The neglect
of prayer is a grand hindrance to holiness. "We have not
because we ask not." Oh, how meek and gentle, how lowly
in heart, how full of love both to God and to man, might you
have been at this day, if you had only asked! If you had
continued instant in prayer! Ask, that you may thoroughly
experience and perfectly practice the whole of that religion
which our Lord has so beautifully described in the Sermon on
the Mount. -- JOHN WESLEY
IT is to the closet Paul directs
us to go. The unfailing remedy for all carking, distressing care
is prayer. The place where the Lord is at hand is the closet of
prayer. There He is always found, and there He is at hand to
bless, to deliver and to help. The one place where the Lord's
presence and power will be more fully realized than any other
place is the closet of prayer.
Paul gives the various terms of
prayer, supplication and giving of thanks as the complement of
true praying. The soul must be in all of these spiritual
exercises. There must be no half-hearted praying, no abridging
its nature, and no abating its force, if we would be freed from
this undue anxiety which causes friction and internal distress,
and if we would receive the rich fruit of that peace which
passeth all understanding. He who prays must be an earnest soul,
all round in spiritual attributes.
"In everything, let your
requests be made known unto God," says Paul. Nothing is too
great to be handled in prayer, or to be sought in prayer.
Nothing is too small to be weighed in the secret councils of the
closet, and nothing is too little for its final arbitrament. As
care comes from every source, so prayer goes to every source. As
there are no small things in prayer, so there are no small
things with God. He who counts the hairs of our head, and who is
not too lofty and high to notice the little sparrow which falls
to the ground, is not too great and high to note everything
which concerns the happiness, the needs and the safety of His
children. Prayer brings God into what men are pleased to term
the little affairs of life. The lives of people are made up of
these small matters, and yet how often do great consequences
come from small beginnings?
"There
is no sorrow, Lord, too light
To
bring in prayer to Thee;
There
is no anxious care too slight
To
wake Thy sympathy.
"There
is no secret sigh we breathe,
But
meets Thine ear Divine,
And
every cross grows light beneath
The
shadow, Lord, of Thine."
As everything by prayer is to be
brought to the notice of Almighty God, so we are assured that
whatever affects us concerns Him. How comprehensive is this
direction about prayer! "In everything by prayer."
There is no distinction here between temporal and spiritual
things. Such a distinction is against faith, wisdom and
reverence. God rules everything in nature and in grace. Man is
affected for time and eternity by things secular as well as by
things spiritual. Man's salvation hangs on his business as well
as on his prayers. A man's business hangs on his prayers just as
it hangs on his diligence.
The chief hindrances to piety, the
wiliest and the deadliest temptations of the devil, are in
business, and lie alongside the things of time. The heaviest,
the most confusing and the most stupefying cares lie beside
secular and worldly matters. So in everything which comes to us
and which concerns us, in everything which we want to come to
us, and in everything which we do not want to come to us, prayer
is to be made for all. Prayer blesses all things, brings all
things, relieves all things and prevents all things. Everything
as well as every place and every hour is to be ordered by
prayer. Prayer has in it the possibility to affect everything
which affects us. Here are the vast possibilities of prayer.
How much is the bitter of life
sweetened by prayer! How are the feeble made strong by prayer!
Sickness flees before the health of prayer. Doubts, misgivings,
and trembling fears retire before prayer. Wisdom, knowledge,
holiness and heaven are at the command of prayer. Nothing is
outside of prayer. It has the power to gain all things in the
provision of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul covers all departments
and sweeps the entire field of human concernment, conditions,
and happenings by saying, "In everything by prayer."
Supplications and thanksgiving are
to be joined with prayer. It is not the dignity of worship, the
gorgeousness of ceremonials, the magnificence of its ritual, nor
the plainness of its sacraments, which avail. It is not simply
the soul's hallowed and lowly abasement before God, neither the
speechless awe, which benefits in this prayer service, but the
intensity of supplication, the looking and the lifting of the
soul in ardent plea to God for the things desired and for which
request is made.
The radiance and gratitude and
utterance of thanksgiving must be there. This is not simply the
poetry of praise, but the deep-toned words and the prose of
thanks. There must be hearty thanks, which remembers the past,
sees God in it, and voices that recognition in sincere
thanksgiving. The hidden depths within must have utterance. The
lips must speak the music of the soul. A heart enthused of God,
a heart illumined by His presence, a life guided by His right
hand, must have something to say for God in gratitude. Such is
to recognize God in the events of past life, to exalt God for
His goodness, and to honour God who has honoured it.
"Make known your requests
unto God." The "requests" must be made known unto
God. Silence is not prayer. Prayer is asking God for something
which we have not, which we desire, and which He has promised to
give in answer to prayer. Prayer is really verbal asking. Words
are in prayer. Strong words and true words are found in prayer.
Desires in prayer are put in words. The praying one is a
pleader. He urges his prayer by arguments, promises, and needs.
Sometimes loud words are in
prayer. The Psalmist said, "Evening, morning and at noon
will I pray, and cry aloud." The praying one wants
something which he has not got. He wants something which God has
in His possession, and which he can get by praying. He is
beggared, bewildered, oppressed and confused. He is before God
in supplication, in prayer, and in thanksgiving. These are the
attitudes, the incense, the paraphernalia, and the fashion of
this hour, the court attendance of his soul before God.
"Requests" mean to ask
for one's self. The man is in a strait. He needs something, and
he needs it badly. Other help has failed. It means a plea for
something to be given which has not been done. The request is
for the Giver, -- not alone His gifts but Himself. The requests
of the praying one are to be made known unto God. The requests
are to be brought to the knowledge of God. It is then that cares
fly away, anxieties disappear, worries depart, and the soul gets
at ease. Then it is there steals into the heart "the peace
of God that passeth all understanding."
"Peace!
doubting heart, my God's I am,
Who
formed me man, forbids my fear;
The
Lord hath called me by my name;
The
Lord protects, forever near;
His
blood for me did once atone,
And still He loves and guards His own."
In James, chapter five, we have
another marvellous description of prayer and its possibilities.
It has to do with sickness and health, sin and forgiveness, and
rain and drouth. Here we have James' directory for praying:
"Is any among you afflicted?
Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.
"Is any sick among you? Let
him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
"And the prayer of faith
shall save the sick; and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he
have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
"Confess your faults one to
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The
effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
"Elias was a man subject to
like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might
not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three
years and six months.
"And he prayed again, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."
Here is prayer for one's own needs
and intercessory prayer for others; prayer for physical needs
and prayer for spiritual needs; prayer for drouth and prayer for
rain; prayer for temporal matters and prayer for spiritual
things. How vast the reach of prayer! How wonderful under these
words its possibilities!
Here is the remedy for affliction
and depression of every sort, and here we find the remedy for
sickness and for rain in the time of drouth. Here is the way to
obtain forgiveness of sins. A stroke of prayer paralyzes the
energies of nature, stays its clouds, rain and dew, and blasts
field and farm like the simoon. Prayer brings clouds, and rain
and fertility to the famished and wasted earth.
The general statement, "The
effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much," is a statement of prayer as an energetic force. Two
words are used. One signifies power in exercise, operative
power, while the other is power as an endowment. Prayer is power
and strength, a power and strength which influences God, and is
most salutary, widespread and marvellous in its gracious
benefits to man. Prayer influences God. The ability of God to do
for man is the measure of the possibility of prayer.
"Thou art coming to a king,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such
None can ever ask too much."
