Satan dreads
nothing but prayer. . . . The Church that lost its Christ was
full of good works. Activities are multiplied that meditation
may be ousted, and organizations are increased that prayer may
have no chance. Souls may be lost in good works, as surely as
in evil ways. The one concern of the devil is to keep the
saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies,
prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil,
mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. -- SAMUEL
CHADWICK
THE possibilities of prayer are
seen in its results in temporal matters. Prayer reaches to
everything which concerns man, whether it be his body, his mind
or his soul. Prayer embraces the very smallest things of life.
Prayer takes in the wants of the body, food, raiment, business,
finances, in fact everything which belongs to this life, as well
as those things which have to do with the eternal interests of
the soul. Its achievements are seen not only in the large things
of earth, but more especially in what might be called the little
things of life. It brings to pass not only large things,
speaking after the manner of men, but also the small things.
Temporal matters are of a lower
order than the spiritual, but they concern us greatly. Our
temporal interests make up a great part of our lives. They are
the main source of our cares and worries. They have much to do
with our religion. We have bodies, with their wants, their
pains, their disabilities and their limitations. That which
concerns our bodies necessarily engages our minds. These are
subjects of prayer, and prayer takes in all of them, and large
are the accomplishments of prayer in this realm of our king.
Our temporal matters have much to
do with our health and happiness. They form our relations. They
are tests of honesty and belong to the sphere of justice and
righteousness. Not to pray about temporal matters is to leave
God out of the largest sphere of our being. He who cannot pray
in everything, as we are charged to do by Paul in Philippians,
fourth chapter, has never learned in any true sense the nature
and worth of prayer. To leave business and time out of prayer is
to leave religion and eternity out of it. He who does not pray
about temporal matters cannot pray with confidence about
spiritual matters. He who does not put God by prayer in his
struggling toil for daily bread will never put Him in his
struggle for heaven. He who does not cover and supply the wants
of the body by prayer will never cover and supply the wants of
his soul. Both body and soul are dependent on God, and prayer is
but the crying expression of that dependence.
The Syrophenician woman prayed for
the health things. In fact the Old Testament is but the record
of God in dealing with His people through the Divine appointment
of prayer. Abraham prayed that Sodom might be saved from
destruction. Abraham's servant prayed and received God's
direction in choosing a wife for Isaac. Hannah prayed, and
Samuel was given unto her. Elijah prayed, and no rain came for
three years. And he prayed again, and the clouds gave rain.
Hezekiah was saved from a mortal sickness by his praying.
Jacob's praying saved him from Esau's revenge. The Old Bible is
the history of prayer for temporal blessings as well as for
spiritual blessings.
In the New Testament we have the
same principles illustrated and enforced. Prayer in this section
of God's Word covers the whole realm of good, both temporal and
spiritual. Our Lord, in His universal prayer, the prayer for
humanity, in every clime, in every age and for every condition,
puts in it the petition, "Give us this day our daily
bread." This embraces all necessary earthly good.
In the Sermon on the Mount, a
whole paragraph is taken up by our Lord about food and raiment,
where He is cautioned against undue care or anxiety for these
things, and at the same time encouraging to a faith which takes
in and claims all these necessary bodily comforts and
necessaries. And this teaching stands in close connection with
His teachings about prayer. Food and raiment are taught as
subjects of prayer. Not for one moment is it even hinted that
they are things beneath the notice of a great God, nor too
material and earthly for such a spiritual exercise as prayer.
The Syrophenician woman prayed for
the health of her daughter. Peter prayed for Dorcas to be
brought back to life. Paul prayed for the father of Publius on
his way to Rome, when cast on the island by a shipwreck, and God
healed the man who was sick with a fever. He urged the
Christians at Rome to strive with him together in prayer that he
might be delivered from bad men.
When Peter was put in prison by
Herod, the Church was instant in prayer that Peter might be
delivered from the prison, and God honoured the praying of these
early Christians. John prayed that Gaius might "prosper and
be in health, even as his soul prospered."
The Divine directory in James,
fifth chapter, says: "Is any among you afflicted, let him
pray. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the
Church, and let them pray over him."
Paul, in writing to the
Philippians, fourth chapter, says: "Be careful for nothing;
but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." This
provides for all kinds of cares business cares, home cares, body
cares, and soul cares. All are to be brought to God by prayer,
and at the mercy seat our minds and souls are to be disburdened
of all that affects us or causes anxiety or uneasiness. These
words of Paul stand in close connection with what he says about
temporal matters specially: "But now I rejoiced in the Lord
greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished
again: wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in respect to want, for I have learned in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
And Paul closes his Epistle to
these Christians with the words, which embrace all temporal
needs as well as spiritual wants:
"But my God shall supply all
your need, according to his riches in glory, by Christ
Jesus."
Unbelief in the doctrine that
prayer covers all things which have to do with the body and
business affairs, breeds undue anxiety about earth's affairs,
causes unnecessary worry, and creates very unhappy states of
mind. How much needless care would we save ourselves if we but
believed in prayer as the means of relieving those cares, and
would learn the happy art of casting all our cares in prayer
upon God, "who careth for us!" Unbelief in God as one
who is concerned about even the smallest affairs which affect
our happiness and comfort limits the Holy One of Israel, and
makes our lives altogether devoid of real happiness and sweet
contentment.
We have in the instance of the
failure of the disciples to cast the devil out of the lunatic
son, brought to them by his father, while Jesus was on the Mount
of Transfiguration, a suggestive lesson of the union of faith,
prayer and fasting, and the failure to reach the possibilities
and obligations of an occasion. The disciples ought to have cast
the devil out of the boy. They had been sent out to do this very
work, and had been empowered by their Lord and Master to do it.
And yet they signally failed. Christ reproved them with sharp
upbraidings for not doing it. They had been sent out on this
very specific mission. This one thing was specified by our Lord
when He sent them out. Their failure brought shame and
confession on them, and discounted their Lord and Master and His
cause. They brought Him into disrepute, and reflected very
seriously upon the cause which they represented. Their faith to
cast out the devil had signally failed, simply because it had
not been nurtured by prayer and fasting. Failure to pray broke
the ability of faith, and failure came because they had not the
energy of a strong authoritative faith.
The promise reads, and we cannot
too often refer to it, for it is the very basis of our faith and
the ground on which we stand when we pray: "All things
whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
What enumeration table can tabulate, itemize, and aggregate
"all things whatsoever"? The possibilities of prayer
and faith go to the length of the endless chain, and cover the
unmeasurable area.
In Hebrews, eleventh chapter, the
sacred penman, wearied with trying to specify the examples of
faith, and to recite the wonderful exploits of faith, pauses a
moment, and then cries out, giving us almost unheard-of
achievements of prayer and faith as exemplified by the saints of
the olden times. Here is what he says:
"And what shall I say more?
For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of
Samson, of Jephtha, of David also; and-Samuel, and the prophets;
"Who through faith, subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions;
"Quenched the violence of
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of
the aliens;
"Women received their dead
raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting
deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection."
What an illustrious record is
this! What marvellous accomplishments, wrought not by armies, or
by man's superhuman strength, nor by magic, but all accomplished
simply by men and women noted alone for their faith and prayer!
Hand in hand with these records of faith's illimitable range are
the illustrious records of prayer, for they are all one. Faith
has never won a victory nor gained a crown where prayer was not
the weapon of the victory, and where prayer did not jewel the
crown. If "all things are possible to him that
believeth," then all things are possible to him that
prayeth.
"Depend
on him; thou canst not fail;
Make
all thy wants and wishes known:
Fear
not; his merits must prevail;
Ask
but in faith, it shall be done."
