The
particular value of private prayer consists in being able to
approach God with more freedom, and unbosom ourselves more
fully than in any other way. Between us and God there are
private and personal interests, sins to confess and wants to
be supplied, which it would be improper to disclose to the
world. This duty is enforced by the example of good men in all
ages. -- AMOS BINNEY
THE possibilities of prayer are established by the facts and the
history of prayer. Facts are stubborn things. Facts are the true
things. Theories may be but speculations. Opinions may be wholly
at fault. But facts must be deferred to. They cannot be ignored.
What are the possibilities of prayer judged by the facts? What
is the history of prayer? What does it reveal to us? Prayer has
a history, written in God's Word and recorded in the experiences
and lives of God's saints. History is truth teaching by example.
We may miss the truth by perverting the history, but the truth
is in the facts of history.
"He
spake with Abraham at the oak,
He
called Elisha from the plough;
David
he from the sheepfolds took,
Thy
day, thine hour of grace, is now."
God reveals the truth by the
facts. God reveals Himself by the facts of religious history.
God teaches us His will by the facts and examples of Bible
history. God's facts, God's Word and God's history are all in
perfect harmony, and have much of God in them all. God has ruled
the world by prayer; and God still rules the world by the same
divinely ordained means.
The possibilities of prayer cover
not only individuals but reach to cities and nations. They take
in classes and peoples. The praying of Moses was the one thing
which stood between the wrath of God against the Israelites and
His declared purpose to destroy them and the execution of that
Divine purpose, and the Hebrew nation still survived.
Notwithstanding Sodom was not spared, because ten righteous men
could not be found inside its limits, yet the little city of
Zoar was spared because Lot prayed for it as he fled from the
storm of fire and brimstone which burned up Sodom. Nineveh was
saved because the king and its people repented of their evil
ways and gave themselves to prayer and fasting.
Paul in his remarkable prayer in
Ephesians, chapter three, honours the illimitable possibilities
of prayer and glorifies the ability of God to answer prayer.
Closing that memorable prayer, so far-reaching in its petitions,
and setting forth the very deepest religious experience, he
declares that "God is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we can ask or think." He makes prayer
all-inclusive, comprehending all things, great and small. Where
is no time nor place which prayer does not cover and sanctify.
All things in earth and in heaven, everything for time and for
eternity, all are embraced in prayer. Nothing is too great and
nothing is too small to be subject of prayer. Prayer reaches
down to the least things of life and includes the greatest
things which concern us.
"If
pain afflict or wrongs oppress,
If
cares distract, or fears dismay;
If
guilt deject, or sin distress,
In
every case still watch and pray."
One of the most important,
far-reaching, peace-giving, necessary and practical prayer
possibilities we have in Paul's words in Philippians, chapter
four, dealing with prayer as a cure for undue care:
"Be careful for nothing; but
in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God."
"And the peace of God which
passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus."
"Cares" are the epidemic
evil of mankind. They are universal in their reach. They belong
to man in his fallen condition. The predisposition to undue
anxiety is the natural result of sin. Care comes in all shapes,
at all times, and from all sources. It comes to all of every age
and station. There are the cares of the home circle, from which
there is no escape save in prayer. There are the cares of
business, the cares of poverty, and the cares of riches. Ours is
an anxious world, and ours is an anxious race. The caution of
Paul is well addressed, "In nothing be anxious." This
is the Divine injunction, and that we might be able to live
above anxiety and freed from undue care, "In everything, by
prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto
God." This is the divinely prescribed remedy for all
anxious cares, for all worry, for all inward fretting.
The word, "careful,"
means to be drawn in different directions, distraction, anxious,
disturbed, annoyed in spirit. Jesus had warned against this very
thing in the Sermon on the Mount, where He had earnestly urged
His disciples, "Take no thought for the morrow," in
things concerning the needs of the body. He was endeavouring to
show them the true secret of a quiet mind, freed from anxiety
and unnecessary care about food and raiment. To-morrow's evils
were not to be considered. He was simply teaching the same
lesson found in Psalm 37: 3, "Trust in the Lord, and do
good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be
fed." In cautioning against the fears of to-morrow's
prospective evils, and the material wants of the body, our Lord
was teaching the great lesson of an implicit and childlike
confidence in God. "Commit thy way unto the Lord: trust
also in him, and he shall bring it to pass."
"'Day
by day,' the promise reads,
Daily strength for daily needs
Cast foreboding fears away;
Take the manna of to-day."
Paul's direction is very specific,
"Be careful for nothing." Be careful for not one
thing. Be careful for not anything, for any condition, chance or
happening. Be troubled about not anything which creates one
disturbing anxiety. Have a mind freed from all anxieties, all
cares, all fretting, and all worries. Cares divide, distract,
bewilder, and destroy unity, forces and quietness of mind. Cares
are fatal to weak piety and are enfeebling to strong piety. What
great need to guard against them and learn the one secret of
their cure, even prayer!
What boundless possibilities there
are in prayer to remedy the situation of mind of which Paul is
speaking! Prayer over everything can quiet every distraction,
hush every anxiety, and lift every care from care-enslaved lives
and from care-bewildered hearts. The prayer specific is the
perfect cure for all ills of this character which belong to
anxieties, cares and worries. Only prayer in everything can
drive dull care away, relieve of unnecessary heart burdens, and
save from the besetting sin of worrying over things which we
cannot help. Only prayer can bring into the heart and mind the
"peace which passeth all understanding," and keep mind
and heart at ease, free from carking care.
Oh, the needless heart burdens
borne by fretting Christians! How few know the real secret of a
happy Christian life, filled with perfect peace, hid from the
storms and billows of a fretting careworn life! Prayer has a
possibility of saving us from "carefulness," the bane
of human lives. Paul in writing to the Corinthians says, "I
would have you without carefulness," and this is the will
of God. Prayer has the ability to do this very thing.
"Casting all your care on him, for he careth for you,"
is the way Peter puts it, while the Psalmist says, "Fret
not thyself in any wise to do evil." Oh, the blessedness of
a heart at ease from all inward care, exempt from undue anxiety,
in the enjoyment of the peace of God which passeth all
understanding!
Paul's injunction which includes
both God's promise and His purpose, and which immediately
precedes his entreaty to be "careful for nothing,"
reads on this wise:
"Rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say, Rejoice.
"Let your moderation be made
known to all men. The Lord is at hand."
In a world filled with cares of
every kind, where temptation is the rule, where there are so
many things to try us, how is it possible to rejoice always? We
look at the naked, dry command, and we accept it and reverence
it as the Word of God, but no joy comes. How are we to let our
moderation, our mildness, and our gentleness be universally and
always known? We resolve to be benign and gentle. We remember
the nearness of the Lord, but still we are hasty, quick, hard
and salty. We listen to the Divine charge, "Be careful for
nothing," yet still we are anxious, care-worn, care-eaten,
and care-tossed. How can we fulfill the Divine word, so sweet
and so large in promise, so beautiful in the eye, and yet so far
from being realized? How can we enter upon the rich patrimony of
being true, honest, just, pure, and possess lovely things? The
recipe is infallible, the remedy is universal, and the cure is
unfailing. It is found in the words which we have so often
herein referred to of Paul: "Be careful for nothing, but in
everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God."
This joyous, care-free, peaceful
experience bringing the believer into a joyousness, living
simply by faith day by day, is the will of God. Writing to the
Thessalonians, Paul tells them: "Rejoice evermore; pray
without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." So that not
only is it God's will that we should find full deliverance from
all care and undue anxiety, but He has ordained prayer as the
means by which we can reach that happy state of heart.
The Revised Version makes some
changes in the passage of Paul, about which we have been
speaking. The reading there is" In nothing be
anxious," and "the peace of God shall guard your
hearts and your minds." And Paul puts the antecedent in the
air of prayer, which is "Rejoice in the Lord always."
That is, be always glad in the Lord, and be happy with Him. And
that you may thus be happy, "Be careful for nothing."
This rejoicing is the doorway for prayer, and its pathway too.
The sunshine and buoyancy of joy in the Lord are the strength
and boldness of prayer, the peans of its victory.
"Moderation" makes the rainbow of prayer. The word
means mildness, fairness, gentleness, sweet reasonableness. The
Revised Version changes it to "forbearance," with the
margin reading "gentleness." What rare ingredients and
beautiful colourings! These are colourings and ingredients which
make a strong and beautiful character and a wide and positive
reputation. A rejoicing, gentle spirit, positive in reputation,
is well fitted for prayer, rid of the distractions and unrest of
care.
