 5).
That is, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (John iii.
16).
Having said all this as a
warning, and perhaps as an explanation why some people find
prayer an utter failure, we hasten to add that God often
hears and answers prayer even from those who have no legal
right to pray -- from those who are not His
"children," and may even deny that He exists! The
Gospels tell us of not a few unbelievers who came to Christ
for healing; and He never sent one away without the coveted
blessing -- never. They came as "beggars," not as
"children." And even if "the children must
first be fed," these others received the crumbs -- yea,
and more than crumbs -- that were freely given.
So today God often hears the
cry of unbelievers for temporal mercies. One case well known
to the writer may be given as an illustration. My friend told
me that he had been an atheist many years. Whilst an infidel,
he had been singing for forty years in a church choir because
he was fond of music. His aged father became seriously ill
two or three years ago, and lay in great pain. The doctors
were helpless to relieve the sufferer. In his distress for
his father, the infidel choirman fell on his knees and cried,
"O God, if there is a God, show Thy power by taking
away, my father's pain!" God heard the man's
piteous cry, and removed the pain immediately. The
"atheist" praised God, and hurried off to his vicar
to find out the way of salvation! Today he is out-and-out for
Christ, giving his whole time to work for his newly-found
Savior. Yes, God is greater than His promises, and is more
willing to hear than we are to pray.
Perhaps the most striking of
all "prayers" from the lips of unbelievers is that
recorded of Caroline Fry, the author of Christ Our Example.
Although possessed of beauty, wealth, position and friends,
she found that none of them satisfied, and at length, in her
utter misery, she sought God. Yet her first utterance to Him
was an expression of open rebellion to and hatred of Him!
Listen to it -- it is not the prayer of a "child":
--
"O God, if Thou art a God:
I do not love Thee; I do not want Thee; I do not believe
there is any happiness in Thee: but I am miserable as I am.
Give me what I do not seek; give me what I do not want. If
Thou canst, make me happy. I am miserable as I am. I am tired
of this world; if there is anything better, give it
me."
What a "prayer"! Yet
God heard and answered. He forgave the wanderer and made her
radiantly happy and gloriously fruitful in His service.
In
even savage bosoms
There are longings, servings, yearnings
For the good they comprehend not.
And their feeble hands and helpless.
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in the darkness,
And are lifted up and strengthened.
Shall we, then, alter our
question a little, and ask, who has a right to pray?"
Only children of God in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. But,
even so, we must remember that no man can come unashamed and
with confidence to his Father in heaven unless he is living
as a son of God should live. We cannot expect a father to
lavish his favors upon erring children. Only a faithful and
sanctified son can pray with the Spirit and pray with the
understanding also (I Cor. xiv. 15).
But if we are sons of God,
nothing but sin can hinder our prayers. We, His children,
have the right of access to God at any time, in any place.
And He understands any form of prayer. We may have a
wonderful gift of speech pouring itself out in a torrent of
thanksgiving, petition, and praise like St. Paul; or we may
have the quiet, deep, lover-like communion of a St. John. The
brilliant scholar like John Wesley and the humble cobbler
like William Carey are alike welcome at the throne of grace.
Influence at the court of heaven depends not upon birth, or
brilliancy, or achievement, but upon humble and utter
independence upon the Son of the King.
Moody attributed his marvelous
success to the prayers of an obscure and almost unknown
invalid woman! And truly the invalid saints of England could
bring about a speedy revival by their prayers. Oh, that all
the shut-ins" would speak out!
Do we not make a mistake in
supposing that some people have a "gift" of prayer?
A brilliant Cambridge undergraduate asked me if the life of
prayer was not a gift, and one which very few possessed? He
suggested that, just as not everyone was musical, so not
everyone is expected to be prayerful! George Muller was
exceptional not because he had a gift of prayer, but because
he prayed. Those who cannot "speak well," as God
declared Aaron could, may labor in secret by intercession
with those that speak the word. We must have great faith if
we are to have great power with God in prayer, although God
is very gracious and oftentimes goes beyond our faith.
Henry Martyn was a man of
prayer, yet his faith was not equal to his prayers. He once
declared that he "would as soon expect to see a man rise
from the dead as to see a Brahmin converted to Christ."
Would St. James say, "Let not that man think he shall
receive anything of the Lord"? (James i. 7.) Now, Henry
Martyn died without seeing one Brahmin accepting Christ as
his Savior. He used to retire, day by day, to a deserted
pagoda for prayer. Yet he had not faith for the conversion of
a Brahmin. A few months back there knelt in that very pagoda
Brahmins and Mohammedans from all parts of India, Burma and
Ceylon, now fellow-Christians. Others had prayed with greater
faith than Henry Martyn.
Who may pray? We may; but do
we? Does our Lord look at us with even more pathos and
tenderness than when He first uttered the words, and say,
"Hitherto ye have asked nothing in My name? Ask, and ye
shall receive, that your joy may be full" (John xvi.
24). If the dear Master was dependent on prayer to make His
work a power, how much more are we? He sometimes prayed with
"strong crying and tears" (Heb. v. 7). Do we? Have
we ever shed a prayerful tear? Well might we cry,
"Quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name" (Ps.
Ixxx. 18).
St. Paul's exhortation to
Timothy may well be made to us all: "Stir up the gift of
God which is in thee" (II Tim. i. 6). For the Holy
Spirit is prayer's great Helper. We are incapable of
ourselves to translate our real needs into prayer. The Holy
Spirit does this for us. We cannot ask as we ought. The Holy
Spirit does this for us. It is possible for unaided man to
ask what is for our ill. The Holy Spirit can check this. No
weak or trembling hand dare put in motion any mighty force.
Can I -- dare I -- move the Hand that moves the universe? No!
Unless the Holy Spirit has control of me.
Yes, we need Divine help for
prayer -- and we have it! How the whole Trinity delights in
prayer! God the Father listens: the Holy Spirit dictates: the
eternal Son presents the petition -- and Himself intercedes;
and so the answer comes down.
Believe me, prayer is our
highest privilege, our gravest responsibility, and the
greatest power God has put into our hands. Prayer, real
prayer, is the noblest, the sublimest, the most stupendous
act that any creature of God can perform.
It is, as Coleridge declared,
the very highest energy of which human nature is capable. To
pray with all your heart and strength -- that is the last,
the greatest achievement of the Christian's warfare on
earth.
"LORD, TEACH US TO
PRAY!"