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.
