This text is in the public domain.
From the uncopyrighted 1976 Baker Book House edition,
ISBN 0-8010-0659-7.
THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER
E.M. BOUNDS
The Necessity of Prayer and other books by E.M. Bounds
are
unfailing wells for a lifetime of spiritual
water-drawing. His
wise counsel on prayer are words that originated on the
anvil of
experience.
His thoughts are inspiring, dynamic, and forthright.
Probably no
one has ever written more convincingly on the subject of
prayer
than E.M. Bounds. The Necessity of Prayer will help
today's
earnest Christians to discover the mystery and the
majesty of
prayer.
The Necessity of Prayer
Edward M. Bounds
FOREWORD
EDWARD McKENDREE BOUNDS did not merely pray well that he
might
write well about prayer. He prayed because the needs of
the world
were upon him. He prayed, for long years, upon subjects
which the
easy-going Christian rarely gives a thought, and for
objects which
men of less thought and faith are always ready to call
impossible.
From his solitary prayer-vigils, year by year, there
arose
teaching equaled by few men in modern Christian history.
He wrote
transcendently about prayer, because he was himself,
transcendent
in its practice.
As breathing
is a physical reality to us so prayer was a
reality for Bounds. He took the command, "Pray
without ceasing"
almost as literally as animate nature takes the law of
the reflex
nervous system, which controls our breathing.
Prayer-books
-- real text-books, not forms of prayer -- were
the fruit of this daily spiritual exercise. Not brief
articles for
the religious press came from his pen -- though he had
been
experienced in that field for years -- not pamphlets, but
books
were the product and result. He was hindered by poverty,
obscurity, loss of prestige, yet his victory was not
wholly
reserved until his death.
In 1907, he
gave to the world two small editions. One of
these was widely circulated in
up to his death in 1913 were filled with constant labour
and he
went home to God leaving a collection of manuscripts. His
letters
carry the request that the present editor should publish
these
products of his gifted pen.
The
preservation of the Bounds manuscripts to the present
time has clearly been providential. The work of preparing
them for
the press has been a labour of love, consuming years of
effort.
These books
are unfailing wells for a lifetime of spiritual
water-drawing. They are hidden treasures, wrought in the
darkness
of the dawn and the heat of the
and beaten into wondrous form by the mighty stroke of the
Divine.
They are living voices whereby he, being dead, yet
speaketh.
--
C.C.
The above
Foreword was written by Claude Chilton, Jr., an
ardent admirer of Dr. Bounds, and to whom we owe many
obligations
for suggestions in editing the Bounds Spiritual Life
Books. We
buried Claude L. Chilton
these two great saints of God, of shining panoply and
knightly
grace!
Homer
W. Hodge.
I. PRAYER AND FAITH
"A dear
friend of mine who was quite a lover of the chase,
told me the following story: 'Rising early one morning,'
he said,
'I heard the baying of a score of deerhounds in pursuit
of their
quarry. Looking away to a broad, open field in front of
me, I saw
a young fawn making its way across, and giving signs,
moreover,
that its race was well-nigh run. Reaching the rails of
the
enclosure, it leaped over and crouched within ten feet
from where
I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over, when
the fawn
ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs.
I lifted
the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and
round,
fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs
in the
West could not, and should not capture that fawn after
its
weakness had appealed to my strength.' So is it, when
human
helplessness appeals to Almighty God. Well do I remember
when the
hounds of sin were after my soul, until, at last, I ran
into the
arms of Almighty God." -- A. C. Dixon.
IN any study of the principles, and procedure of prayer,
of its
activities and enterprises, first place, must, of
necessity, be
given to faith. It is the initial quality in the heart of
any man
who essays to talk to the Unseen. He must, out of sheer
helplessness, stretch forth hands of faith. He must
believe, where
he cannot prove. In the ultimate issue, prayer is simply
faith,
claiming its natural yet marvellous prerogatives -- faith
taking
possession of its illimitable inheritance. True godliness
is just
as true, steady, and persevering in the realm of faith as
it is in
the province of prayer. Moreover: when faith ceases to
pray, it
ceases to live.
Faith does the
impossible because it brings God to undertake
for us, and nothing is impossible with God. How great --
without
qualification or limitation -- is the power of faith! If
doubt be
banished from the heart, and unbelief made stranger there,
what we
ask of God shall surely come to pass, and a believer hath
vouchsafed to him "whatsoever he saith."
Prayer
projects faith on God, and God on the world. Only God
can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God. In His
cursing
of the fig-tree our Lord demonstrated His power.
Following that,
He proceeded to declare, that large powers were committed
to faith
and prayer, not in order to kill but to make alive, not
to blast
but to bless.
At this point
in our study, we turn to a saying of our Lord,
which there is need to emphasize, since it is the very
keystone of
the arch of faith and prayer.
"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when
ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have
them."
We should
ponder well that statement -- "Believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them." Here is
described a faith
which realizes, which appropriates, which takes. Such
faith is a
consciousness of the Divine, an experienced communion, a
realized
certainty.
Is faith
growing or declining as the years go by? Does faith
stand strong and four square, these days, as iniquity
abounds and
the love of many grows cold? Does faith maintain its
hold, as
religion tends to become a mere formality and worldliness
increasingly prevails? The enquiry of our Lord, may, with
great
appropriateness, be ours. "When the Son of Man
cometh," He asks,
"shall He find faith on the earth?" We believe
that He will, and
it is ours, in this our day, to see to it that the lamp
of faith
is trimmed and burning, lest He come who shall come, and
that
right early.
Faith is the
foundation of Christian character and the
security of the soul. When Jesus was looking forward to
Peter's
denial, and cautioning him against it, He said unto His
disciple:
"Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, to
sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy
faith fall
not."
Our Lord was
declaring a central truth; it was Peter's faith
He was seeking to guard; for well He knew that when faith
is
broken down, the foundations of spiritual life give way,
and the
entire structure of religious experience falls. It was
Peter's
faith which needed guarding. Hence Christ's solicitude
for the
welfare of His disciple's soul and His determination to
fortify
Peter's faith by His own all-prevailing prayer.
In his Second
Epistle, Peter has this idea in mind when
speaking of growth in grace as a measure of safety in the
Christian life, and as implying fruitfulness.
"And besides this," he declares,
"giving diligence, add to
your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to
knowledge
temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience
godliness."
Of this
additioning process, faith was the starting-point --
the basis of the other graces of the Spirit. Faith was
the
foundation on which other things were to be built. Peter
does not
enjoin his readers to add to works or gifts or virtues
but to
faith. Much depends on starting right in this business of
growing
in grace. There is a Divine order, of which Peter was
aware; and
so he goes on to declare that we are to give diligence to
making
our calling and election sure, which election is rendered
certain
adding to faith which, in turn, is done by constant,
earnest
praying. Thus faith is kept alive by prayer, and every
step taken,
in this adding of grace to grace, is accompanied by
prayer.
The faith
which pcreates powerful praying is the
faith which
centres itself on a powerful Person. Faith in
Christ's ability to do and to do greatly, is the faith
which prays
greatly. Thus the leper lay hold upon the power of
Christ. "Lord,
if Thou wilt," he cried, "Thou canst make me
clean." In this
instance, we are shown how faith centered in Christ's ability
to
do, and how it secured the healing power.
It was
concerning this very point, that Jesus questioned the
blind men who came to Him for healing:
"Believe
ye that I am able to do this?" He asks. "They said
unto Him, Yea, Lord. Then touched He their eyes, saying,
According
to your faith be it unto you."
It was to
inspire faith in His ability to do that Jesus left
behind Him, that last, great statement, which, in the
final
analysis, is a ringing challenge to faith. "All
power," He
declared, "is given unto Me in heaven and in
earth."
Again: faith
is obedient; it goes when commanded, as did the
nobleman, who came to Jesus, in the day of His flesh, and
whose
son was grievously sick.
Moreover: such
faith acts. Like the man who was born blind,
it goes to wash in the pool of Siloam when told to wash.
Like
Peter on Gennesaret it casts the net where Jesus
commands,
instantly, without question or doubt. Such faith takes
away the
stone from the grave of Lazarus promptly. A praying faith
keeps
the commandments of God and does those things which are
well
pleasing in His sight. It asks, "Lord, what wilt
Thou have me to
do?" and answers quickly, "Speak, Lord, Thy
servant heareth."
Obedience helps faith, and faith, in turn, helps obedience.
To do
God's will is essential to true faith, and faith is
necessary to
implicit obedience.
Yet faith is
called upon, and that right often to wait in
patience before God, and is prepared for God's seeming
delays in
answering prayer. Faith does not grow disheartened
because prayer
is not immediately honoured; it takes God at His Word,
and lets
Him take what time He chooses in fulfilling His purposes,
and in
carrying on His work. There is bound to be much delay and
long
days of waiting for true faith, but faith accepts the
conditions
-- knows there will be delays in answering prayer, and
regards
such delays as times of testing, in the which, it is
privileged to
show its mettle, and the stern stuff of which it is made.
The case of Lazarus
was an instance of where there was delay,
where the faith of two good women was sorely tried:
Lazarus was
critically ill, and his sisters sent for Jesus. But,
without any
known reason, our Lord delayed His going to the relief of
His sick
friend. The plea was urgent and touching -- "Lord,
behold, he whom
Thou lovest is sick," -- but the Master is not moved
by it, and
the women's earnest request seemed to fall on deaf ears.
What a
trial to faith! Furthermore: our Lord's tardiness
appeared to
bring about hopeless disaster. While Jesus tarried,
Lazarus died.
But the delay
of Jesus was exercised in the interests of a
greater good. Finally, He makes His way to the home in
"Then
said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am
glad for your sakes, that I was not there, to the intent
ye may
believe; nevertheless let us go unto him."
Fear not, O
tempted and tried believer, Jesus will come, if
patience be exercised, and faith hold fast. His delay
will serve
to make His coming the more richly blessed. Pray on. Wait
on. Thou
canst not fail. If Christ delay, wait for Him. In His own
good
time, He will come, and will not tarry.
Delay is often
the test and the strength of faith. How much
patience is required when these times of testing come!
Yet faith
gathers strength by waiting and praying. Patience has its
perfect
work in the school of delay. In some instances, delay is
of the
very essence of the prayer. God has to do many things,
antecedent
to giving the final answer -- things which are essential
to the
lasting good of him who is requesting favour at His
hands.
Jacob prayed,
with point and ardour, to be delivered from
Esau. But before that prayer could be answered, there was
much to
be done with, and for Jacob. He must be changed, as well
as Esau.
Jacob had to be made into a new man, before Esau could
be. Jacob
had to be converted to God, before Esau could be
converted to
Jacob.
Among the
large and luminous utterances of Jesus concerning
prayer, none is more arresting than this:
"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 My 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, I will
do it."
How wonderful
are these statements of what God will do in
answer to prayer! Of how great importance these ringing
words,
prefaced, as they are, with the most solemn verity! Faith
in
Christ is the basis of all working, and of all praying.
All
wonderful works depend on wonderful praying, and all
praying is
done in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amazing lesson, of
wondrous
simplicity, is this praying in the name of the Lord
Jesus! All
other conditions are depreciated, everything else is
renounced,
save Jesus only. The name of Christ -- the Person of our
Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ -- must be supremely sovereign, in
the hour
and article of prayer.
If Jesus dwell
at the fountain of my life; if the currents of
His life have displaced and superseded all self-currents;
if
implicit obedience to Him be the inspiration and force of
every
movement of my life, then He can safely commit the praying
to my
will, and pledge Himself, by an obligation as profound as
His own
nature, that whatsoever is asked shall be granted.
Nothing can be
clearer, more distinct, more unlimited both in
application and
extent, than the exhortation and urgency of Christ,
"Have faith in
God."
Faith covers
temporal as well as spiritual needs. Faith
dispels all undue anxiety and needless care about what
shall be
eaten, what shall he drunk, what shall be worn. Faith
lives in the
present, and regards the day as being sufficient unto the
evil
thereof. It lives day by day, and dispels all fears for
the
morrow. Faith brings great ease of mind and perfect peace
of
heart.
"Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
Thee: because he trusted in Thee."
When we pray,
"Give us this day our daily bread," we are, in
a measure, shutting tomorrow out of our prayer. We do not
live in
tomorrow but in today. We do not seek tomorrow's grace or
tomorrow's bread. They thrive best, and get most out of
life, who
live in the living present. They pray best who pray for
today's
needs, not for tomorrow's, which may render our prayers
unnecessary and redundant by not existing at all!
True prayers
are born of present trials and present needs.
Bread, for today, is bread enough. Bread given for today
is the
strongest sort of pledge that there will be bread
tomorrow.
Victory today, is the assurance of victory tomorrow. Our
prayers
need to be focussed upon the present, We must trust God
today, and
leave the morrow entirely with Him. The present is ours;
the
future belongs to God. Prayer is the task and duty of
each
recurring day -- daily prayer for daily needs.
As every day
demands its bread, so every day demands its
prayer. No amount of praying, done today, will suffice
for
tomorrow's praying. On the other hand, no praying for
tomorrow is
of any great value to us today. To-day's manna is what we
need;
tomorrow God will see that our needs are supplied. This
is the
faith which God seeks to inspire. So leave tomorrow, with
its
cares, its needs, its troubles, in God's hands. There is
no
storing tomorrow's grace or tomorrow's praying; neither
is there
any laying-up of today's grace, to meet tomorrow's
necessities. We
cannot have tomorrow's grace, we cannot eat tomorrow's
bread, we
cannot do tomorrow's praying. "Sufficient unto the
day is the evil
thereof;" and, most assuredly, if we possess faith,
sufficient
also, will be the good.
II.
PRAYER AND FAITH (Continued)
"The guests
at a certain hotel were being rendered
uncomfortable by repeated strumming on a piano, done by a
little
girl who possessed no knowledge of music. They complained
to the
proprietor with a view to having the annoyance stopped.
'I am
sorry you are annoyed,' he said. 'But the girl is the
child of one
of my very best guests. I can scarcely ask her not to
touch the
piano. But her father, who is away for a day or so, will
return
tomorrow. You can then approach him, and have the matter
set
right.' When the father returned, he found his daughter
in the
reception-room and, as usual, thumping on the piano. He
walked up
behind the child and, putting his arms over her
shoulders, took
her hands in his, and produced some most beautiful music.
Thus it
may be with us, and thus it will be, some coming day.
Just now, we
can produce little but clamour and disharmony; but, one
day, the
Lord Jesus will take hold of our hands of faith and
prayer, and
use them to bring forth the music of the skies." --
Anon
GENUINE, authentic faith must be definite and free of
doubt. Not
simply general in character; not a mere belief in the
being,
goodness and power of God, but a faith which believes
that the
things which "he saith, shall come to pass." As
the faith is
specific, so the answer likewise will be definite:
"He shall have
whatsoever he saith." Faith and prayer select the
things, and God
commits Himself to do the very things which faith and
persevering
prayer nominate, and petition Him to accomplish.
The American
Revised Version renders the twenty-fourth verse
of the eleventh chapter of Mark, thus: "Therefore I
say unto you,
All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that
ye receive
them, and ye shall have them." Perfect faith has
always in its
keeping what perfect prayer asks for. How large and
unqualified is
the area of operation -- the "All things
whatsoever!" How definite
and specific the promise -- "Ye shall have
them!"
Our chief
concern is with our faith, -- the problems of its
growth, and the activities of its vigorous maturity. A
faith which
grasps and holds in its keeping the very things it asks
for,
without wavering, doubt or fear -- that is the faith we
need --
faith, such as is a pearl of great price, in the process
and
practise of prayer.
The statement
of our Lord about faith and prayer quoted above
is of supreme importance. Faith must be definite,
specific; an
unqualified, unmistakable request for the things asked
for. It is
not to be a vague, indefinite, shadowy thing; it must be
something
more than an abstract belief in God's willingness and
ability to
do for us. It is to be a definite, specific, asking for,
and
expecting the things for which we ask. Note the reading
of Mark
11:23:
"And
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall
have
whatever he saith."
Just so far as
the faith and the asking is definite, so also
will the answer be. The giving is not to be something
other than
the things prayed for, but the actual things sought and
named. "He
shall have whatsoever he saith." It is all
imperative, "He shall
have." The granting is to be unlimited, both in
quality and in
quantity.
Faith and
prayer select the subjects for petition, thereby
determining what God is to do. "He shall have
whatsoever he
saith." Christ holds Himself ready to supply
exactly, and fully,
all the demands of faith and prayer. If the order on God
be made
clear, specific and definite, God will fill it, exactly
in
accordance with the presented terms.
Faith is not
an abstract belief in the Word of God, nor a
mere mental credence, nor a simple assent of the
understanding and
will; nor is it a passive acceptance of facts, however
sacred or
thorough. Faith is an operation of God, a Divine
illumination, a
holy energy implanted by the Word of God and the Spirit
in the
human soul -- a spiritual, Divine principle which takes
of the
Supernatural and makes it a thing apprehendable by the
faculties
of time and sense.
Faith deals
with God, and is conscious of God. It deals with
the Lord Jesus Christ and sees in Him a Saviour; it deals
with
God's Word, and lays hold of the truth; it deals with the
Spirit
of God, and is energized and inspired by its holy fire.
God is the
great objective of faith; for faith rests its whole
weight on His
Word. Faith is not an aimless act of the soul, but a
looking to
God and a resting upon His promises. Just as love and
hope have
always an objective so, also, has faith. Faith is not
believing
just anything; it is believing God, resting in Him,
trusting His
Word.
Faith gives
birth to prayer, and grows stronger, strikes
deeper, rises higher, in the struggles and wrestlings of
mighty
petitioning. Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the
assurance and realization of the inheritance of the
saints. Faith,
too, is humble and persevering. It can wait and pray; it
can stay
on its knees, or lie in the dust. It is the one great
condition of
prayer; the lack of it lies at the root of all poor
praying,
feeble praying, little praying, unanswered praying.
The nature and
meaning of faith is more demonstrable in what
it does, than it is by reason of any definition given it.
Thus, if
we turn to the record of faith given us in that great
honour roll,
which constitutes the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we see
something of the wonderful results of faith. What a
glorious list
it is -- that of these men and women of faith! What
marvellous
achievements are there recorded, and set to the credit of
faith!
The inspired writer, exhausting his resources in
cataloguing the
Old Testament saints, who were such notable examples of
wonderful
faith, finally exclaims:
"And what
shall I more say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon and Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae;
of David
also, and Samuel, and of the prophets."
And then the
writer of Hebrews goes on again, in a wonderful
strain, telling of the unrecorded exploits wrought
through the
faith of the men of old, "of whom the world was not
worthy." "All
these," he says, "obtained a good report
through faith."
What an era of
glorious achievements would dawn for the
Church and the world, if only there could be reproduced a
race of
saints of like mighty faith, of like wonderful praying!
It is not
the intellectually great that the Church needs; nor is it
men of
wealth that the times demand. It is not people of great
social
influence that this day requires. Above everybody and
everything
else, it is men of faith, men of mighty prayer, men and
women
after the fashion of the saints and heroes enumerated in
Hebrews,
who "obtained a good report through faith,"
that the Church and
the whole wide world of humanity needs.
Many men, of
this day, obtain a good report because of their
money-giving, their great mental gifts and talents, but
few there
be who obtain a "good report" because of their
great faith in God,
or because of the wonderful things which are being
wrought through
their great praying. Today, as much as at any time, we
need men of
great faith and men who are great in prayer. These are
the two
cardinal virtues which make men great in the eyes of God,
the two
things which create conditions of real spiritual success
in the
life and work of the Church. It is our chief concern to
see that
we maintain a faith of such quality and texture, as
counts before
God; which grasps, and holds in its keeping, the things
for which
it asks, without doubt and without fear.
Doubt and fear
are the twin foes of faith. Sometimes, they
actually usurp the place of faith, and although we pray,
it is a
restless, disquieted prayer that we offer, uneasy and
often
complaining. Peter failed to walk on Gennesaret because
he
permitted the waves to break over him and swamp the power
of his
faith. Taking his eyes from the Lord and regarding the
water all
about him, he began to sink and had to cry for succour --
"Lord,
save, or I perish!"
Doubts should
never be cherished, nor fears harboured. Let
none cherish the delusion that he is a martyr to fear and
doubt.
It is no credit to any man's mental capacity to cherish
doubt of
God, and no comfort can possibly derive from such a
thought. Our
eyes should be taken off self, removed from our own weakness
and
allowed to rest implicitly upon God's strength.
"Cast not away
therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of
reward."
A simple, confiding faith, living day by day, and casting
its
burden on the Lord, each hour of the day, will dissipate
fear,
drive away misgiving and deliver from doubt:
"Be
careful for nothing, but in everything, by supplication
and prayer, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made
known
unto God."
That is the
Divine cure for all fear, anxiety, and undue
concern of soul, all of which are closely akin to doubt
and
unbelief. This is the Divine prescription for securing
the peace
which passeth all understanding, and keeps the heart and
mind in
quietness and peace.
All of us need
to mark well and heed the caution given in
Hebrews: "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any
of you an evil
heart of unbelief, in departing from the living
God."
We need, also,
to guard against unbelief as we would against
an enemy. Faith needs to be cultivated. We need to keep
on
praying, "Lord, increase our faith," for faith
is susceptible of
increase. Paul's tribute to the Thessalonians was, that
their
faith grew exceedingly. Faith is increased by exercise,
by being
put into use. It is nourished by sore trials.
"That the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be
found unto praise and honour and glow at the appearing of
Jesus
Christ."
Faith grows by
reading and meditating upon the Word of God.
Most, and best of all, faith thrives in an atmosphere of
prayer.
It would be
well, if all of us were to stop, and inquire
personally of ourselves: "Have I faith in God? Have
I real faith,
-- faith which keeps me in perfect peace, about the
things of
earth and the things of heaven?" This is the most
important
question a man can propound and expect to be answered.
And there
is another question, closely akin to it in significance
and
importance -- "Do I really pray to God so that He
hears me and
answers my prayers? And do I truly pray unto God so that
I get
direct from God the things I ask of Him?"
It was claimed
for Augustus Caesar that he found Rome a city
of wood, and left it a city of marble. The pastor who
succeeds in
changing his people from a prayerless to a prayerful
people, has
done a greater work than did Augustus in changing a city
from wood
to marble. And after all, this is the prime work of the
preacher.
Primarily, he is dealing with prayerless people -- with
people of
whom it is said, "God is not in all their
thoughts." Such people
he meets everywhere, and all the time. His main business
is to
turn them from being forgetful of God, from being devoid
of faith,
from being prayerless, so that they become people who
habitually
pray, who believe in God, remember Him and do His will.
The
preacher is not sent to merely induce men to join the
Church, nor
merely to get them to do better. It is to get them to
pray, to
trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes, that
they may
not sin against Him.
The work of
the ministry is to change unbelieving sinners
into praying and believing saints. The call goes forth by
Divine
authority, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be
saved." We catch a glimpse of the tremendous
importance of faith
and of the great value God has set upon it, when we
remember that
He has made it the one indispensable condition of being
saved. "By
grace are ye saved, through faith." Thus, when we
contemplate the
great importance of prayer, we find faith standing
immediately by
its side. By faith are we saved, and by faith we stay
saved.
Prayer introduces us to a life of faith. Paul declared
that the
life he lived, he lived by faith in the Son of God, who
loved him
and gave Himself for him -- that he walked by faith and
not by
sight.
Prayer is
absolutely dependent upon faith. Virtually, it has
no existence apart from it, and accomplishes nothing
unless it be
its inseparable companion. Faith makes prayer effectual,
and in a
certain important sense, must precede it.
"For he
that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
Before prayer
ever starts toward God; before its petition is
preferred, before its requests are made known -- faith
must have
gone on ahead; must have asserted its belief in the
existence of
God; must have given its assent to the gracious truth
that "God is
a rewarder of those that diligently seek His face."
This is the
primary step in praying. In this regard, while faith does
not
bring the blessing, yet it puts prayer in a position to
ask for
it, and leads to another step toward realization, by
aiding the
petitioner to believe that God is able and willing to
bless.
Faith starts prayer to work -- clears the way
to the mercy-
seat. It gives assurance, first of all, that there is a
mercy-
seat, and that there the High Priest awaits the pray-ers
and the
prayers. Faith opens the way for prayer to approach God.
But it
does more. It accompanies prayer at every step she takes.
It is
her inseparable companion and when requests are made unto
God, it
is faith which turns the asking into obtaining. And faith
follows
prayer, since the spiritual life into which a believer is
led by
prayer, is a life of faith. The one prominent
characteristic of
the experience into which believers are brought through
prayer, is
not a life of works, but of faith.
Faith makes
prayer strong, and gives it patience to wait on
God. Faith believes that God is a rewarder. No truth is
more
clearly revealed in the Scriptures than this, while none
is more
encouraging. Even the closet has its promised reward,
"He that
seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly," while
the most
insignificant service rendered to a disciple in the name
of the
Lord, surely receives its reward. And to this precious
truth faith
gives its hearty assent.
Yet faith is
narrowed down to one particular thing -- it does
not believe that God will reward everybody, nor that He
is a
rewarder of all who pray, but that He is a rewarder of
them that
diligently seek Him. Faith rests its care on diligence in
prayer,
and gives assurance and encouragement to diligent seekers
after
God, for it is they, alone, who are richly rewarded when
they
pray.
We need
constantly to be reminded that faith is the one
inseparable condition of successful praying. There are
other
considerations entering into the exercise, but faith is
the final,
the one indispensable condition of true praying. As it is
written
in a familiar, primary declaration: "Without faith,
it is
impossible to please Him."
James puts
this truth very plainly.
"If any
of you lack wisdom," he says, "let him ask of God,
that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and
it shall
be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
For he
that wavereth (or doubteth) is like a wave of the sea,
driven with
the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he
shall
receive any thing of the Lord."
Doubting is
always put under the ban, because it stands as a
foe to faith and hinders effectual praying. In the First
Epistle
to Timothy Paul gives us an invaluable truth relative to
the
conditions of successful praying, which he thus lays down:
"I will
therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy
hands, without
wrath and doubting."
All
questioning must be watched against and eschewed. Fear
and peradventure have no place in true praying. Faith
must assert
itself and bid these foes to prayer depart.
Too much
authority cannot be attributed to faith; but prayer
is the sceptre by which it signalizes its power. How much
of
spiritual wisdom there is in the following advice written
by an
eminent old divine.
"Would
you be freed from the bondage to corruption?" he asks.
"Would you grow in grace in general and grow in
grace in
particular? If you would, your way is plain. Ask of God
more
faith. Beg of Him morning, and noon and night, while you
walk by
the way, while you sit in the house, when you lie down
and when
you rise up; beg of Him simply to impress Divine things
more
deeply on your heart, to give you more and more of the
substance
of things hoped for and of the evidence of things not
seen."
Great
incentives to pray are furnished in Holy Scriptures,
and our Lord closes His teaching about prayer, with the
assurance
and promise of heaven. The presence of Jesus Christ in
heaven, the
preparation for His saints which He is making there, and
the
assurance that He will come again to receive them -- how
all this
helps the weariness of praying, strengthens its
conflicts,
sweetens its arduous toil! These things are the star of
hope to
prayer, the wiping away of its tears, the putting of the
odour of
heaven into the bitterness of its cry. The spirit of a
pilgrim
greatly facilitates praying. An earth-bound,
earth-satisfied
spirit cannot pray. In such a heart, the flame of
spiritual desire
is either gone out or smouldering in faintest glow. The
wings of
its faith are clipped, its eyes are filmed, its tongue
silenced.
But they, who in unswerving faith and unceasing prayer,
wait
continually upon the Lord, do renew their strength, do
mount up
with wings as eagles, do run, and are not weary, do walk,
and not
faint.
III. PRAYER AND TRUST
"One
evening I left my office in New York, with a bitterly
cold wind in my face. I had with me, (as I thought) my
thick, warm
muffler, but when I proceeded to button-up against the
storm, I
found that it was gone. I turned back, looked along the
streets,
searched my office, but in vain. I realized, then, that I
must
have dropped it, and prayed God that I might find it; for
such was
the state of the weather, that it would be running a
great risk to
proceed without it. I looked, again, up and down the
surrounding
streets, but without success. Sudden]y, I saw a man on
the
opposite side of the road holding out something in his
hand. I
crossed over and asked him if that were my muffler? He
handed it
to me saying, 'It was blown to me by the wind.' He who
rides upon
the storm, had used the wind as a means of answering
prayer." --
William Horst.
PRAYER does not stand alone. It is not an isolated duty
and
independent principle. It lives in association with other
Christian duties, is wedded to other principles, is a
partner with
other graces. But to faith, prayer is indissolubly
joined. Faith
gives it colour and tone, shapes its character, and
secures its
results.
Trust is faith
become absolute, ratified, consummated. There
is, when all is said and done, a sort of venture in faith
and its
exercise. But trust is firm belief, it is faith in full
flower.
Trust is a conscious act, a fact of which we are
sensible.
According to the Scriptural concept it is the eye of the
new-born
soul, and the ear of the renewed soul. It is the feeling
of the
soul, the spiritual eye, the ear, the taste, the feeling
-- these
one and all have to do with trust. How luminous, how
distinct, how
conscious, how powerful, and more than all, how
Scriptural is such
a trust! How different from many forms of modern belief,
so
feeble, dry, and cold! These new phases of belief bring
no
consciousness of their presence, no "Joy unspeakable
and full of
glory" results from their exercise. They are, for
the most part,
adventures in the peradventures of the soul. There is no
safe,
sure trust in anything. The whole transaction takes place
in the
realm of Maybe and Perhaps.
Trust like
life, is feeling, though much more than feeling.
An unfelt life is a contradiction; an unfelt trust is a
misnomer,
a delusion, a contradiction. Trust is the most felt of
all
attributes. It is all feeling, and it works only by love.
An
unfelt love is as impossible as an unfelt trust. The trust
of
which we are now speaking is a conviction. An unfelt
conviction?
How absurd!
Trust sees God
doing things here and now. Yea, more. It rises
to a lofty eminence, and looking into the invisible and
the
eternal, realizes that God has done things, and regards
them as
being already done. Trust brings eternity into the annals
and
happenings of time, transmutes the substance of hope into
the
reality of fruition, and changes promise into present
possession.
We know when we trust just as we know when we see, just
as we are
conscious of our sense of touch. Trust sees, receives,
holds.
Trust is its own witness.
Yet, quite
often, faith is too weak to obtain God's greatest
good, immediately; so it has to wait in loving, strong,
prayerful,
pressing obedience, until it grows in strength, and is
able to
bring down the eternal, into the realms of experience and
time.
To this point,
trust masses all its forces. Here it holds.
And in the struggle, trust's grasp becomes mightier, and
grasps,
for itself, all that God has done for it in His eternal
wisdom and
plenitude of grace.
In the matter
of waiting in prayer, mightiest prayer, faith
rises to its highest plane and becomes indeed the gift of
God. It
becomes the blessed disposition and expression of the
soul which
is secured by a constant intercourse with, and unwearied
application to God.
Jesus Christ
clearly taught that faith was the condition on
which prayer was answered. When our Lord had cursed the
fig-tree,
the disciples were much surprised that its withering had
actually
taken place, and their remarks indicated their in
credulity. It
was then that Jesus said to them, "Have faith in
God."
"For
verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto
this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the
sea, and
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things
which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have
whatsoever he
saith. Therefore, I say unto you, What things soever ye
desire,
when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall
have
them."
Trust grows
nowhere so readily and richly as in the prayer-
chamber. Its unfolding and development are rapid and
wholesome
when they are regularly and well kept. When these
engagements are
hearty and full and free, trust flourishes exceedingly.
The eye
and presence of God give vigorous life to trust, just as
the eye
and the presence of the sun make fruit and flower to
grow, and all
things glad and bright with fuller life.
"Have
faith in God," "Trust in the Lord" form the keynote and
foundation of prayer. Primarily, it is not trust in the
Word of
God, but rather trust in the Person of God. For trust in
the
Person of God must precede trust in the Word of God.
"Ye believe
in God, believe also in Me," is the demand our Lord
makes on the
personal trust of His disciples. The person of Jesus
Christ must
be central, to the eye of trust. This great truth Jesus
sought to
impress upon Martha, when her brother lay dead, in the
home at
Bethany. Martha asserted her belief in the fact of the
resurrection of her brother:
"Martha
saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in
the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus lifts
her trust clear above the mere fact of the
resurrection, to His own Person, by saying:
"I am the
resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever
liveth and
believeth in Me, shall never die. Believest thou this?
She saith
unto Him, Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ,
the Son
of God, which should come into the world."
Trust, in an
historical fact or in a mere record may be a
very passive thing, but trust in a person vitalizes the
quality,
fructifies it, informs it with love. The trust which
informs
prayer centres in a Person.
Trust goes
even further than this. The trust which inspires
our prayer must be not only trust in the Person of God,
and of
Christ, but in their ability and willingness to grant the
thing
prayed for. It is not only, "Trust, ye, in the
Lord," but, also,
"for in the Lord Jehovah, is everlasting
strength."
The trust
which our Lord taught as a condition of effectual
prayer, is not of the head but of the heart. It is trust
which
"doubteth not in his heart." Such trust has the
Divine assurance
that it shall be honoured with large and satisfying
answers. The
strong promise of our Lord brings faith down to the
present, and
counts on a present answer.
Do we believe,
without a doubt? When we pray, do we believe,
not that we shall receive the things for which we ask on
a future
day, but that we receive them, then and there? Such is
the
teaching of this inspiring Scripture. How we need to
pray, "Lord,
increase our faith," until doubt be gone, and implicit
trust
claims the promised blessings, as its very own.
This is no
easy condition. It is reached only after many a
failure, after much praying, after many waitings, after
much trial
of faith. May our faith so increase until we realize and
receive
all the fulness there is in that Name which guarantees to
do so
much.
Our Lord puts
trust as the very foundation of praying. The
background of prayer is trust. The whole issuance of
Christ's
ministry and work was dependent on implicit trust in His
Father.
The centre of trust is God. Mountains of difficulties,
and all
other hindrances to prayer are moved out of the way by
trust and
his virile henchman, faith. When trust is perfect and
without
doubt, prayer is simply the outstretched hand, ready to
receive.
Trust perfected, is prayer perfected. Trust looks to
receive the
thing asked for -- and gets it. Trust is not a belief
that God can
bless, that He will bless, but that He does bless, here
and now.
Trust always operates in the present tense. Hope looks
toward the
future. Trust looks to the present. Hope expects. Trust
possesses.
Trust receives what prayer acquires. So that what prayer
needs, at
all times, is abiding and abundant trust.
Their
lamentable lack of trust and resultant failure of the
disciples to do what they were sent out to do, is seen in
the case
of the lunatic son, who was brought by his father to nine
of them
while their Master was on the Mount of Transfiguration. A
boy,
sadly afflicted, was brought to these men to be cured of
his
malady. They had been commissioned to do this very kind
of work.
This was a part of their mission. They attempted to cast
out the
devil from the boy, but had signally failed. The devil
was too
much for them. They were humiliated at their failure, and
filled
with shame, while their enemies were in triumph. Amid the
confusion incident to failure Jesus draws near. He is
informed of
the circumstances, and told of the conditions connected
therewith.
Here is the succeeding account:
"Then
Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse
generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall
I suffer
you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil,
and he
departed out of him and the child was cured from that
very hour.
And when He was come into the house, His disciples asked
Him
privately, Why could not we cast him out? And He said
unto them,
This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and
fasting."
Wherein lay
the difficulty with these men? They had been lax
in cultivating their faith by prayer and, as a
consequence, their
trust utterly failed. They trusted not God, nor Christ,
nor the
authenticity of His mission, or their own. So has it been
many a
time since, in many a crisis in the Church of God. Failure
has
resulted from a lack of trust, or from a weakness of
faith, and
this, in turn, from a lack of prayerfulness. Many a
failure in
revival efforts has been traceable to the same cause.
Faith had
not been nurtured and made powerful by prayer. Neglect of
the
inner chamber is the solution of most spiritual failure.
And this
is as true of our personal struggles with the devil as
was the
case when we went forth to attempt to cast out devils. To
be much
on our knees in private communion with God is the only
surety that
we shall have Him with us either in our personal
struggles, or in
our efforts to convert sinners.
Everywhere, in
the approaches of the people to Him, our Lord
put trust in Him, and the divinity of His mission, in the
forefront. He gave no definition of trust, and He
furnishes no
theological discussion of, or analysis of it; for He knew
that men
would see what faith was by what faith did; and from its
free
exercise trust grew up, spontaneously, in His presence.
It was the
product of His work, His power and His Person. These
furnished and
created an atmosphere most favourable for its exercise
and
development. Trust is altogether too splendidly simple
for verbal
definition; too hearty and spontaneous for theological
terminology. The very simplicity of trust is that which
staggers
many people. They look away for some great thing to come
to pass,
while all the time "the word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth, and
in thy heart."
When the
saddening news of his daughter's death was brought
to Jairus our Lord interposed: "Be not afraid,"
He said calmly,
"only believe." To the woman with the issue of
blood, who stood
tremblingly before Him, He said:
"Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and
be whole of thy plague."
As the two
blind men followed Him, pressing their way into
the house, He said:
"According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were
opened."
When the
paralytic was let down through the roof of the
house, where Jesus was teaching, and placed before Him by
four of
his friends, it is recorded after this fashion:
"And
Jesus seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the
palsy: Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven
thee."
When Jesus
dismissed the centurion whose servant was
seriously ill, and who had come to Jesus with the prayer
that He
speak the healing word, without even going to his house,
He did it
in the manner following:
"And
Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou
hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant
was healed
in the selfsame hour."
When the poor
leper fell at the feet of Jesus and cried out
for relief, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me
clean," Jesus
immediately granted his request, and the man glorified
Him with a
loud voice. Then Jesus said unto him, "Arise, go thy
way; thy
faith hath made thee whole."
The
Syrophenician woman came to Jesus with the case of her
afflicted daughter, making the case her own, with the
prayer,
"Lord, help me," making a fearful and heroic
struggle. Jesus
honours her faith and prayer, saying:
"O woman,
great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very
hour."
After the
disciples had utterly failed to cast the devil out
of the epileptic boy, the father of the stricken lad came
to Jesus
with the plaintive and almost despairing cry, "If
Thou canst do
anything, have compassion on us and help us." But
Jesus replied,
"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to
him that
believeth."
Blind
Bartimaeus sitting by the wayside, hears our Lord as He
passes by, and cries out pitifully and almost
despairingly,
"Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me."
The keen ears of our
Lord immediately catch the sound of prayer, and He says
to the
beggar:
"Go thy
way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the
way."
To the
weeping, penitent woman, washing His feet with her
tears and wiping them with the hair of her head, Jesus
speaks
cheering, soul-comforting words: "Thy faith hath
saved thee; go in
peace."
One day Jesus
healed ten lepers at one time, in answer to
their united prayer, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us," and He
told them to go and show themselves to the priests.
"And it came
to pass as they went, they were cleansed."
IV. PRAYER AND DESIRE
"There
are those who will mock me, and tell me to stick to my
trade as a cobbler, and not trouble my mind with
philosophy and
theology. But the truth of God did so burn in my bones,
that I
took my pen in hand and began to set down what I had
seen." --
Jacob Behmen.
DESIRE is not merely a simple wish; it is a deep seated
craving;
an intense longing, for attainment. In the realm of
spiritual
affairs, it is an important adjunct to prayer. So
important is it,
that one might say, almost, that desire is an absolute
essential
of prayer. Desire precedes prayer, accompanies it, is
followed by
it. Desire goes before prayer, and by it, created and
intensified.
Prayer is the oral expression of desire. If prayer is
asking God
for something, then prayer must be expressed. Prayer
comes out
into the open. Desire is silent. Prayer is heard; desire,
unheard.
The deeper the desire, the stronger the prayer. Without
desire,
prayer is a meaningless mumble of words. Such
perfunctory, formal
praying, with no heart, no feeling, no real desire
accompanying
it, is to be shunned like a pestilence. Its exercise is a
waste of
precious time, and from it, no real blessing accrues.
And yet even
if it be discovered that desire is honestly
absent, we should pray, anyway. We ought to pray. The
"ought"
comes in, in order that both desire and expression be
cultivated.
God's Word commands it. Our judgment tells us we ought to
pray --
to pray whether we feel like it or not -- and not to
allow our
feelings to determine our habits of prayer. In such
circumstance,
we ought to pray for the desire to pray; for such a
desire is God-
given and heaven-born. We should pray for desire; then,
when
desire has been given, we should pray according to its
dictates.
Lack of spiritual desire should grieve us, and lead us to
lament
its absence, to seek earnestly for its bestowal, so that our
praying, henceforth, should be an expression of "the
soul's
sincere desire."
A sense of
need creates or should create, earnest desire. The
stronger the sense of need, before God, the greater
should be the
desire, the more earnest the praying. The "poor in
spirit" are
eminently competent to pray.
Hunger is an
active sense of physical need. It prompts the
request for bread. In like manner, the inward
consciousness of
spiritual need creates desire, and desire breaks forth in
prayer.
Desire is an inward longing for something of which we are
not
possessed, of which we stand in need -- something which
God has
promised, and which may be secured by an earnest
supplication of
His throne of grace.
Spiritual
desire, carried to a higher degree, is the evidence
of the new birth. It is born in the renewed soul:
"As
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that
ye may grow thereby."
The absence of
this holy desire in the heart is presumptive
proof, either of a decline in spiritual ecstasy, or, that
the new
birth has never taken place.
"Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled."
These
heaven-given appetites are the proof of a renewed
heart, the evidence of a stirring spiritual life.
Physical
appetites are the attributes of a living body, not of a
corpse,
and spiritual desires belong to a soul made alive to God.
And as
the renewed soul hungers and thirsts after righteousness,
these
holy inward desires break out into earnest, supplicating
prayer.
In prayer, we
are shut up to the Name, merit and intercessory
virtue of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. Probing
down, below
the accompanying conditions and forces in prayer, we come
to its
vital basis, which is seated in the human heart. It is
not simply
our need; it is the heart's yearning for what we need,
and for
which we feel impelled to pray. Desire is the will in
action; a
strong, conscious longing, excited in the inner nature,
for some
great good. Desire exalts the object of its longing, and
fixes the
mind on it. It has choice, and fixedness, and flame in
it, and
prayer, based thereon, is explicit and specific. It knows
its
need, feels and sees the thing that will meet it, and
hastens to
acquire it.
Holy desire is
much helped by devout contemplation.
Meditation on our spiritual need, and on God's readiness
and
ability to correct it, aids desire to grow. Serious
thought
engaged in before praying, increases desire, makes it
more
insistent, and tends to save us from the menace of
private prayer
-- wandering thought. We fail much more in desire, than
in its
outward expression. We retain the form, while the inner
life fades
and almost dies.
One might well
ask, whether the feebleness of our desires for
God, the Holy Spirit, and for all the fulness of Christ,
is not
the cause of our so little praying, and of our
languishing in the
exercise of prayer? Do we really feel these inward
pantings of
desire after heavenly treasures? Do the inbred groanings
of desire
stir our souls to mighty wrestlings? Alas for us! The
fire burns
altogether too low. The flaming heat of soul has been
tempered
down to a tepid lukewarmness. This, it should be
remembered, was
the central cause of the sad and desperate condition of
the
Laodicean Christians, of whom the awful condemnation is
written
that they were "rich, and increased in goods and had
need of
nothing," and knew not that they "were
wretched, and miserable,
and poor, and blind."
Again: we
might well inquire -- have we that desire which
presses us to close communion with God, which is filled
with
unutterable burnings, and holds us there through the
agony of an
intense and soul-stirred supplication? Our hearts need
much to be
worked over, not only to get the evil out of them, but to
get the
good into them. And the foundation and inspiration to the
incoming
good, is strong, propelling desire. This holy and fervid
flame in
the soul awakens the interest of heaven, attracts the
attention of
God, and places at the disposal of those who exercise it,
the
exhaustless riches of Divine grace.
The dampening
of the flame of holy desire, is destructive of
the vital and aggressive forces in church life. God
requires to be
represented by a fiery Church, or He is not in any proper
sense,
represented at all. God, Himself, is all on fire, and His
Church,
if it is to be like Him, must also be at white heat. The
great and
eternal interests of heaven-born, God-given religion are
the only
things about which His Church can afford to be on fire.
Yet holy
zeal need not to be fussy in order to be consuming. Our
Lord was
the incarnate antithesis of nervous excitability, the
absolute
opposite of intolerant or clamorous declamation, yet the
zeal of
God's house consumed Him; and the world is still feeling
the glow
of His fierce, consuming flame and responding to it, with
an ever-
increasing readiness and an ever-enlarging response.
A lack of
ardour in prayer, is the sure sign of a lack of
depth and of intensity of desire; and the absence of
intense
desire is a sure sign of God's absence from the heart! To
abate
fervour is to retire from God. He can, and does, tolerate
many
things in the way of infirmity and error in His children.
He can,
and will pardon sin when the penitent prays, but two
things are
intolerable to Him -- insincerity and lukewarmness. Lack
of heart
and lack of heat are two things He loathes, and to the
Laodiceans
He said, in terms of unmistakable severity and
condemnation:
"I would
thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out
of My
mouth."
This was God's
expressed judgment on the lack of fire in one
of the Seven Churches, and it is His indictment against
individual
Christians for the fatal want of sacred zeal. In prayer,
fire is
the motive power. Religious principles which do not
emerge in
flame, have neither force nor effect. Flame is the wing
on which
faith ascends; fervency is the soul of prayer. It was the
"fervent, effectual prayer" which availed much.
Love is kindled in
a flame, and ardency is its life. Flame is the air which
true
Christian experience breathes. It feeds on fire; it can
withstand
anything, rather than a feeble flame; and it dies,
chilled and
starved to its vitals, when the surrounding atmosphere is
frigid
or lukewarm.
True prayer,
must be aflame. Christian life and character
need to be all on fire. Lack of spiritual heat creates
more
infidelity than lack of faith. Not to be consumingly
interested
about the things of heaven, is not to be interested in
them at
all. The fiery souls are those who conquer in the day of
battle,
from whom the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and
who take
it by force. The citadel of God is taken only by those,
who storm
it in dreadful earnestness, who besiege it, with fiery,
unabated
zeal.
Nothing short
of being red hot for God, can keep the glow of
heaven in our hearts, these chilly days. The early
Methodists had
no heating apparatus in their churches. They declared
that the
flame in the pew and the fire in the pulpit must suffice
to keep
them warm. And we, of this hour, have need to have the
live coal
from God's altar and the consuming flame from heaven
glowing in
our hearts. This flame is not mental vehemence nor fleshy
energy.
It is Divine fire in the soul, intense, dross-consuming
-- the
very essence of the Spirit of God.
No erudition,
no purity of diction, no width of mental
outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person, can
atone
for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives
prayer
access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy.
There is no
incense without fire; no prayer without flame.
Ardent desire
is the basis of unceasing prayer. It is not a
shallow, fickle inclination, but a strong yearning, an
unquenchable ardour, which impregnates, glows, burns and
fixes the
heart. It is the flame of a present and active principle
mounting
up to God. It is ardour propelled by desire, that burns
its way to
the Throne of mercy, and gains its plea. It is the
pertinacity of
desire that gives triumph to the conflict, in a great
struggle of
prayer. It is the burden of a weighty desire that sobers,
makes
restless, and reduces to quietness the soul just emerged
from its
mighty wrestlings. It is the embracing character of
desire which
arms prayer with a thousand pleas, and robes it with an
invincible
courage and an all-conquering power.
The
Syrophenician woman is an object lesson of desire,
settled to its consistency, but invulnerable in its
intensity and
pertinacious boldness. The importunate widow represents
desire
gaining its end, through obstacles insuperable to feebler
impulses.
Prayer is not
the rehearsal of a mere performance; nor is it
an indefinite, widespread clamour. Desire, while it
kindles the
soul, holds it to the object sought. Prayer is an
indispensable
phase of spiritual habit, but it ceases to be prayer when
carried
on by habit alone. It is depth and intensity of spiritual
desire
which give intensity and depth to prayer. The soul cannot
be
listless when some great desire fires and inflames it.
The urgency
of our desire holds us to the thing desired with a
tenacity which
refuses to be lessened or loosened; it stays and pleads
and
persists, and refuses to let go until the blessing has
been
vouchsafed.
"Lord, I
cannot let Thee go,
Till a
blessing Thou bestow;
Do not turn
away Thy face;
Mine's an
urgent, pressing case."
The secret of
faint heartedness, lack of importunity, want of
courage and strength in prayer, lies in the weakness of
spiritual
desire, while the non-observance of prayer is the fearful
token of
that desire having ceased to live. That soul has turned
from God
whose desire after Him no longer presses it to the inner
chamber.
There can be no successful praying without consuming
desire. Of
course there can be much seeming to pray, without desire
of any
kind.
Many things
may be catalogued and much ground covered. But
does desire compile the catalogue? Does desire map out
the region
to be covered? On the answer, hangs the issue of whether
our
petitioning be prating or prayer. Desire is intense, but
narrow;
it cannot spread itself over a wide area. It wants a few
things,
and wants them badly, so badly, that nothing but God's
willingness
to answer, can bring it easement or content.
Desire
single-shots at its objective. There may be many
things desired, but they are specifically and
individually felt
and expressed. David did not yearn for everything; nor
did he
allow his desires to spread out everywhere and hit
nothing. Here
is the way his desires ran and found expression:
"One
thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek
after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the
days of
my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire
in His
temple."
It is this
singleness of desire, this definiteness of
yearning, which counts in praying, and which drives
prayer
directly to core and centre of supply.
In the
Beatitudes Jesus voiced the words which directly bear
upon the innate desires of a renewed soul, and the
promise that
they will be granted: "Blessed are they that do
hunger and thirst
after righteousness, for they shall be filled."
This, then, is
the basis of prayer which compels an answer --
that strong inward desire has entered into the spiritual
appetite,
and clamours to be satisfied. Alas for us! It is
altogether too
true and frequent, that our prayers operate in the arid
region of
a mere wish, or in the leafless area of a memorized
prayer.
Sometimes, indeed, our prayers are merely stereotyped
expressions
of set phrases, and conventional proportions, the
freshness and
life of which have departed long years ago.
Without
desire, there is no burden of soul, no sense of need,
no ardency, no vision, no strength, no glow of faith.
There is no
mighty pressure, no holding on to God, with a deathless,
despairing grasp -- "I will not let Thee go, except
Thou bless
me." There is no utter self-abandonment, as there
was with Moses,
when, lost in the throes of a desperate, pertinacious,
and all-
consuming plea he cried: "Yet now, if Thou wilt
forgive their sin;
if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book." Or,
as there was
with John Knox when he pleaded: "Give me Scotland,
or I die!"
God draws
mightily near to the praying soul. To see God, to
know God, and to live for God -- these form the objective
of all
true praying. Thus praying is, after all, inspired to
seek after
God. Prayer-desire is inflamed to see God, to have
clearer,
fuller, sweeter and richer revelation of God. So to those
who thus
pray, the Bible becomes a new Bible, and Christ a new
Saviour, by
the light and revelation of the inner chamber.
We iterate and
reiterate that burning desire -- enlarged and
ever enlarging -- for the best, and most powerful gifts
and graces
of the Spirit of God, is the legitimate heritage of true
and
effectual praying. Self and service cannot be divorced --
cannot,
possibly, be separated. More than that: desire must be
made
intensely personal, must be centered on God with an
insatiable
hungering and thirsting after Him and His righteousness.
"My soul
thirsteth for God, the living God." The indispensable
requisite
for all true praying is a deeply seated desire which
seeks after
God Himself, and remains unappeased, until the choicest
gifts in
heaven's bestowal, have been richly and abundantly
vouchsafed.
V. PRAYER AND FERVENCY
"St.
Teresa rose off her deathbed to finish her work. She
inspected, with all her quickness of eye and love of
order the
whole of the house in which she had been carried to die.
She saw
everything put into its proper place, and every one
answering to
their proper order, after which she attended the divine
offices of
the day. She then went back to her bed, summoned her
daughters
around her . . . and, with the most penitential of
David's
penitential prayers upon her tongue, Teresa of Jesus went
forth to
meet her Bridegroom." -- Alexander Whyte.
PRAYER, without fervour, stakes nothing on the issue,
because it
has nothing to stake. It comes with empty hands. Hands,
too, which
are listless, as well as empty, which have never learned
the
lesson of clinging to the Cross.
Fervourless
prayer has no heart in it; it is an empty thing,
an unfit vessel. Heart, soul, and life, must find place
in all
real praying. Heaven must be made to feel the force of
this crying
unto God.
Paul was a notable
example of the man who possessed a fervent
spirit of prayer. His petitioning was all-consuming,
centered
immovably upon the object of his desire, and the God who
was able
to meet it.
Prayers must
be red hot. It is the fervent prayer that is
effectual and that availeth. Coldness of spirit hinders
praying;
prayer cannot live in a wintry atmosphere. Chilly
surroundings
freeze out petitioning; and dry up the springs of
supplication. It
takes fire to make prayers go. Warmth of soul creates an
atmosphere favourable to prayer, because it is favourable
to
fervency. By flame, prayer ascends to heaven. Yet fire is
not
fuss, nor heat, noise. Heat is intensity -- something
that glows
and burns. Heaven is a mighty poor market for ice.
God wants
warm-hearted servants. The Holy Spirit comes as a
fire, to dwell in us; we are to be baptized, with the
Holy Ghost
and with fire. Fervency is warmth of soul. A phlegmatic
temperament is abhorrent to vital experience. If our
religion does
not set us on fire, it is because we have frozen hearts.
God
dwells in a flame; the Holy Ghost descends in fire. To be
absorbed
in God's will, to be so greatly in earnest about doing it
that our
whole being takes fire, is the qualifying condition of
the man who
would engage in effectual prayer.
Our Lord warns
us against feeble praying. "Men ought always
to pray," He declares, "and not to faint."
That means, that we are
to possess sufficient fervency to carry us through the
severe and
long periods of pleading prayer. Fire makes one alert and
vigilant, and brings him off, more than conqueror. The
atmosphere
about us is too heavily charged with resisting forces for
limp or
languid prayers to make headway. It takes heat, and
fervency and
meteoric fire, to push through, to the upper heavens,
where God
dwells with His saints, in light.
Many of the
great Bible characters were notable examples of
fervency of spirit when seeking God. The Psalmist
declares with
great earnestness:
"My soul
breaketh for the longing that it hath unto Thy
judgments at all times."
What strong
desires of heart are here! What earnest soul
longings for the Word of the living God!
An even
greater fervency is expressed by him in another
place:
"As the
hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my
soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living
God: when shall I come and appear before God?"
That is the
word of a man who lived in a state of grace,
which had been deeply and supernaturally wrought in his
soul.
Fervency
before God counts in the hour of prayer, and finds a
speedy and rich reward at His hands. The Psalmist gives
us this
statement of what God had done for the king, as his heart
turned
toward his Lord:
"Thou
hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not
withholden the request of his lips."
At another
time, he thus expresses himself directly to God in
preferring his request:
"Lord,
all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not
hid from Thee."
What a cheering thought! Our inward
groanings, our secret
desires, our heart-longings, are not hidden from the eyes
of Him
with whom we have to deal in prayer.
The incentive
to fervency of spirit before God, is precisely
the same as it is for continued and earnest prayer. While
fervency
is not prayer, yet it derives from an earnest soul, and
is
precious in the sight of God. Fervency in prayer is the
precursor
of what God will do by way of answer. God stands pledged
to give
us the desire of our hearts in proportion to the fervency
of
spirit we exhibit, when seeking His face in prayer.
Fervency has
its seat in the heart, not in the brain, nor in
the intellectual faculties of the mind. Fervency
therefore, is not
an expression of the intellect. Fervency of spirit is
something
far transcending poetical fancy or sentimental imagery.
It is
something else besides mere preference, the contrasting
of like
with dislike. Fervency is the throb and gesture of the
emotional
nature.
It is not in
our power, perhaps, to create fervency of spirit
at will, but we can pray God to implant it. It is ours,
then, to
nourish and cherish it, to guard it against extinction,
to prevent
its abatement or decline. The process of personal
salvation is not
only to pray, to express our desires to God, but to
acquire a
fervent spirit and seek, by all proper means, to
cultivate it. It
is never out of place to pray God to beget within us, and
to keep
alive the spirit of fervent prayer.
Fervency has
to do with God, just as prayer has to do with
Him. Desire has always an objective. If we desire at all,
we
desire something. The degree of fervency with which we
fashion our
spiritual desires, will always serve to determine the
earnestness
of our praying. In this relation, Adoniram Judson says:
"A
travailing spirit, the throes of a great burdened desire,
belongs to prayer. A fervency strong enough to drive away
sleep,
which devotes and inflames the spirit, and which retires
all
earthly ties, all this belongs to wrestling, prevailing
prayer.
The Spirit, the power, the air, and food of prayer is in
such a
spirit."
Prayer must be
clothed with fervency, strength and power. It
is the force which, centered on God, determines the
outlay of
Himself for earthly good. Men who are fervent in spirit
are bent
on attaining to righteousness, truth, grace, and all
other sublime
and powerful graces which adorn the character of the
authentic,
unquestioned child of God.
God once
declared, by the mouth of a brave prophet, to a king
who, at one time, had been true to God, but, by the
incoming of
success and material prosperity, had lost his faith, the
following
message:
"The eyes
of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole
earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose
heart is
perfect toward Him. Herein hast thou done foolishly;
therefore,
from henceforth thou shalt have wars."
God had heard
Asa's prayer in early life, but disaster came
and trouble was sent, because he had given up the life of
prayer
and simple faith.
In Romans
15:30, we have the word, "strive," occurring, in
the request which Paul made for prayerful cooperation.
In Colossians
4:12, we have the same word, but translated
differently: "Epaphras always labouring fervently
for you in
prayer." Paul charged the Romans to "strive
together with him in
prayer," that is, to help him in his struggle of
prayer. The word
means to enter into a contest, to fight against
adversaries. It
means, moreover, to engage with fervent zeal to endeavour
to
obtain.
These recorded
instances of the exercise and reward of faith,
give us easily to see that, in almost every instance,
faith was
blended with trust until it is not too much to say that
the former
was swallowed up in the latter. It is hard to properly
distinguish
the specific activities of these two qualities, faith and
trust.
But there is a point, beyond all peradventure, at which
faith is
relieved of its burden, so to speak; where trust comes
along and
says: "You have done your part, the rest is
mine!"
In the
incident of the barren fig tree, our Lord transfers
the marvellous power of faith to His disciples. To their
exclamation, "How soon is the fig tree withered
alway!" He said:
"If ye
have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this
which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say
unto this
mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea;
it shall
be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in
prayer,
believing, ye shall receive."
When a
Christian believer attains to faith of such
magnificent proportions as these, he steps into the realm
of
implicit trust. He stands without a tremor on the apex of
his
spiritual outreaching. He has attained faith's veritable
top stone
which is unswerving, unalterable, unalienable trust in
the power
of the living God.
VI. PRAYER AND IMPORTUNITY
"How
glibly we talk of praying without ceasing! Yet we are
quite apt to quit, if our prayer remained unanswered but
one week
or month! We assume that by a stroke of His arm or an
action of
His will, God will give us what we ask. It never seems to
dawn on
us, that He is the Master of nature, as of grace, and
that,
sometimes He chooses one way, and sometimes another in
which to do
His work. It takes years, sometimes, to answer a prayer
and when
it is answered, and we look backward we can see that it
did. But
God knows all the time, and it is His will that we pray,
and pray,
and still pray, and so come to know, indeed and of a
truth, what
it is to pray without ceasing." -- Anon.
OUR Lord Jesus declared that "men ought always to
pray and not to
faint," and the parable in which His words occur,
was taught with
the intention of saving men from faint-heartedness and
weakness in
prayer. Our Lord was seeking to teach that laxity must be
guarded
against, and persistence fostered and encouraged. There
can be no
two opinions regarding the importance of the exercise of
this
indispensable quality in our praying.
Importunate
prayer is a mighty movement of the soul toward
God. It is a stirring of the deepest forces of the soul,
toward
the throne of heavenly grace. It is the ability to hold
on, press
on, and wait. Restless desire, restful patience, and
strength of
grasp are all embraced in it. It is not an incident, or a
performance, but a passion of soul. It is not a want,
half-needed,
but a sheer necessity.
The wrestling
quality in importunate prayers does not spring
from physical vehemence or fleshly energy. It is not an
impulse of
energy, not a mere earnestness of soul; it is an
inwrought force,
a faculty implanted and aroused by the Holy Spirit.
Virtually, it
is the intercession of the Spirit of God, in us; it is,
moreover,
"the effectual, fervent prayer, which availeth
much." The Divine
Spirit informing every element within us, with the energy
of His
own striving, is the essence of the importunity which
urges our
praying at the mercy-seat, to continue until the fire
falls and
the blessing descends. This wrestling in prayer may not
be
boisterous nor vehement, but quiet, tenacious and urgent.
Silent,
it may be, when there are no visible outlets for its
mighty
forces.
Nothing
distinguishes the children of God so clearly and
strongly as prayer. It is the one infallible mark and
test of
being a Christian. Christian people are prayerful, the
worldly-
minded, prayerless. Christians call on God; worldlings
ignore God,
and call not on His Name. But even the Christian had need
to
cultivate continual prayer. Prayer must be habitual, but
much more
than a habit. It is duty, yet one which rises far above,
and goes
beyond the ordinary implications of the term. It is the
expression
of a relation to God, a yearning for Divine communion. It
is the
outward and upward flow of the inward life toward its
original
fountain. It is an assertion of the soul's paternity, a
claiming
of the sonship, which links man to the Eternal.
Prayer has
everything to do with moulding the soul into the
image of God, and has everything to do with enhancing and
enlarging the measure of Divine grace. It has everything
to do
with bringing the soul into complete communion with God.
It has
everything to do with enriching, broadening and maturing
the
soul's experience of God. That man cannot possibly be
called a
Christian, who does not pray. By no possible pretext can
he claim
any right to the term, nor its implied significance. If
he do not
pray, he is a sinner, pure and simple, for prayer is the
only way
in which the soul of man can enter into fellowship and
communion
with the Source of all Christlike spirit and energy.
Hence, if he
pray not, he is not of the household of faith.
In this study
however, we turn our thought to one phase of
prayer -- that of importunity; the pressing of our
desires upon
God with urgency and perseverance; the praying with that
tenacity
and tension which neither relaxes nor ceases until its
plea is
heard, and its cause is won.
He who has
clear views of God, and Scriptural conceptions of
the Divine character; who appreciates his privilege of
approach
unto God; who understands his inward need of all that God
has for
him -- that man will be solicitous, outspoken and
importunate. In
Holy Writ, the duty of prayer, itself, is advocated in
terms which
are only barely stronger than those in which the
necessity for its
importunity is set forth. The praying which influences
God is
declared to be that of the fervent, effectual outpouring
of a
righteous man. That is to say, it is prayer on fire,
having no
feeble, flickering flame, no momentary flash, but shining
with a
vigorous and steady glow.
The repeated
intercessions of Abraham for the salvation of
Sodom and Gomorrah present an early example of the
necessity for,
and benefit deriving from importunate praying. Jacob,
wrestling
all night with the angel, gives significant emphasis to
the power
of a dogged perseverance in praying, and shows how, in
things
spiritual, importunity succeeds, just as effectively as
it does in
matters relating to time and sense.
As we have
noted, elsewhere, Moses prayed forty days and
forty nights, seeking to stay the wrath of God against
Israel, and
his example and success are a stimulus to present-day
faith in its
darkest hour. Elijah repeated and urged his prayer seven
times ere
the raincloud appeared above the horizon, heralding the
success of
his prayer and the victory of his faith. On one occasion
Daniel
though faint and weak, pressed his case three weeks, ere
the
answer and the blessing came.
Many nights
during His earthly life did the blessed Saviour
spend in prayer. In Gethsemane He presented the same
petition,
three times, with unabated, urgent, yet submissive
importunity,
which involved every element of His soul, and issued in
tears and
bloody sweat. His life crises were distinctly marked, his
life
victories all won, in hours of importunate prayer. And
the servant
is not greater than his Lord.
The Parable of
the Importunate Widow is a classic of
insistent prayer. We shall do well to refresh our
remembrance of
it, at this point in our study:
"And He
spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought
always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a
city a
judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man; and
there was a
widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge
me of my
adversary. And he would not for a while; but afterward he
said
within himself, Though I fear not God nor regard man; yet
because
this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her
continual
coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the
unjust judge
saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry
day and
night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you
He will
avenge them speedily."
This parable
stresses the central truth of importunate
prayer. The widow presses her case till the unjust judge
yields.
If this parable does not teach the necessity for
importunity, it
has neither point nor instruction in it. Take this one
thought
away, and you have nothing left worth recording. Beyond
all cavil,
Christ intended it to stand as an evidence of the need
that
exists, for insistent prayer.
We have the
same teaching emphasized in the incident of the
Syrophenician woman, who came to Jesus on behalf of her
daughter.
Here, importunity is demonstrated, not as a stark
impertinence,
but as with the persuasive habiliments of humility,
sincerity, and
fervency. We are given a glimpse of a woman's clinging
faith, a
woman's bitter grief, and a woman's spiritual insight.
The Master
went over into that Sidonian country in order that this
truth
might be mirrored for all time -- there is no plea so
efficacious
as importunate prayer, and none to which God surrenders Himself
so
fully and so freely.
The
importunity of this distressed mother, won her the
victory, and materialized her request. Yet instead of
being an
offence to the Saviour, it drew from Him a word of
wonder, and
glad surprise. "O woman, great is thy faith! Be it
unto thee, even
as thou wilt."
He prays not
at all, who does not press his plea. Cold
prayers have no claim on heaven, and no hearing in the
courts
above. Fire is the life of prayer, and heaven is reached
by
flaming importunity rising in an ascending scale.
Reverting to
the case of the importunate widow, we see that
her widowhood, her friendlessness, and her weakness
counted for
nothing with the unjust judge. Importunity was
everything.
"Because this widow troubleth me," he said,
"I will avenge her
speedily, lest she weary me." Solely because the
widow imposed
upon the time and attention of the unjust judge, her case
was won.
God waits
patiently as, day and night, His elect cry unto
Him. He is moved by their requests a thousand times more
than was
this unjust judge. A limit is set to His tarrying, by the
importunate praying of His people, and the answer richly
given.
God finds faith in His praying child -- the faith which
stays and
cries -- and He honours it by permitting its further
exercise, to
the end that it is strengthened and enriched. Then He
rewards it
by granting the burden of its plea, in plenitude and
finality.
The case of
the Syrophenician woman previously referred to is
a notable instance of successful importunity, one which
is
eminently encouraging to all who would pray successfully.
It was a
remarkable instance of insistence and perseverance to
ultimate
victory, in the face of almost insuperable obstacles and
hindrances. But the woman surmounted them all by heroic
faith and
persistent spirit that were as remarkable as they were
successful.
Jesus had gone over into her country, "and would
have no man know
it." But she breaks through His purpose, violates
His privacy,
attracts His attention, and pours out to Him a poignant
appeal of
need and faith. Her heart was in her prayer.
At first,
Jesus appears to pay no attention to her agony, and
ignores her cry for relief. He gives her neither eye, nor
ear, nor
word. Silence, deep and chilling, greets her impassioned
cry. But
she is not turned aside, nor disheartened. She holds on.
The
disciples, offended at her unseemly clamour, intercede
for her,
but are silenced by the Lord's declaring that the woman
is
entirely outside the scope of His mission and His
ministry.
But neither
the failure of the disciples to gain her a
hearing nor the knowledge -- despairing in its very
nature -- that
she is barred from the benefits of His mission, daunt
her, and
serve only to lend intensity and increased boldness to
her
approach to Christ. She came closer, cutting her prayer
in twain,
and falling at His feet, worshipping Him, and making her
daughter's case her own cries, with pointed brevity --
"Lord, help
me!" This last cry won her case; her daughter was
healed in the
self-same hour. Hopeful, urgent, and unwearied, she stays
near the
Master, insisting and praying until the answer is given.
What a
study in importunity, in earnestness, in persistence,
promoted and
propelled under conditions which would have disheartened
any but
an heroic, a constant soul.
In these
parables of importunate praying, our Lord sets
forth, for our information and encouragement, the serious
difficulties which stand in the way of prayer. At the
same time He
teaches that importunity conquers all untoward
circumstances and
gets to itself a victory over a whole host of hindrances.
He
teaches, moreover, that an answer to prayer is
conditional upon
the amount of faith that goes to the petition. To test
this, He
delays the answer. The superficial pray-er subsides into
silence,
when the answer is delayed. But the man of prayer hangs
on, and
on. The Lord recognizes and honours his faith, and gives
him a
rich and abundant answer to his faith-evidencing,
importunate
prayer.
VII.
PRAYER AND IMPORTUNITY (Continued)
"Two-thirds of the praying we do, is for that which would
give us the greatest possible pleasure to receive. It is
a sort of
spiritual self-indulgence in which we engage, and as a consequence
is the exact opposite of self-discipline. God knows all
this, and
keeps His children asking. In process of time -- His time
-- our
petitions take on another aspect, and we, another
spiritual
approach. God keeps us praying until, in His wisdom, He
deigns to
answer. And no matter how long it may be before He
speaks, it is,
even then, far earlier than we have a right to expect or
hope to
deserve." -- Anon.
THE tenor of Christ's teachings, is to declare that men
are to
pray earnestly -- to pray with an earnestness that cannot
be
denied. Heaven has harkening ears only for the
whole-hearted, and
the deeply-earnest. Energy, courage, and persistent
perseverance
must back the prayers which heaven respects, and God
hears. All
these qualities of soul, so essential to effectual
praying, are
brought out in the parable of the man who went to his
friend for
bread, at midnight. This man entered on his errand with
confidence. Friendship promised him success. His plea was
pressing: of a truth, he could not go back empty-handed.
The flat
refusal chagrined and surprised him. Here even friendship
failed!
But there was something to be tried yet -- stern
resolution, set,
fixed determination. He would stay and press his demand
until the
door was opened, and the request granted. This he
proceeded to do,
and by dint of importunity secured what ordinary
solicitation had
failed to obtain.
The success of
this man, achieved in the face of a flat
denial, was used by the Saviour to illustrate the necessity
for
insistence in supplicating the throne of heavenly grace.
When the
answer is not immediately given, the praying Christian
must gather
courage at each delay, and advance in urgency till the
answer
comes which is assured, if he have but the faith to press
his
petition with vigorous faith.
Laxity,
faint-heartedness, impatience, timidity will be fatal
to our prayers. Awaiting the onset of our importunity and
insistence, is the Father's heart, the Father's hand, the
Father's
infinite power, the Father's infinite willingness to hear
and give
to His children.
Importunate
praying is the earnest, inward movement of the
heart toward God. It is the throwing of the entire force
of the
spiritual man into the exercise of prayer. Isaiah
lamented that no
one stirred himself, to take hold of God. Much praying
was done in
Isaiah's time, but it was too easy, indifferent and
complacent.
There were no mighty movements of souls toward God. There
was no
array of sanctified energies bent on reaching and
grappling with
God, to draw from Him the treasures of His grace.
Forceless
prayers have no power to overcome difficulties, no power
to win
marked results, or to gain complete victories. We must
win God,
ere we can win our plea.
Isaiah looked
forward with hopeful eyes to the day when
religion would flourish, when there would be times of
real
praying. When those times came, the watchmen would not
abate their
vigilance, but cry day and night, and those, who were the
Lord's
remembrancers, would give Him no rest. Their urgent,
persistent
efforts would keep all spiritual interests engaged, and
make
increasing drafts on God's exhaustless treasures.
Importunate
praying never faints nor grows weary; it is never
discouraged; it never yields to cowardice, but is buoyed
up and
sustained by a hope that knows no despair, and a faith
which will
not let go. Importunate praying has patience to wait and
strength
to continue. It never prepares itself to quit praying,
and
declines to rise from its knees until an answer is
received.
The familiar,
yet heartening words of that great missionary,
Adoniram Judson, is the testimony of a man who was
importunate at
prayer. He says:
"I was
never deeply interested in any object, never prayed
sincerely and earnestly for it, but that it came at some
time, no
matter how distant the day. Somehow, in some shape,
probably the
last I would have devised, it came."
"Ask, and
ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you." These are the
ringing challenges
of our Lord in regard to prayer, and His intimation that
true
praying must stay, and advance in effort and urgency,
till the
prayer is answered, and the blessing sought, received.
In the three
words ask, seek, knock, in the order in which He
places them, Jesus urges the necessity of importunity in
prayer.
Asking, seeking, knocking, are ascending rounds in the
ladder of
successful prayer. No principle is more definitely
enforced by
Christ than that prevailing prayer must have in it the
quality
which waits and perseveres, the courage that never
surrenders, the
patience which never grows tired, the resolution that
never
wavers.
In the parable
preceding that of the Friend at Midnight, a
most significant and instructive lesson in this respect
is
outlined. Indomitable courage, ceaseless pertinacity,
fixity of
purpose, chief among the qualities included in Christ's
estimate
of the highest and most successful form of praying.
Importunity is
made up of intensity, perseverance, patience
and persistence. The seeming delay in answering prayer is
the
ground and the demand of importunity. In the first
recorded
instance of a miracle being wrought upon one who was
blind, as
given by Matthew, we have an illustration of the way in
which our
Lord appeared not to hearken at once to those who sought
Him. But
the two blind men continue their crying, and follow Him
with their
continual petition, saying, "Thou Son of David, have
mercy on us."
But He answered them not, and passed into the house. Yet
the needy
ones followed Him, and, finally, gained their eyesight
and their
plea.
The case of
blind Bartimaeus is a notable one in many ways.
Especially is it remarkable for the show of persistence
which this
blind man exhibited in appealing to our Lord. If it be --
as it
seems -- that his first crying was done as Jesus entered
into
Jericho, and that he continued it until Jesus came out of
the
place, it is all the stronger an illustration of the
necessity of
importunate prayer and the success which comes to those
who stake
their all on Christ, and give Him no peace until He
grants them
their hearts' desire.
Mark puts the
whole incident graphically before us. At first,
Jesus seems not to hear. The crowd rebukes the noisy
clamour of
Bartimaeus. Despite the seeming unconcern of our Lord,
however,
and despite the rebuke of an impatient and quick-tempered
crowd,
the blind beggar still cries, and increases the loudness
of his
cry, until Jesus is impressed and moved. Finally, the
crowd, as
well as Jesus, hearken to the beggar's plea and declare
in favour
of his cause. He gains his case. His importunity avails
even in
the face of apparent neglect on the part of Jesus, and
despite
opposition and rebuke from the surrounding populace. His
persistence won where half-hearted indifference would
surely have
failed.
Faith has its
province, in connection with prayer, and, of
course, has its inseparable association with importunity.
But the
latter quality drives the prayer to the believing point.
A
persistent spirit brings a man to the place where faith
takes
hold, claims and appropriates the blessing.
The imperative
necessity of importunate prayer is plainly set
forth in the Word of God, and needs to be stated and
re-stated
today. We are apt to overlook this vital truth. Love of
ease,
spiritual indolence, religious slothfulness, all operate
against
this type of petitioning. Our praying, however, needs to
be
pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a
persistency
which will not be denied, and a courage which never
fails.
We have need,
too, to give thought to that mysterious fact of
prayer -- the certainty that there will be delays,
denials, and
seeming failures, in connection with its exercise. We are
to
prepare for these, to brook them, and cease not in our
urgent
praying. Like a brave soldier, who, as the conflict grows
sterner,
exhibits a superior courage than in the earlier stages of
the
battle; so does the praying Christian, when delay and
denial face
him, increase his earnest asking, and ceases not until
prayer
prevail. Moses furnishes an illustrious example of
importunity in
prayer. Instead of allowing his nearness to God and his
intimacy
with Him to dispense with the necessity for importunity,
he
regards them as the better fitting him for its exercise.
When
Israel set up the golden calf, the wrath of God waxed
fierce
against them, and Jehovah, bent on executing justice,
said to
Moses when divulging what He purposed doing, "Let Me
alone!" But
Moses would not let Him alone. He threw himself down
before the
Lord in an agony of intercession in behalf of the sinning
Israelites, and for forty days and nights, fasted and
prayed. What
a season of importunate prayer was that!
Jehovah was
wroth with Aaron, also, who had acted as leader
in this idolatrous business of the golden calf. But Moses
prayed
for Aaron as well as for the Israelites; had he not, both
Israel
and Aaron had perished, under the consuming fire of God's
wrath.
That long
season of pleading before God, left its mighty
impress on Moses. He had been in close relation with God
aforetime, but never did his character attain the
greatness that
marked it in the days and years following this long
season of
importunate intercession.
There can be
no question but that importunate prayer moves
God, and heightens human character! If we were more with
God in
this great ordinance of intercession, more brightly would
our face
shine, more richly endowed would life and service be,
with the
qualities which earn the goodwill of humanity, and bring
glory to
the Name of God.
VIII.
PRAYER AND CHARACTER AND CONDUCT
"General
Charles James Gordon, the hero of Khartum, was a
truly Christian soldier. Shut up in the Sudanese town he
gallantly
held out for one year, but, finally, was overcome and
slain. On
his memorial in Westminster Abbey are these words, 'He
gave his
money to the poor; his sympathy to the sorrowing; his
life to his
country and his soul to God.'" -- Homer W. Hodge.
PRAYER governs conduct and conduct makes character.
Conduct, is
what we do; character, is what we are. Conduct is the
outward
life. Character is the life unseen, hidden within, yet
evidenced
by that which is seen. Conduct is external, seen from
without;
character is internal -- operating within. In the economy
of grace
conduct is the offspring of character. Character is the
state of
the heart, conduct its outward expression. Character is
the root
of the tree, conduct, the fruit it bears.
Prayer is
related to all the gifts of grace. To character and
conduct its relation is that of a helper. Prayer helps to
establish character and fashion conduct, and both for
their
successful continuance depend on prayer. There may be a
certain
degree of moral character and conduct independent of
prayer, but
there cannot be anything like distinctive religious
character and
Christian conduct without it. Prayer helps, where all
other aids
fail. The more we pray, the better we are, the purer and
better
our lives.
The very end
and purpose of the atoning work of Christ is to
create religious character and to make Christian conduct.
"Who gave
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people,
zealous of
good works."
In Christ's
teaching, it is not simply works of charity and
deeds of mercy upon which He insists, but inward
spiritual
character. This much is demanded, and nothing short of
it, will
suffice.
In the study
of Paul's Epistles, there is one thing which
stands out, clearly and unmistakably -- the insistence on
holiness
of heart, and righteousness of life. Paul does not seek,
so much,
to promote what is termed "personal work," nor
is the leading
theme of his letters deeds of charity. It is the
condition of the
human heart and the blamelessness of the personal life,
which form
the burden of the writings of St. Paul.
Elsewhere in
the Scriptures, too, it is character and conduct
which are made preeminent. The Christian religion deals
with men
who are devoid of spiritual character, and unholy in
life, and
aims so to change them, that they become holy in heart
and
righteous in life. It aims to change bad men into good
men; it
deals with inward badness, and works to change it into
inward
goodness. And it is just here where prayer enters and
demonstrates
its wonderful efficacy and fruit. Prayer drives toward
this
specific end. In fact, without prayer, no such
supernatural change
in moral character, can ever be effected. For the change
from
badness to goodness is not wrought "by works of
righteousness
which we have done," but according to God's mercy,
which saves us
"by the washing of regeneration." And this
marvellous change is
brought to pass through earnest, persistent, faithful
prayer. Any
alleged form of Christianity, which does not effect this
change in
the hearts of men, is a delusion and a snare.
The office of
prayer is to change the character and conduct
of men, and in countless instances, has been wrought by
prayer. At
this point, prayer, by its credentials, has proved its
divinity.
And just as it is the office of prayer to effect this, so
it is
the prime work of the Church to take hold of evil men and
make
them good. Its mission is to change human nature, to
change
character, influence behaviour, to revolutionize conduct.
The
Church is presumed to be righteous, and should be engaged
in
turning men to righteousness. The Church is God's
manufactory on
earth, and its primary duty is to create and foster
righteousness
of character. This is its very first business. Primarily,
its work
is not to acquire members, nor amass numbers, nor aim at
money-
getting, nor engage in deeds of charity and works of mercy,
but to
produce righteousness of character, and purity of the
outward
life.
A product
reflects and partakes of the character of the
manufactory which makes it. A righteous Church with a
righteous
purpose makes righteous men. Prayer produces cleanliness
of heart
and purity of life. It can produce nothing else.
Unrighteous
conduct is born of prayerlessness; the two go
hand-in-hand. Prayer
and sinning cannot keep company with each other. One, or
the
other, must, of necessity, stop. Get men to pray, and
they will
quit sinning, because prayer creates a distaste for
sinning, and
so works upon the heart, that evil-doing becomes
repugnant, and
the entire nature lifted to a reverent contemplation of
high and
holy things.
Prayer is
based on character. What we are with God gauges our
influence with Him. It was the inner character, not the
outward
seeming, of such men as Abraham, Job, David, Moses and
all others,
who had such great influence with God in the days of old.
And,
today, it is not so much our words, as what we really
are, which
weighs with God. Conduct affects character, of course,
and counts
for much in our praying. At the same time, character
affects
conduct to a far greater extent, and has a superior
influence over
prayer. Our inner life not only gives colour to our
praying, but
body, as well. Bad living means bad praying and, in the
end, no
praying at all. We pray feebly because we live feebly.
The stream
of prayer cannot rise higher than the fountain of living.
The
force of the inner chamber is made up of the energy which
flows
from the confluent streams of living. And the weakness of
living
grows out of the shallowness and shoddiness of character.
Feebleness of
living reflects its debility and langour in the
praying hours. We simply cannot talk to God, strongly,
intimately,
and confidently unless we are living for Him, faithfully
and
truly. The prayer-closet cannot become sanctified unto
God, when
the life is alien to His precepts and purpose. We must
learn this
lesson well -- that righteous character and Christlike
conduct
give us a peculiar and preferential standing in prayer
before God.
His holy Word gives special emphasis to the part conduct
has in
imparting value to our praying when it declares:
"Then
shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt
cry, and He shall say, Here I am; if thou take away from
the midst
of thee the yoke, the putting forth the finger, and
speaking
vanity."
The wickedness
of Israel and their heinous practices were
definitely cited by Isaiah, as the reason why God would
turn His
ears away from their prayers:
"And when
ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes
from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not
hear: your
hands are full of blood."
The same sad
truth was declared by the Lord through the mouth
of Jeremiah:
"Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a
cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the
time that
they cry unto Me for their trouble."
Here, it is
plainly stated, that unholy conduct is a bar to
successful praying, just as it is clearly intimated that,
in order
to have full access to God in prayer, there must be a
total
abandonment of conscious and premeditated sin.
We are enjoined
to pray, "lifting up holy hands, without
wrath and doubting," and must pass the time of our
sojourning
here, in a rigorous abstaining from evil if we are to
retain our
privilege of calling upon the Father. We cannot, by any
process,
divorce praying from conduct.
"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His
commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in
His
sight."
And James
declares roundly that men ask and receive not,
because they ask amiss, and seek only the gratification
of selfish
desires.
Our Lord's
injunction, "Watch ye, and pray always," is to
cover and guard all our conduct, so that we may come to
our inner
chamber with all its force secured by a vigilant guard
kept over
our lives.
"And take
heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be
overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares
of this
life, and so that day come upon you unawares."
Quite often,
Christian experience founders on the rock of
conduct. Beautiful theories are marred by ugly lives. The
most
difficult thing about piety, as it is the most
impressive, is to
be able to live it. It is the life which counts, and our
praying
suffers, as do other phases of our religious experience,
from bad
living.
In primitive
times preachers were charged to preach by their
lives, or not to preach at all. So, today, Christians,
everywhere,
ought to be charged to pray by their lives, or not to
pray at all.
The most effective preaching, is not that which is heard
from the
pulpit, but that which is proclaimed quietly, humbly and
consistently; which exhibits its excellencies in the
home, and in
the community. Example preaches a far more effective
sermon than
precept. The best preaching, even in the pulpit, is that
which is
fortified by godly living, in the preacher, himself. The
most
effective work done by the pew is preceded by, and
accompanied
with, holiness of life, separation from the world,
severance from
sin. Some of the strongest appeals are made with mute lips
-- by
godly fathers and saintly mothers who, around the
fireside, feared
God, loved His cause, and daily exhibited to their
children and
others about them, the beauties and excellencies of
Christian life
and conduct.
The
best-prepared, most eloquent sermon can be marred and
rendered ineffective, by questionable practices in the
preacher.
The most active church worker can have the labour of his
hands
vitiated by worldliness of spirit and inconsistency of
life. Men
preach by their lives, not by their words, and sermons
are
delivered, not so much in, and from a pulpit, as in
tempers,
actions, and the thousand and one incidents which crowd
the
pathway of daily life.
Of course, the
prayer of repentance is acceptable to God. He
delights in hearing the cries of penitent sinners. But
repentance
involves not only sorrow for sin, but the turning away
from wrong-
doing, and the learning to do well. A repentance which
does not
produce a change in character and conduct, is a mere
sham, which
should deceive nobody. Old things must pass away, all
things must
become new.
Praying, which
does not result in right thinking and right
living, is a farce. We have missed the whole office of
prayer if
it fail to purge character and rectify conduct. We have
failed
entirely to apprehend the virtue of prayer, if it bring
not about
the revolutionizing of the life. In the very nature of
things, we
must quit praying, or our bad conduct. Cold, formal
praying may
exist side by side, with bad conduct, but such praying,
in the
estimation of God, is no praying at all. Our praying
advances in
power, just in so far as it rectifies the life. Growing
in purity
and devotion to God will be a more prayerful life.
The character
of the inner life is a condition of effectual
praying. As is the life, so will the praying be. An
inconsistent
life obstructs praying and neutralizes what little
praying we may
do. Always, it is "the prayer of the righteous man
which availeth
much." Indeed, one may go further and assert, that
it is only the
prayer of the righteous which avails anything at all --
at any
time. To have an eye to God's glory; to be possessed by
an earnest
desire to please Him in all our ways; to possess hands
busy in His
service; to have feet swift to run in the way of His
commandments
-- these give weight and influence and power to prayer,
and secure
an audience with God. The incubus of our lives often
breaks the
force of our praying, and, not unfrequently, are as doors
of
brass, in the face of prayer.
Praying must
come out of a cleansed heart and be presented
and urged with the "lifting up of holy hands."
It must be
fortified by a life aiming, unceasingly, to obey God, to
attain
conformity to the Divine law, and to come into submission
to the
Divine will.
Let it not be
forgotten, that, while life is a condition of
prayer, prayer is also the condition of righteous living.
Prayer
promotes righteous living, and is the one great aid to
uprightness
of heart and life. The fruit of real praying is right
living.
Praying sets him who prays to the great business of
"working out
his salvation with fear and trembling;" puts him to
watching his
temper, conversation and conduct; causes him to
"walk
circumspectly, redeeming the time;" enables him to
"walk worthy of
the vocation wherewith he is called, with all lowliness
and
meekness;" gives him a high incentive to pursue his
pilgrimage
consistently by "shunning every evil way, and
walking in the
good."
IX. PRAYER AND OBEDIENCE
"An
obedience discovered itself in Fletcher of Madeley, which
I wish I could describe or imitate. It produced in him a
ready
mind to embrace every cross with alacrity and pleasure.
He had a
singular love for the lambs of the flock, and applied
himself with
the greatest diligence to their instruction, for which he
had a
peculiar gift. . . . All his intercourse with me was so
mingled
with prayer and praise, that every employment, and every
meal was,
as it were, perfumed therewith." -- John Wesley.
UNDER the Mosaic law, obedience was looked upon as being
"better
than sacrifice, and to harken, than the fat of
lambs." In
Deuteronomy 5:29, Moses represents Almighty God declaring
Himself
as to this very quality in a manner which left no doubt
as to the
importance He laid upon its exercise. Referring to the
waywardness
of His people He cries:
"O that
there were such a heart in them, that they would fear
Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be
well
with them, and with their children after them."
Unquestionably
obedience is a high virtue, a soldier quality.
To obey belongs, preeminently, to the soldier. It is his
first and
last lesson, and he must learn how to practice it all the
time,
without question, uncomplainingly. Obedience, moreover,
is faith
in action, and is the outflow as it is the very test of
love. "He
that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth
Me."
Furthermore:
obedience is the conserver and the life of love.
"If ye
keep My commandments," says Jesus, "ye shall abide in
My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and
abide in
His love."
What a
marvellous statement of the relationship created and
maintained by obedience! The Son of God is held in the
bosom of
the Father's love, by virtue of His obedience! And the
factor
which enables the Son of God to ever abide in His
Father's love is
revealed in His own statement, "For I do, always,
those things
that please Him."
The gift of
the Holy Spirit in full measure and in richer
experience, depends upon loving obedience:
"If ye
love Me, keep My commandments," is the Master's word.
"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you
another
Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever."
Obedience to
God is a condition of spiritual thrift, inward
satisfaction, stability of heart. "If ye be willing
and obedient,
ye shall eat the fruit of the land." Obedience opens
the gates of
the Holy City, and gives access to the tree of life.
"Blessed are they that do His
commandments, that they may
have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through
the
gates, into the city."
What is
obedience? It is doing God's will: it is keeping His
commandments. How many of the commandments constitute
obedience?
To keep half of them, and to break the other half -- is
that real
obedience? To keep all the commandments but one -- is
that
obedience? On this point, James the Apostle is most
explicit:
"Whosoever shall keep the whole law," he declares,
"and yet offend
in one point, he is guilty of all."
The spirit
which prompts a man to break one commandment is
the spirit which may move him to break them all. God's
commandments are a unit, and to break one strikes at the
principle
which underlies and runs through the whole. He who
hesitates not
to break a single commandment, would -- it is more than
probable
-- under the same stress, and surrounded by the same
circumstances, break them all.
Universal
obedience of the race is demanded. Nothing short of
implicit obedience will satisfy God, and the keeping of
all His
commandments is the demonstration of it that God
requires. But can
we keep all of God's commandments? Can a man receive
moral ability
such as enables him to obey every one of them? Certainly
he can.
By every token, man can, through prayer, obtain ability
to do this
very thing.
Does God give
commandments which men cannot obey? Is He so
arbitrary, so severe, so unloving, as to issue
commandments which
cannot be obeyed? The answer is that in all the annals of
Holy
Scripture, not a single instance is recorded of God
having
commanded any man to do a thing, which was beyond his
power. Is
God so unjust and so inconsiderate as to require of man
that which
he is unable to render? Surely not. To infer it, is to
slander the
character of God.
Let us ponder
this thought, a moment: Do earthly parents
require of their children duties which they cannot
perform? Where
is the father who would think, even, of being so unjust,
and so
tyrannical? Is God less kind and just than faulty,
earthly
parents? Are they better and more just than a perfect
God? How
utterly foolish and untenable a thought!
In principle,
obedience to God is the same quality as
obedience to earthly parents. It implies, in general
effect, the
giving up of one's own way, and following that of
another; the
surrendering of the will to the will of another; the
submission of
oneself to the authority and requirements of a parent.
Commands,
either from our heavenly Father or from our earthly
father, are
love-directing, and all such commands are in the best
interests of
those who are commanded. God's commands are issued
neither in
severity nor tyranny. They are always issued in love and
in our
interests, and so it behooves us to heed and obey them.
In other
words, and appraised at its lowest value -- God having
issued His
commands to us, in order to promote our good, it pays,
therefore,
to be obedient. Obedience brings its own reward. God has
ordained
it so, and since He has, even human reason can realize
that He
would never demand that which is out of our power to
render.
Obedience is
love, fulfilling every command, love expressing
itself. Obedience, therefore, is not a hard demand made
upon us,
any more than is the service a husband renders his wife,
or a wife
renders her husband. Love delights to obey, and please
whom it
loves. There are no hardships in love. There may be
exactions, but
no irk. There are no impossible tasks for love.
With what
simplicity and in what a matter-of-fact way does
the Apostle John say: "And whatsoever we ask, we
receive of Him,
because we keep His commandments, and do those things
which are
pleasing in His sight."
This is
obedience, running ahead of all and every command. It
is love, obeying by anticipation. They greatly err, and
even sin,
who declare that men are bound to commit iniquity, either
because
of environment, or heredity, or tendency. God's commands
are not
grievous. Their ways are ways of pleasantness, and their
paths
peace. The task which falls to obedience is not a hard
one. "For
My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."
Far be it from
our heavenly Father, to demand impossibilities
of His children. It is possible to please Him in all
things, for
He is not hard to please. He is neither a hard master,
nor an
austere lord, "taking up that which he lays not
down, and reaping
that which he did not sow." Thank God, it is
possible for every
child of God, to please his heavenly Father! It is really
much
easier to please Him than to please men. Moreover, we may
know
when we please Him. This is the witness of the Spirit --
the
inward Divine assurance, given to all the children of God
that
they are doing their Father's will, and that their ways
are well-
pleasing in His sight.
God's
commandments are righteous and founded in justice and
wisdom. "Wherefore the law is holy, and the
commandment holy and
just and good." "Just and true are Thy ways,
Thou King of saints."
God's commandments, then, can be obeyed by all who seek
supplies
of grace which enable them to obey. These commandments
must be
obeyed. God's government is at stake. God's children are
under
obligation to obey Him; disobedience cannot be permitted.
The
spirit of rebellion is the very essence of sin. It is
repudiation
of God's authority, which God cannot tolerate. He never
has done
so, and a declaration of His attitude was part of the
reason the
Son of the Highest was made manifest among men:
"For what
the law could not do, in that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
If any should
complain that humanity, under the fall, is too
weak and helpless to obey these high commands of God, the
reply is
in order that, through the atonement of Christ, man is
enabled to
obey. The Atonement is God's Enabling Act. That which God
works in
us, in regeneration and through the agency of the Holy
Spirit,
bestows enabling grace sufficient for all that is
required of us,
under the Atonement. This grace is furnished without
measure, in
answer to prayer. So that, while God commands, He, at the
same
time, stands pledged to give us all necessary strength of
will and
grace of soul to meet His demands. This being true, man
is without
excuse for his disobedience and eminently censurable for
refusing,
or failing, to secure requisite grace, whereby he may
serve the
Lord with reverence, and with godly fear.
There is one
important consideration those who declare it to
be impossible to keep God's commandments strangely
overlook, and
that is the vital truth, which declares that through
prayer and
faith, man's nature is changed, and made partaker of the
Divine
nature; that there is taken out of him all reluctance to
obey God,
and that his natural inability to keep God's
commandments, growing
out of his fallen and helpless state, is gloriously
removed. By
this radical change which is wrought in his moral nature,
a man
receives power to obey God in every way, and to yield
full and
glad allegiance. Then he can say, "I delight to do
Thy will, O my
God." Not only is the rebellion incident to the
natural man
removed, but a heart which gladly obeys God's Word,
blessedly
received.
If it be
claimed, that the unrenewed man, with all the
disabilities of the Fall upon him, cannot obey God, there
will be
no denial. But to declare that, after one is renewed by
the Holy
Spirit, has received a new nature, and become a child of
the King,
he cannot obey God, is to assume a ridiculous attitude,
and to
display, moreover, a lamentable ignorance of the work and
implications of the Atonement.
Implicit and
perfect obedience is the state to which the man
of prayer is called. "Lifting up holy hands, without
wrath and
doubting," is the condition of obedient praying.
Here inward
fidelity and love, together with outward cleanness are
put down as
concomitants of acceptable praying.
John gives the
reason for answered prayer in the passage
previously quoted: "And whatsoever we ask we receive
of Him
because we keep His commandments and do those things
which are
pleasing in His sight."
Seeing that
the keeping of God's commandments is here set
forth as the reason why He answers prayer, it is to be
reasonably
assumed that we can keep God's commandments, can do those
things
which are pleasing to Him. Would God make the keeping of
His
commandments a condition of effectual prayer, think you,
if He
knew we could not keep His statutes? Surely, surely not!
Obedience can
ask with boldness at the Throne of grace, and
those who exercise it are the only ones who can ask,
after that
fashion. The disobedient folk are timid in their approach
and
hesitant in their supplication. They are halted by reason
of their
wrong-doing. The requesting yet obedient child comes into
the
presence of his father with confidence and boldness. His
very
consciousness of obedience gives him courage and frees
him from
the dread born of disobedience.
To do God's
will without demur, is the joy as it is the
privilege of the successful praying-man. It is he who has
clean
hands and a pure heart, that can pray with confidence. In
the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:
"Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of
My
Father which is in heaven."
To this great
deliverance may be added another:
"If ye
keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love, even
as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His
love."
"The
Christian's trade," says Luther, "is prayer." But the
Christian has another trade to learn, before he proceeds
to learn
the secrets of the trade of prayer. He must learn well
the trade
of perfect obedience to the Father's will. Obedience
follows love,
and prayer follows obedience. The business of real
observance of
God's commandments inseparably accompanies the business
of real
praying.
One who has
been disobedient may pray. He may pray for
pardoning mercy and the peace of his soul. He may come to
God's
footstool with tears, with confession, with penitent
heart, and
God will hear him and answer his prayer. But this kind of
praying
does not belong to the child of God, but to the penitent
sinner,
who has no other way by which to approach God. It is the
possession of the unjustified soul, not of him who has
been saved
and reconciled to God.
An obedient
life helps prayer. It speeds prayer to the
throne. God cannot help hearing the prayer of an obedient
child.
He always has heard His obedient children when they have
prayed.
Unquestioning obedience counts much in the sight of God,
at the
throne of heavenly grace. It acts like the confluent
tides of many
rivers, and gives volume and fulness of flow as well as
power to
the prayer chamber. An obedient life is not simply a
reformed
life. It is not the old life primed and painted anew nor
a church-
going life, nor a good veneering of activities. Neither
is it an
external conformation to the dictates of public morality.
Far more
than all this is combined in a truly obedient Christian,
God-
fearing life.
A life of full
obedience; a life settled on the most intimate
terms with God; where the will is in full conformity to
God's
will; where the outward life shows the fruit of
righteousness --
such a life offers no bar to the inner chamber but
rather, like
Aaron and Hur, it lifts up and sustains the hands of
prayer.
If you have an
earnest desire to pray well, you must learn
how to obey well. If you have a desire to learn to pray,
then you
must have an earnest desire to learn how to do God's
will. If you
desire to pray to God, you must first have a consuming
desire to
obey Him. If you would have free access to God in prayer,
then
every obstacle in the nature of sin or disobedience, must
be
removed. God delights in the prayers of obedient
children.
Requests coming from the lips of those who delight to do
His will,
reach His ears with great celerity, and incline Him to
answer them
with promptitude and abundance. In themselves, tears are
not
meritorious. Yet they have their uses in prayer. Tears
should
baptize our place of supplication. He who has never wept
concerning his sins, has never really prayed over his
sins. Tears,
sometimes, is a penitent's only plea. But tears are for
the past,
for the sin and the wrongdoing. There is another step and
stage,
waiting to be taken. It is that of unquestioning
obedience, and
until it is taken, prayer for blessing and continued
sustenance,
will be of no avail.
Everywhere in
Holy Scripture God is represented as
disapproving of disobedience and condemning sin, and this
is as
true in the lives of His elect as it is in the lives of
sinners.
Nowhere does He countenance sin, or excuse disobedience.
Always,
God puts the emphasis upon obedience to His commands.
Obedience to
them brings blessing, disobedience meets with disaster.
This is
true, in the Word of God, from its beginning to its
close. It is
because of this, that the men of prayer, in Holy Writ,
had such
influence with God. Obedient men, always, have been the
closest to
God. These are they who have prayed well and have
received great
things from God, who have brought great things to pass.
Obedience to
God counts tremendously in the realm of prayer.
This fact cannot be emphasized too much or too often. To
plead for
a religious faith which tolerates sinning, is to cut the
ground
from under the feet of effectual praying. To excuse
sinning by the
plea that obedience to God is not possible to
unregenerate men, is
to discount the character of the new birth, and to place
men where
effective praying is not possible. At one time Jesus
broke out
with a very pertinent and personal question, striking
right to the
core of disobedience, when He said: "Why call ye Me,
Lord, Lord,
and do not the things I say?"
He who would
pray, must obey. He who would get anything out
of his prayers, must be in perfect harmony with God.
Prayer puts
into those who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for
the
spirit of disobedience is not of God and belongs not to
God's
praying hosts.
An obedient
life is a great help to prayer. In fact, an
obedient life is a necessity to prayer, to the sort which
accomplishes things. The absence of an obedient life
makes prayer
an empty performance, a mere misnomer. A penitent sinner
seeks
pardon and salvation and has an answer to his prayers
even with a
life stained and debauched with sin. But God's royal
intercessors
come before Him with royal lives. Holy living promotes
holy
praying. God's intercessors "lift up holy
hands," the symbols of
righteous, obedient lives.
X.
PRAYER AND OBEDIENCE (Continued)
"Many
exemplary men have I known, holy in heart and life,
within my four score years. But one equal to John
Fletcher -- one
so inwardly and outwardly obedient and devoted to God --
I have
not known."
-- John Wesley.
IT is worthy of note that the praying to which such
transcendent
position is given and from which great results are
attributable,
is not simply the saying of prayers, but holy praying. It
is the
"prayers of the saints," the prayers of the
holy men of God.
Behind such praying, giving to it energy and flame are
the men and
women who are wholly devoted to God, who are entirely
separated
from sin, and fully separated unto God. These are they
who always
give energy, force and strength to praying.
Our Lord Jesus
Christ was preeminent in praying, because He
was preeminent in saintliness. An entire dedication to
God, a full
surrender, which carries with it the whole being, in a
flame of
holy consecration -- all this gives wings to faith and
energy to
prayer. It opens the door to the throne of grace, and
brings
strong influence to bear on Almighty God.
The
"lifting up of holy hands" is essential to Christly
praying. It is not, however, a holiness which only
dedicates a
closet to God, which sets apart merely an hour to Him,
but a
consecration which takes hold of the entire man, which
dedicates
the whole life to God.
Our Lord Jesus
Christ, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners," had full liberty of approach and
ready access to
God in prayer. And He had this free and full access
because of His
unquestioning obedience to His Father. Right through His
earthly
life His supreme care and desire was to do the will of
His Father.
And this fact, coupled with another -- the consciousness
of having
so ordered His life -- gave Him confidence and assurance,
which
enabled Him to draw near to the throne of grace with
unbounded
confidence, born of obedience, and promising acceptance,
audience,
and answer.
Loving obedience puts us where we can
"ask anything in His
name," with the assurance, that "He will do
it." Loving obedience
brings us into the prayer realm, and makes us
beneficiaries of the
wealth of Christ, and of the riches of His grace, through
the
coming of the Holy Spirit who will abide with us, and be
in us.
Cheerful obedience to God, qualifies us to pray
effectually.
This obedience
which not only qualifies but fore-runs prayer,
must be loving, constant, always doing the Father's will,
and
cheerfully following the path of God's commands.
In the
instance of King Hezekiah, it was a potent plea which
changed God's decree that he should die and not live. The
stricken
ruler called upon God to remember how that he had walked
before
Him in truth, and with a perfect heart. With God, this
counted. He
hearkened to the petition, and, as a result, death found
his
approach to Hezekiah barred for fifteen years.
Jesus learned
obedience in the school of suffering, and, at
the same time, He learned prayer in the school of
obedience. Just
as it is the prayer of a righteous man which availeth
much, so it
is righteousness which is obedience to God. A righteous
man is an
obedient man, and he it is, who can pray effectually, who
can
accomplish great things when he betakes himself to his
knees.
True praying,
be it remembered, is not mere sentiment, nor
poetry, nor eloquent utterance. Nor does it consist of
saying in
honeyed cadences, "Lord, Lord." Prayer is not a
mere form of
words; it is not just calling upon a Name. Prayer is
obedience. It
is founded on the adamantine rock of obedience to God.
Only those
who obey have the right to pray. Behind the praying must
be the
doing; and it is the constant doing of God's will in
daily life
which gives prayer its potency, as our Lord plainly
taught:
"Not
every one which saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of
My
Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto Me in that
day,
Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name
have
cast out devils? And in Thy Name done many wonderful
works? And
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart
from Me,
ye that worketh iniquity."
No name,
however precious and powerful, can protect and give
efficiency to prayer which is unaccompanied by the doing
of God's
will. Neither can the doing, without the praying, protect
from
Divine disapproval. If the will of God does not master
the life,
the praying will be nothing but sickly sentiment. If
prayer do not
inspire, sanctify and direct our work, then self-will
enters, to
ruin both work and worker.
How great and
manifold are the misconceptions of the true
elements and functionings of prayer! There are many who
earnestly
desire to obtain an answer to their prayers but who go
unrewarded
and unblest. They fix their minds on some promise of God
and then
endeavour by dint of dogged perseverance, to summon faith
sufficient to lay hold upon, and claim it. This fixing of
the mind
on some great promise may avail in strengthening faith,
but, to
this holding on to the promise must be added the
persistent and
importunate prayer that expects, and waits till faith
grows
exceedingly. And who is there that is able and competent
to do
such praying save the man who readily, cheerfully and
continually,
obeys God?
Faith, in its
highest form, is the attitude as well as the
act of a soul surrendered to God, in whom His Word and
His Spirit
dwells. It is true that faith must exist in some form, or
another,
in order to prompt praying; but in its strongest form,
and in its
largest results, faith is the fruit of prayer. That faith
increases the ability and the efficiency of prayer is
true; but it
is likewise true that prayer increases the ability and
efficiency
of faith. Prayer and faith, work, act and react, one upon
the
other.
Obedience to
God helps faith as no other attribute possibly
can. When obedience -- implicit recognition of the
validity, the
paramountcy of the Divine commands -- faith ceases to be
an almost
superhuman task. It requires no straining to exercise it.
Obedience to God makes it easy to believe and trust God.
Where the
spirit of obedience fully impregnates the soul; where the
will is
perfectly surrendered to God; where there is a fixed,
unalterable
purpose to obey God, faith almost believes itself. Faith
then
becomes almost involuntary. After obedience it is,
naturally, the
next step, and it is easily and readily taken. The
difficulty in
prayer is not with faith, but with obedience, which is
faith's
foundation.
We must look
well to our obedience, to the secret springs of
action, to the loyalty of our heart to God, if we would
pray well,
and desire to get the most out of our praying. Obedience
is the
groundwork of effectual praying; this it is, which brings
us nigh
to God.
The lack of
obedience in our lives breaks down our praying.
Quite often, the life is in revolt and this places us
where
praying is almost impossible, except it be for pardoning
mercy.
Disobedient living produces mighty poor praying.
Disobedience
shuts the door of the inner chamber, and bars the way to
the Holy
of holies. No man can pray -- really pray -- who does not
obey.
The will must
be surrendered to God as a primary condition of
all successful praying. Everything about us gets its
colouring
from our inmost character. The secret will makes
character and
controls conduct. The will, therefore, plays an important
part in
all successful praying. There can be no praying in its
richest
implication and truest sense, where the will is not
wholly and
fully surrendered to God. This unswerving loyalty to God
is an
utterly indispensable condition of the best, the truest,
the most
effectual praying. We have "simply got to trust and
obey; there's
no other way, to be happy in Jesus -- but to trust, and
obey! "
XI. PRAYER AND VIGILANCE
"David
Brainerd was pursued by unearthly adversaries, who
were resolved to rob him of his guerdon. He knew he must
never
quit his armour, but lie down to rest, with his corselet
laced.
The stains that marred the perfection of his lustrous
dress, the
spots of rust on his gleaming shield, are imperceptible
to us; but
they were, to him, the source of much sorrow and ardency
of
yearning." -- Life Of David Brainerd.
THE description of the Christian soldier given by Paul in
the
sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, is compact
and
comprehensive. He is depicted as being ever in the
conflict, which
has many fluctuating seasons -- seasons of prosperity and
adversity, light and darkness, victory and defeat. He is
to pray
at all seasons, and with all prayer, this to be added to
the
armour in which he is to fare forth to battle. At all
times, he is
to have the full panoply of prayer. The Christian
soldier, if he
fight to win, must pray much. By this means, only, is he
enabled
to defeat his inveterate enemy, the devil, together with
the Evil
One's manifold emissaries. "Praying always, with all
prayer," is
the Divine direction given him. This covers all seasons,
and
embraces all manner of praying.
Christian
soldiers, fighting the good fight of faith, have
access to a place of retreat, to which they continually
repair for
prayer. "Praying always, with all prayer," is a
clear statement of
the imperative need of much praying, and of many kinds of
praying,
by him who, fighting the good fight of faith, would win
out, in
the end, over all his foes.
The Revised
Version puts it this way:
"With all
prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance
and
supplications, for all saints, and on my behalf, that
utterance
may be given unto me, in opening my mouth to make known
with
boldness the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am in
bonds."
It cannot be
stated too frequently that the life of a
Christian is a warfare, an intense conflict, a lifelong
contest.
It is a battle, moreover, waged against invisible foes,
who are
ever alert, and ever seeking to entrap, deceive, and ruin
the
souls of men. The life to which Holy Scripture calls men
is no
picnic, or holiday junketing. It is no pastime, no
pleasure jaunt.
It entails effort, wrestling, struggling; it demands the
putting
forth of the full energy of the spirit in order to
frustrate the
foe and to come off, at the last, more than conqueror. It
is no
primrose path, no rose-scented dalliance. From start to
finish, it
is war. From the hour in which he first draws sword, to
that in
which he doffs his harness, the Christian warrior is
compelled to
"endure hardness like a good soldier."
What a
misconception many people have of the Christian life!
How little the average church member appears to know of
the
character of the conflict, and of its demands upon him!
How
ignorant he seems to be of the enemies he must encounter,
if he
engage to serve God faithfully and so succeed in getting
to heaven
and receive the crown of life! He seems scarcely to
realize that
the world, the flesh and the devil will oppose his onward
march,
and will defeat him utterly, unless he give himself to
constant
vigilance and unceasing prayer.
The Christian
soldier wrestles not against flesh and blood,
but against spiritual wickedness in high places. Or, as
the
Scriptural margin reads, "wicked spirits in high
places." What a
fearful array of forces are set against him who would
make his way
through the wilderness of this world to the portals of
the
Celestial City! It is no surprise, therefore, to find
Paul, who
understood the character of the Christian life so well,
and who
was so thoroughly informed as to the malignity and number
of the
foes, which the disciple of the Lord must encounter,
carefully and
plainly urging him to "put on the whole armour of
God," and "to
pray with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit." Wise, with a
great wisdom, would the present generation be if all
professors of
our faith could be induced to realize this all-important
and vital
truth, which is so absolutely indispensable to a
successful
Christian life.
It is just at
this point in much present-day Christian
profession, that one may find its greatest defect. There
is
little, or nothing, of the soldier element in it. The
discipline,
self-denial, spirit of hardship, determination, so
prominent in
and belonging to the military life, are, one and all,
largely
wanting. Yet the Christian life is warfare, all the way.
How
comprehensive, pointed and striking are all Paul's
directions to the Christian soldier, who is bent on
thwarting the
devil and saving his soul alive! First of all, he must
possess a
clear idea of the character of the life on which he has
entered.
Then, he must know something of his foes -- the
adversaries of his
immortal soul -- their strength, their skill, their
malignity.
Knowing, therefore, something of the character of the
enemy, and
realizing the need of preparation to overcome them, he is
prepared
to hear the Apostle's decisive conclusion:
"Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in he power
of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may
be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil. Wherefore, take
unto you
the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand in
the evil
day, and having done all, to stand."
All these
directions end in a climax; and that climax is
prayer. How can the brave warrior for Christ be made
braver still?
How can the strong soldier be made stronger still? How
can the
victorious battler be made still more victorious? Here
are Paul's
explicit directions to that end:
"Praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and
supplication for all saints."
Prayer, and
more prayer, adds to the fighting qualities and
the more certain victories of God's good fighting-men.
The power
of prayer is most forceful on the battle-field amid the
din and
strife of the conflict. Paul was preeminently a soldier
of the
Cross. For him, life was no flowery bed of ease. He was
no dress-
parade, holiday soldier, whose only business was to don a
uniform
on set occasions. His was a life of intense conflict, the
facing
of many adversaries, the exercise of unsleeping vigilance
and
constant effort. And, at its close -- in sight of the end
-- we
hear him chanting his final song of victory, a I have
fought a
good fight," and reading between the lines, we see
that he is more
than conqueror!
In his Epistle
to the Romans, Paul indicates the nature of
his soldier-life, giving us some views of the kind of
praying
needed for such a career. He writes:
"Now I
beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's
sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive
together with
me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered
from
them that do not believe in Judaea."
Paul had foes
in Judaea -- foes who beset and opposed him in
the form of "unbelieving men" and this, added
to other weighty
reasons, led him to urge the Roman Christians to
"strive with him
in prayer." That word "strive" indicated
wrestling, the putting
forth of great effort. This is the kind of effort, and
this the
sort of spirit, which must possess the Christian soldier.
Here is a
great soldier, a captain-general, in the great
struggle, faced by malignant forces who seek his ruin.
His force
is well-nigh spent. What reinforcements can he count on?
What can
give help and bring success to a warrior in such a
pressing
emergency? It is a critical moment in the conflict. What
force can
be added to the energy of his own prayers? The answer is
-- in the
prayers of others, even the prayers of his brethren who
were at
Rome. These, he believes, will bring him additional aid,
so that
he can win his fight, overcome his adversaries, and,
ultimately,
prevail.
The Christian
soldier is to pray at all seasons, and under
all circumstances. His praying must be arranged so as to
cover his
times of peace as well as his hours of active conflict.
It must be
available in his marching and his fighting. Prayer must
diffuse
all effort, impregnate all ventures, decide all issues.
The
Christian soldier must be as intense in his praying as in
his
fighting, for his victories will depend very much more on
his
praying than on his fighting. Fervent supplication must
be added
to steady resolve, prayer and supplication must
supplement the
armour of God. The Holy Spirit must aid the supplication
with His
own strenuous plea. And the soldier must pray in the
Spirit. In
this, as in other forms of warfare, eternal vigilance is
the price
of victory; and thus, watchfulness and persistent
perseverance,
must mark the every activity of the Christian warrior.
The
soldier-prayer must reflect its profound concern for the
success and well-being of the whole army. The battle is
not
altogether a personal matter; victory cannot be achieved
for self,
alone. There is a sense, in which the entire army of
Christ is
involved. The cause of God, His saints, their woes and
trials,
their duties and crosses, all should find a voice and a
pleader in
the Christian soldier, when he prays. He dare not limit
his
praying to himself. Nothing dries up spiritual secretions
so
certainly and completely; nothing poisons the fountain of
spiritual life so effectively; nothing acts in such
deadly
fashion, as selfish praying.
Note carefully
that the Christian's armour will avail him
nothing, unless prayer be added. This is the pivot, the
connecting
link of the armour of God. This holds it together, and renders
it
effective. God's true soldier plans his campaigns,
arranges his
battle-forces, and conducts his conflicts, with prayer.
It is all
important and absolutely essential to victory, that
prayer should
so impregnate the life that every breath will be a
petition, every
sigh a supplication. The Christian soldier must needs be
always
fighting. He should, of sheer necessity, be always
praying.
The Christian
soldier is compelled to constant picket-duty.
He must always be on his guard. He is faced by a foe who
never
sleeps, who is always alert, and ever prepared to take
advantage
of the fortunes of war. Watchfulness is a cardinal
principle with
Christ's warrior, "watch and pray," forever
sounding in his ears.
He cannot dare to be asleep at his post. Such a lapse
brings him
not only under the displeasure of the Captain of his
salvation,
but exposes him to added danger. Watchfulness, therefore,
imperatively constitutes the duty of the soldier of the
Lord.
In the New
Testament, there are three different words, which
are translated "watch." The first means
"absence of sleep," and
implies a wakeful frame of mind, as opposed to
listlessness; it is
an enjoinder to keep awake, circumspect, attentive,
constant,
vigilant. The second word means "fully awake,"
-- a state induced
by some rousing effort, which faculty excited to
attention and
interest, active, cautious, lest through carelessness or
indolence, some destructive calamity should suddenly
evolve. The
third word means "to be calm and collected in
spirit,"
dispassionate, untouched by slumberous or beclouding
influences, a
wariness against all pitfalls and beguilements.
All three
definitions are used by St. Paul. Two of them are
employed in connection with prayer. Watchfulness intensified,
is a
requisite for prayer. Watchfulness must guard and cover
the whole
spiritual man, and fit him for prayer. Everything
resembling
unpreparedness or non-vigilance, is death to prayer.
In Ephesians,
Paul gives prominence to the duty of constant
watchfulness, "Watching thereunto with all
perseverance and
supplication." Watch, he says, watch, WATCH!
"And what I say unto
you, I say unto all, Watch."
Sleepless
wakefulness is the price one must pay for victory
over his spiritual foes. Rest assured that the devil
never falls
asleep. He is ever "walking about, seeking whom he
may devour."
Just as a shepherd must never be careless and unwatchful
lest the
wolf devour his sheep, so the Christian soldier must ever
have his
eyes wide open, implying his possession of a spirit which
neither
slumbers nor grows careless. The inseparable companions
and
safeguards of prayer are vigilance, watchfulness, and a
mounted
guard. In writing to the Colossians Paul brackets these
inseparable qualities together: "Continue in
prayer," he enjoins,
"and watch in the same, with thanksgiving."
When will
Christians more thoroughly learn the twofold
lesson, that they are called to a great warfare, and that
in order
to get the victory they must give themselves to
unsleeping
watchfulness and unceasing prayer?
"Be
sober, be vigilant," says Peter, "because your adversary,
the devil, walketh about seeking whom he may
devour."
God's Church
is a militant host. Its warfare is with unseen
forces of evil. God's people compose an army fighting to
establish
His kingdom in the earth. Their aim is to destroy the
sovereignty
of Satan, and over its ruins, erect the Kingdom of God,
which is
"righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost." This militant
army is composed of individual soldiers of the Cross, and
the
armour of God is needed for its defence. Prayer must be
added as
that which crowns the whole.
"Stand
then in His great might,
With all
His strength endued;
But take, to
arm you for the fight,
The
panoply of God."
Prayer is too
simple, too evident a duty, to need definition.
Necessity gives being and shape to prayer. Its importance
is so
absolute, that the Christian soldier's life, in all the
breadth
and intensity of it, should be one of prayer. The entire
life of a
Christian soldier -- its being, intention, implication
and action
-- are all dependent on its being a life of prayer.
Without prayer
-- no matter what else he have -- the Christian soldier's
life
will be feeble, and ineffective, and constitute him an
easy prey
for his spiritual enemies.
Christian
experience will be sapless, and Christian influence
will be dry and arid, unless prayer has a high place in
the life.
Without prayer the Christian graces will wither and die.
Without
prayer, we may add, preaching is edgeless and a vain
thing, and
the Gospel loses its wings and its loins. Christ is the
lawgiver
of prayer, and Paul is His Apostle of prayer. Both
declare its
primacy and importance, and demonstrate the fact of its
indispensability. Their prayer-directions cover all
places,
include all times, and comprehend all things. How, then,
can the
Christian soldier hope or dream of victory, unless he be
fortified
by its power? How can he fail, if in addition to putting
on the
armour of God he be, at all times and seasons,
"watching unto
prayer"?
XII.
PRAYER AND THE WORD OF GOD
"How
constantly, in the Scriptures, do we encounter such
words as 'field,' 'seed,' 'sower,' 'reaper,' 'seed-time,'
'harvest'! Employing such metaphors interprets a fact of
nature by
a parable of grace. The field is the world and the good
seed is
the Word of God .Whether the Word be spoken or written,
it is the
power of God unto salvation. In our work of evangelism,
the whole
world is our field, every creature the object of effort
and every
book and tract, a seed of God." -- David Fant, Jr.
GOD'S Word is a record of prayer -- of praying men and
their
achievements, of the Divine warrant of prayer and of the
encouragement given to those who pray. No one can read
the
instances, commands, examples, multiform statements which
concern
themselves with prayer, without realizing that the cause
of God,
and the success of His work in this world is committed to
prayer;
that praying men have been God's vicegerents on earth;
that
prayerless men have never been used of Him.
A reverence
for God's holy Name is closely related to a high
regard for His Word. This hallowing of God's Name; the
ability to
do His will on earth, as it is done in heaven; the
establishment
and glory of God's kingdom, are as much involved in
prayer, as
when Jesus taught men the Universal Prayer. That
"men ought always
to pray and not to faint," is as fundamental to
God's cause,
today, as when Jesus Christ enshrined that great truth in
the
immortal settings of the Parable of the Importunate
Widow.
As God's house
is called "the house of prayer," because
prayer is the most important of its holy offices; so by
the same
token, the Bible may be called the Book of Prayer. Prayer
is the
great theme and content of its message to mankind.
God's Word is
the basis, as it is the directory of the prayer
of faith. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly in all
wisdom," says St. Paul, "teaching and
admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace
in your
hearts to the Lord."
As this word
of Christ dwelling in us richly is transmuted
and assimilated, it issues in praying. Faith is
constructed of the
Word and the Spirit, and faith is the body and substance
of
prayer.
In many of its
aspects, prayer is dependent upon the Word of
God. Jesus says:
"If ye
abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
The Word of
God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer
is placed, and by which things are mightily moved. God
has
committed Himself, His purpose and His promise to prayer.
His Word
becomes the basis, the inspiration of our praying, and
there are
circumstances under which, by importunate prayer, we may
obtain an
addition, or an enlargement of His promises. It is said
of the old
saints that they, "through faith obtained
promises." There would
seem to be in prayer the capacity for going even beyond
the Word,
of getting even beyond His promise, into the very
presence of God,
Himself.
Jacob
wrestled, not so much with a promise, as with the
Promiser. We must take hold of the Promiser, lest the
promise
prove nugatory. Prayer may well be defined as that force
which
vitalizes and energizes the Word of God, by taking hold
of God,
Himself. By taking hold of the Promiser, prayer reissues,
and
makes personal the promise. "There is none that
stirreth up
himself to take hold of Me," is God's sad lament.
"Let him take
hold of My strength, that he may make peace with
Me," is God's
recipe for prayer.
By Scriptural
warrant, prayer may be divided into the
petition of faith and that of submission. The prayer of
faith is
based on the written Word, for "faith cometh by
hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God." It receives its answer,
inevitably --
the very thing for which it prays.
The prayer of
submission is without a definite word of
promise, so to speak, but takes hold of God with a lowly
and
contrite spirit, and asks and pleads with Him, for that
which the
soul desires. Abraham had no definite promise that God
would spare
Sodom. Moses had no definite promise that God would spare
Israel;
on the contrary, there was the declaration of His wrath,
and of
His purpose to destroy. But the devoted leader gained his
plea
with God, when he interceded for the Israelites with
incessant
prayers and many tears. Daniel had no definite promise
that God
would reveal to him the meaning of the king's dream, but
he prayed
specifically, and God answered definitely.
The Word of
God is made effectual and operative, by the
process and practice of prayer. The Word of the Lord came
to
Elijah, "Go show thyself to Ahab, and I will send
rain on the
earth." Elijah showed himself to Ahab; but the
answer to his
prayer did not come, until he had pressed his fiery
prayer upon
the Lord seven times.
Paul had the
definite promise from Christ, that he "would be
delivered from the people and the Gentiles," but we
find him
exhorting the Romans in the urgent and solemn manner
concerning
this very matter:
"Now I
beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's
sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive
together with
me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered
from
them that do not believe in Judaea, and that my service
which I
have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints."
The Word of
God is a great help in prayer. If it be lodged
and written in our hearts, it will form an outflowing
current of
prayer, full and irresistible. Promises, stored in the
heart, are
to be the fuel from which prayer receives life and
warmth, just as
the coal, stored in the earth, ministers to our comfort
on stormy
days and wintry nights. The Word of God is the food, by
which
prayer is nourished and made strong. Prayer, like man,
cannot live
by bread alone, "but by every word which proceedeth
out of the
mouth of the Lord."
Unless the
vital forces of prayer are supplied by God's Word,
prayer, though earnest, even vociferous, in its urgency,
is, in
reality, flabby, and vapid, and void. The absence of
vital force
in praying, can be traced to the absence of a constant
supply of
God's Word, to repair the waste, and renew the life. He
who would
learn to pray well, must first study God's Word, and
store it in
his memory and thought.
When we
consult God's Word, we find that no duty is more
binding, more exacting, than that of prayer. On the other
hand, we
discover that no privilege is more exalted, no habit more
richly
owned of God. No promises are more radiant, more
abounding, more
explicit, more often reiterated, than those which are
attached to
prayer. "All things, whatsoever" are received
by prayer, because
"all things whatsoever" are promised. There is
no limit to the
provisions, included in the promises to prayer, and no
exclusion
from its promises. "Every one that asketh,
receiveth." The word of
our Lord is to this all-embracing effect: "If ye
shall ask
anything in My Name, I will do it."
Here are some
of the comprehensive, and exhaustive statements
of the Word of God about prayer, the things to be taken
in by
prayer, the strong promise made in answer to prayer:
"Pray
without ceasing;" "continue in prayer;" "continuing
instant in prayer;" "in everything by prayer,
let your request be
made known unto God;" "pray always, pray and
not faint;" "men
should pray everywhere;" "praying always, with
all prayer and
supplication."
What clear and
strong statements are those which are put in
the Divine record, to furnish us with a sure basis of
faith, and
to urge, constrain and encourage us to pray! How wide the
range of
prayer, as given us, in the Divine Revelation! How these
Scriptures incite us to seek the God of prayer, with all
our
wants, with all our burdens!
In addition to
these statements left on record for our
encouragement, the sacred pages teem with facts,
examples,
incidents, and observations, stressing the importance and
the
absolute necessity of prayer, and putting emphasis on its
all-
prevailing power.
The utmost
reach and full benefit of the rich promises of the
Word of God, should humbly be received by us, and put to
the test.
The world will never receive the full benefits of the
Gospel until
this be done. Neither Christian experience nor Christian
living
will be what they ought to be till these Divine promises
have been
fully tested by those who pray. By prayer, we bring these
promises
of God's holy will into the realm of the actual and the
real.
Prayer is the philosopher's stone which transmutes them
into gold.
If it be
asked, what is to be done in order to render God's
promises real, the answer is, that we must pray, until
the words
of the promise are clothed upon with the rich raiment of
fulfilment.
God's promises
are altogether too large to be mastered by
desultory praying. When we examine ourselves, all too
often, we
discover that our praying does not rise to the demands of
the
situation; is so limited that it is little more than a
mere oasis
amid the waste and desert of the world's sin. Who of us,
in our
praying, measures up to this promise of our Lord:
"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 to My Father."
How
comprehensive, how far reaching, how all-embracing! How
much is here, for the glory of God, how much for the good
of man!
How much for the manifestation of Christ's enthroned
power, how
much for the reward of abundant faith! And how great and
gracious
are the results which can be made to accrue from the
exercise of
commensurate, believing prayer!
Look, for a
moment, at another of God's great promises, and
discover how we may be undergirded by the Word as we
pray, and on
what firm ground we may stand on which to make our
petitions to
our God:
"If ye
abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
In these
comprehensive words, God turns Himself over to the
will of His people. When Christ becomes our all-in-all,
prayer
lays God's treasures at our feet. Primitive Christianity
had an
easy and practical solution of the situation, and got all
which
God had to give. That simple and terse solution is
recorded in
John's First Epistle:
"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His
commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in
His
sight."
Prayer,
coupled with loving obedience, is the way to put God
to the test, and to make prayer answer all ends and all
things.
Prayer, joined to the Word of God, hallows and makes
sacred all
God's gifts. Prayer is not simply to get things from God,
but to
make those things holy, which already have been received
from Him.
It is not merely to get a blessing, but also to be able
to give a
blessing. Prayer makes common things holy and secular
things,
sacred. It receives things from God with thanksgiving and
hallows
them with thankful hearts, and devoted service.
In the First
Epistle to Timothy, Paul gives us these words:
"For
every creature of God is good, and nothing to be
refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is
sanctified
by the word of God and prayer."
That is a
statement which gives a negative to mere
asceticism. God's good gifts are to be holy, not only by
God's
creative power, but, also, because they are made holy to
us by
prayer. We receive them, appropriate them and sanctify
them by
prayer.
Doing God's
will, and having His Word abiding in us, is an
imperative of effectual praying. But, it may be asked,
how are we
to know what God's will is? The answer is, by studying
His Word,
by hiding it in our hearts, and by letting the Word dwell
in us
richly. "The entrance of Thy word, giveth
light."
To know God's
will in prayer, we must be filled with God's
Spirit, who maketh intercession for the saints, and in
the saints,
according to the will of God. To be filled with God's
Spirit, to
be filled with God's Word, is to know God's will. It is
to be put
in such a frame of mind, to be found in such a state of
heart, as
will enable us to read and interpret aright the purposes
of the
Infinite. Such filling of the heart, with the Word and
the Spirit,
gives us an insight into the will of the Father, and
enables us to
rightly discern His will, and puts within us, a
disposition of
mind and heart to make it the guide and compass of our
lives.
Epaphras
prayed that the Colossians might stand "perfect and
complete in all the will of God." This is proof
positive that, not
only may we know the will of God, but that we may know
all the
will of God. And not only may we know all the will of
God, but we
may do all the will of God. We may, moreover, do all the
will of
God, not occasionally, or by a mere impulse, but with a
settled
habit of conduct. Still further, it shows us that we may
not only
do the will of God externally, but from the heart, doing
it
cheerfully, without reluctance, or secret disinclination,
or any
drawing or holding back from the intimate presence of the
Lord.
XIII.
PRAYER AND THE WORD OF GOD (Continued)
"Some
years ago a man was travelling in the wilds of
Kentucky. He had with him a large sum of money and was
well armed.
He put up at a log-house one night, but was much
concerned with
the rough appearance of the men who came and went from
this abode.
He retired early but not to sleep. At midnight he heard
the dogs
barking furiously and the sound of someone entering the
cabin.
Peering through a chink in the boards of his room, he saw
a
stranger with a gun in his hand. Another man sat before
the fire.
The traveller concluded they were planning to rob him, and
prepared to defend himself and his property. Presently
the
newcomer took down a copy of the Bible, read a chapter
aloud, and
then knelt down and prayed. The traveller dismissed his
fears, put
his revolver away and lay down, to sleep peacefully until
morning
light. And all because a Bible was in the cabin, and its
owner a
man of prayer." -- Rev. F. F. Shoup.
PRAYER has all to do with the success of the preaching of
the
Word. This, Paul clearly teaches in that familiar and
pressing
request he made to the Thessalonians:
"Finally,
brethren, pray for us that the Word of the Lord may
have free course, and be glorified."
Prayer opens
the way for the Word of God to run without let
or hindrance, and creates the atmosphere which is
favourable to
the word accomplishing its purpose. Prayer puts wheels
under God's
Word, and gives wings to the angel of the Lord
"having the
everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the
earth,
and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and
people." Prayer
greatly helps the Word of the Lord.
The Parable of
the Sower is a notable study of preaching,
showing its differing effects and describing the
diversity of
hearers. The wayside hearers are legion. The soil lies
all
unprepared either by previous thought or prayer; as a
consequence,
the devil easily takes away the seed (which is the Word
of God)
and dissipating all good impressions, renders the work of
the
sower futile. No one for a moment believes, that so much
of
present-day sowing would go fruitless if only the hearers
would
prepare the ground of their hearts beforehand by prayer
and
meditation.
Similarly with
the stony-ground hearers, and the thorny-
ground hearers. Although the word lodges in their hearts
and
begins to sprout, yet all is lost, chiefly because there
is no
prayer or watchfulness or cultivation following. The
good-ground
hearers are profited by the sowing, simply because their
minds
have been prepared for the reception of the seed, and
that, after
hearing, they have cultivated the seed sown in their
hearts, by
the exercise of prayer. All this gives peculiar emphasis
to the
conclusion of this striking parable: "Take heed,
therefore, how ye
hear." And in order that we may take heed how we
hear, it is
needful to give ourselves continually to prayer.
We have got to
believe that underlying God's Word is prayer,
and upon prayer, its final success will depend. In the
Book of
Isaiah we read:
"So shall
My word be that goeth out of My mouth; it shall not
return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please,
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent
it."
In Psalm 19,
David magnifies the Word of God in six
statements concerning it. It converts the soul, makes
wise the
simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures
eternally, and is true and righteous altogether. The Word
of God
is perfect, sure, right, pure. It is heart-searching, and
at the
same time purifying, in its effect. It is no surprise
therefore
that after considering the deep spirituality of the Word
of God,
its power to search the inner nature of man, and its deep
purity,
the Psalmist should close his dissertation with this
passage:
"Who can
understand his errors?" And then praying after this
fashion: "Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep
back Thy
servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have
dominion
over me. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations
of my
heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and
my
redeemer."
James recognizes the deep spirituality of the
Word, and its
inherent saving power, in the following exhortation:
"Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of
naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted
word, which
is able to save your souls."
And Peter
talks along the same line, when describing the
saving power of the Word of God:
"Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth
forever."
Not only does
Peter speak of being born again, by the
incorruptible Word of God, but he informs us that to grow
in grace
we must be like new-born babes, desiring or feeding upon
the
"sincere milk of the Word."
That is not to
say, however, that the mere form of words as
they occur in the Bible have in them any saving efficacy.
But the
Word of God, be it remembered, is impregnated with the
Holy
Spirit. And just as there is a Divine element in the
words of
Scripture, so also is the same Divine element to be found
in all
true preaching of the Word, which is able to save and
convert the
soul.
Prayer
invariably begets a love for the Word of God, and sets
people to the reading of it. Prayer leads people to obey
the Word
of God, and puts into the heart which obeys a joy
unspeakable.
Praying people and Bible-reading people are the same sort
of folk.
The God of the Bible and the God of prayer are one. God
speaks to
man in the Bible; man speaks to God in prayer. One reads
the Bible
to discover God's will; he prays in order that he may
receive
power to do that will. Bible-reading and praying are the
distinguishing traits of those who strive to know and
please God.
And just as prayer begets a love for the Scriptures, and
sets
people to reading the Bible, so, also, does prayer cause
men and
women to visit the house of God, to hear the Scriptures
expounded.
Church-going is closely connected with the Bible, not so
much
because the Bible cautions us against "forsaking the
assembling of
ourselves together as the manner of some is," but
because in God's
house, God's chosen minister declares His Word to dying
men,
explains the Scriptures, and enforces their teachings
upon his
hearers. And prayer germinates a resolve, in those who
practise
it, not to forsake the house of God.
Prayer begets
a church-going conscience, a church-loving
heart, a church-supporting spirit. It is the praying
people, who
make it a matter of conscience, to attend the preaching
of the
Word; who delight in its reading; exposition; who support
it with
their influence and their means. Prayer exalts the Word
of God and
gives it preeminence in the estimation of those who
faithfully and
wholeheartedly call upon the Name of the Lord.
Prayer draws
its very life from the Bible, and has no
standing ground outside of the warrant of the Scriptures.
Its very
existence and character is dependent on revelation made
by God to
man in His holy Word. Prayer, in turn, exalts this same
revelation, and turns men toward that Word. The nature,
necessity
and all-comprehending character of prayer, is based on
the Word of
God.
Psalm 119 is a
directory of God's Word. With three or four
exceptions, each verse contains a word which identifies,
or
locates, the Word of God. Quite often, the writer breaks
out into
supplication, several times praying, "Teach me Thy
statutes." So
deeply impressed is he with the wonders of God's Word,
and of the
need for Divine illumination wherewith to see and
understand the
wonderful things recorded therein, that he fervently
prays:
"Open
Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out
of Thy law."
From the
opening of this wonderful Psalm to its close, prayer
and God's Word are intertwined. Almost every phase of
God's Word
is touched upon by this inspired writer. So thoroughly
convinced
was the Psalmist of the deep spiritual power of the Word
of God
that he makes this declaration:
"Thy word
have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against
Thee."
Here the
Psalmist found his protection against sinning. By
having God's Word hidden in his heart; in having his
whole being
thoroughly impregnated with that Word; in being brought
completely
under its benign and gracious influence, he was enabled
to walk to
and fro in the earth, safe from the attack of the Evil
One, and
fortified against a proneness to wander out of the way.
We find,
furthermore, the power of prayer to create a real
love for the Scriptures, and to put within men a nature
which will
take pleasure in the Word. In holy ecstasy he cries,
"O, how I
love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day." And
again: "How
sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey
to my
taste."
Would we have
a relish for God's Word? Then let us give
ourselves continually to prayer. He who would have a
heart for the
reading of the Bible must not -- dare not -- forget to
pray. The
man of whom it can be said, "His delight is in the
law of the
Lord," is the man who can truly say, "I delight
to visit the place
of prayer." No man loves the Bible, who does not
love to pray. No
man loves to pray, who does not delight in the law of the
Lord.
Our Lord was a
man of prayer, and He magnified the Word of
God, quoting often from the Scriptures. Right through His
earthly
life Jesus observed Sabbath-keeping, church-going and the
reading
of the Word of God, and had prayer intermingled with them
all:
"And He
came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as
His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
Day, and
stood up to read."
Here, let it
be said, that no two things are more essential
to a spirit-filled life than Bible-reading and secret
prayer; no
two things more helpful to growth in grace; to getting
the largest
joy out of a Christian life; toward establishing one in
the ways
of eternal peace. The neglect of these all-important
duties,
presages leanness of soul, loss of joy, absence of peace,
dryness
of spirit, decay in all that pertains to spiritual life.
Neglecting these things paves the way for apostasy, and
gives the
Evil One an advantage such as he is not likely to ignore.
Reading
God's Word regularly, and praying habitually in the
secret place
of the Most High puts one where he is absolutely safe
from the
attacks of the enemy of souls, and guarantees him
salvation and
final victory, through the overcoming power of the Lamb.
XIV.
PRAYER AND THE HOUSE OF GOD
"And dear
to me the loud 'Amen,'
Which
echoes through the blest abode --
Which swells,
and sinks, then swells again,
Dies on
the walls -- but lives with God! "
PRAYER stands related to places, times, occasions and
circumstances. It has to do with God and with everything
which is
related to God, and it has an intimate and special
relationship to
His house. A church is a sacred place, set apart from all
unhallowed and secular uses, for the worship of God. As
worship is
prayer, the house of God is a place set apart for
worship. It is
no common place; it is where God dwells, where He meets
with His
people, and He delights in the worship of His saints.
Prayer is
always in place in the house of God. When prayer is
a stranger there, then it ceases to be God's house at
all. Our
Lord put peculiar emphasis upon what the Church was when
He cast
out the buyers and sellers in the Temple, repeating the
words from
Isaiah, "It is written, My house shall be called the
house of
prayer." He makes prayer preeminent, that which
stands out above
all else in the house of God. They, who sidetrack prayer
or seek
to minify it, and give it a secondary place, pervert the
Church of
God, and make it something less and other than it is
ordained to
be.
Prayer is
perfectly at home in the house of God. It is no
stranger, no mere guest; it belongs there. It has a
peculiar
affinity for the place, and has, moreover, a Divine right
there,
being set, therein, by Divine appointment and approval.
The inner
chamber is a sacred place for personal worship. The
house of God is a holy place for united worship. The
prayer-closet
is for individual prayer. The house of God is for mutual
prayer,
concerted prayer, united prayer. Yet even in the house of
God,
there is the element of private worship, since God's
people are to
worship Him and pray to Him, personally, even in public
worship.
The Church is for the united prayer of kindred, yet
individual
believers.
The life,
power and glory of the Church is prayer. The life
of its members is dependent on prayer and the presence of
God is
secured and retained by prayer. The very place is made
sacred by
its ministry. Without it, the Church is lifeless and
powerless.
Without it, even the building, itself, is nothing, more
or other,
than any other structure. Prayer converts even the
bricks, and
mortar, and lumber, into a sanctuary, a holy of holies,
where the
Shekinah dwells. It separates it, in spirit and in
purpose from
all other edifices. Prayer gives a peculiar sacredness to
the
building, sanctifies it, sets it apart for God, conserves
it from
all common and mundane affairs.
With prayer,
though the house of God might be supposed to
lack everything else, it becomes a Divine sanctuary. So
the
Tabernacle, moving about from place to place, became the
holy of
holies, because prayer was there. Without prayer the
building may
be costly, perfect in all its appointments, beautiful for
situation and attractive to the eye, but it comes down to
the
human, with nothing Divine in it, and is on a level with
all other
buildings.
Without prayer,
a church is like a body without spirit; it is
a dead, inanimate thing. A church with prayer in it, has
God in
it. When prayer is set aside, God is outlawed. When
prayer becomes
an unfamiliar exercise, then God Himself is a stranger
there.
As God's house
is a house of prayer, the Divine intention is
that people should leave their homes and go to meet Him
in His own
house. The building is set apart for prayer especially,
and as God
has made special promise to meet His people there, it is
their
duty to go there, and for that specific end. Prayer
should be the
chief attraction for all spiritually minded church-goers.
While it
is conceded that the preaching of the Word has an
important place
in the house of God, yet prayer is its predominating,
distinguishing feature. Not that all other places are
sinful, or
evil, in themselves or in their uses. But they are
secular and
human, having no special conception of God in them. The
Church is,
essentially, religious and Divine. The work belonging to
other
places is done without special reference to God. He is
not
specifically recognized, nor called upon. In the Church,
however,
God is acknowledged, and nothing is done without Him.
Prayer is
the one distinguishing mark of the house of God. As prayer
distinguishes Christian from unchristian people, so
prayer
distinguishes God's house from all other houses. It is a
place
where faithful believers meet with their Lord.
As God's house
is, preeminently, a house of prayer, prayer
should enter into and underlie everything that is
undertaken
there. Prayer be longs to every sort of work appertaining
to the
Church of God. As God's house is a house where the
business of
praying is carried on, so is it a place where the
business of
making praying people out of prayerless people is done.
The house
of God is a Divine workshop, and there the work of prayer
goes on.
Or the house of God is a Divine schoolhouse, in which the
lesson
of prayer is taught; where men and women learn to pray,
and where
they are graduated, in the school of prayer.
Any church
calling itself the house of God, and failing to
magnify prayer; which does not put prayer in the
forefront of its
activities; which does not teach the great lesson of
prayer,
should change its teaching to conform to the Divine
pattern or
change the name of its building to something other than a
house of
prayer.
On an earlier
page, we made reference to the finding of the
Book of the Law of the Lord given to Moses. How long that
book had
been there, we do not know. But when tidings of its
discovery were
carried to Josiah, he rent his clothes and was greatly
disturbed.
He lamented the neglect of God's Word and saw, as a
natural
result, the iniquity which abounded throughout the land.
And then, Josiah thought of God, and commanded
Hilkiah, the
priest, to go and make inquiry of the Lord. Such neglect
of the
Word of the Law was too serious a matter to be treated
lightly,
and God must be enquired of, and repentance shown, by
himself, and
the nation:
"Go
enquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in
Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book
that is
found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured
out upon
us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the
Lord, to do
after all that is written in this book."
But that was
not all. Josiah was bent on promoting a revival
of religion in his kingdom, so we find him gathering all
the
elders of Jerusalem and Judah together, for that purpose.
When
they had come together, the king went into the house of
the Lord,
and himself read in all the words of the Book of the
Covenant that
was found in the house of the Lord.
With this
righteous king, God's Word was of great importance.
He esteemed it at its proper worth, and counted a
knowledge of it
to be of such grave importance, as to demand his
consulting God in
prayer about it, and to warrant the gathering together of
the
notables of his kingdom, so that they, together with
himself,
should be instructed out of God's Book concerning God's
Law.
When Ezra,
returned from Babylon, was seeking the
reconstruction of his nation, the people, themselves,
were alive
to the situation, and, on one occasion, the priests,
Levites and
people assembled themselves together as one man before
the water
gate.
"And they
spake unto Ezra the scribe, to bring the book of
the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.
And Ezra
the priest brought the law before the congregation, both
of men
and women, and all that could hear with understanding.
And he read
therein before the street that was before the water gate
from the
morning until midday; and the ears of all the people were
attentive unto the book of the law."
This was
Bible-reading Day in Judah -- a real revival of
Scripture-study. The leaders read the law before the
people, whose
ears were keen to hear what God had to say to them out of
the Book
of the Law. But it was not only a Bible-reading day. It
was a time
when real preaching was done, as the following passage
indicates:
"So they
read in the book in the law of God distinctly and
gave the sense, and caused them to understand the
reading."
Here then is
the Scriptural definition of preaching. No
better definition can be given. To read the Word of God
distinctly
-- to read it so that the people could hear and
understand the
words read; not to mumble out the words, nor read it in
an
undertone or with indistinctness, but boldly and clearly
-- that
was the method followed in Jerusalem, on this auspicious
day.
Moreover: the sense of the words was made clear in the
meeting
held before the water gate; the people were treated to a
high type
of expository preaching. That was true preaching --
preaching of a
sort which is sorely needed, today, in order that God's
Word may
have due effect on the hearts of the people. This meeting
in
Jerusalem surely contains a lesson which all present-day
preachers
should learn and heed.
No one having
any knowledge of the existing facts, will deny
the comparative lack of expository preaching in the
pulpit effort
of today. And none, we should, at least, imagine, will do
other
than lament the lack. Topical preaching, polemical
preaching,
historical preaching, and other forms of sermonic output
have, one
supposes, their rightful and opportune uses. But
expository
preaching -- the prayerful expounding of the Word of God
is
preaching that is preaching -- pulpit effort par
excellence.
For its
successful accomplishment, however, a preacher needs
must be a man of prayer. For every hour spent in his
study-chair,
he will have to spend two upon his knees. For every hour
he
devotes to wrestling with an obscure passage of Holy
Writ, he must
have two in the which to be found wrestling with God.
Prayer and
preaching: preaching and prayer! They cannot be
separated. The
ancient cry was: "To your tents, O Israel! "The
modern cry should
be: "To your knees, O preachers, to your
knees!"