You need not utterly despair even of those who for the
present "turn again and rend you." For if all your arguments
and persuasives fail, there is yet another remedy left, and one that is
frequently found effectual, when no other method avails. This is prayer.
Therefore, whatsoever you desire or want, either for others or for your
own soul, "Ask, and it shall be given you." -- JOHN WESLEY
WITHOUT the promise prayer is eccentric and baseless. Without prayer, the
promise is dim, voiceless, shadowy, and impersonal. The promise makes prayer
dauntless and irresistible. The Apostle Peter declares that God has given
to us "exceeding great and precious promises." "Precious"
and "exceeding great" promises they are, and for this very cause
we are to "add to our faith," and supply virtue. It is the addition
which makes the promises current and beneficial to us. It is prayer which
makes the promises weighty, precious and practical. The Apostle Paul did
not hesitate to declare that God's grace so richly promised was made operative
and efficient by prayer. "Ye also helping together by prayer for us."
The promises of God are "exceeding great and precious," words
which clearly indicate their great value and their broad reach, as grounds
upon which to base our expectations in praying. Howsoever exceeding great
and precious they are, their realization, the possibility and condition
of that realization, are based on prayer. How glorious are these promises
to the believing saints and to the whole Church! How the brightness and
bloom, the fruitage and cloudless midday glory of the future beam on us
through the promises of God! Yet these promises never brought hope to bloom
or fruit to a prayerless heart. Neither could these promises, were they
a thousandfold increased in number and preciousness, bring millennium glory
to a prayerless Church. Prayer makes the promise rich, fruitful and a conscious
reality.
Prayer as a spiritual energy, and illustrated in its enlarged and mighty
working, makes way for and brings into practical realization the promises
of God.
God's promises cover all things which pertain to life and godliness, which
relate to body and soul, which have to do with time and eternity. These
promises bless the present and stretch out in their benefactions to the
illimitable and eternal future. Prayer holds these promises in keeping and
in fruition. Promises are God's golden fruit to be plucked by the hand of
prayer. Promises are God's incorruptible seed, to be sown and tilled by
prayer.
Prayer and the promises are interdependent. The promise inspires and energizes
prayer, but prayer locates the promise, and gives it realization and location.
The promise is like the blessed rain falling in full showers, but prayer,
like the pipes, which transmit, preserve and direct the rain, localizes
and precipitates these promises, until they become local and personal, and
bless, refresh and fertilize. Prayer takes hold of the promise and conducts
it to its marvellous ends, removes the obstacles, and makes a highway for
the promise to its glorious fulfillment. While God's promises are "exceeding
great and precious," they are specific, clear and personal. How pointed
and plain God's promise to Abraham:
"And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of
heaven the second time, "And said, By myself have I sworn, saith
the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son;
"That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore;
and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
"And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
thou hast obeyed my voice."
But Rebekah through whom the promise is to flow is childless. Her barren
womb forms an invincible obstacle to the fulfillment of God's promise. But
in the course of time children are born to her. Isaac becomes a man of prayer
through whom the promise is to be realized, and so we read:
"And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she
was barren, and the Lord was entreated for him, and Rebekah his wife conceived."
Isaac's praying opened the way for the fulfilment of God's promise, and
carried it on to its marvellous fulfillment, and made the promise effectual
in bringing forth marvellous results. God spoke to Jacob and made definite
promises to him:
"Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred,
and I will be with thee."
Jacob promptly moves out on the promise, but Esau confronts him with his
awakened vengeance and his murderous intention, more dreadful because of
the long years, unappeased and waiting. Jacob throws himself directly on
God's promise by a night of prayer, first in quietude and calmness, and
then when the stillness, the loneliness and the darkness of the night are
upon him, he makes the all-night wrestling prayer.
"With thee I mean all night to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day."
God's being is involved, His promise is at stake, and much is involved in
the issue. Esau's temper, his conduct and his character are involved. It
is a notable occasion. Much depends upon it. Jacob pursues his case and
presses his plea with great struggles and hard wrestling. It is the highest
form of importunity. But the victory is gained at last. His name and nature
are changed and he becomes a new and different man. Jacob himself is saved
first of all. He is blessed in his life and soul. But more still is accomplished.
Esau undergoes a radical change of mind. He who came forth with hate and
revenge in his heart against his own brother, seeking Jacob's destruction,
is strangely and wonderfully affected, and he is changed and his whole attitude
toward his brother becomes radically different. And when the two brothers
meet, love takes the place of fear and hate, and they vie with each other
in showing true brotherly affection. The promise of God is fulfilled. But
it took that all night of importunate praying to do the deed. It took that
fearful night of wrestling on Jacob's part to make the promise sure and
cause it to bear fruit. Prayer wrought the marvellous deed. So prayer of
the same kind will produce like results in this day. It was God's promise
and Jacob's praying which crowned and crowded the results so wondrously.
"Go show thyself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth," was
God's command and promise to His servant Elijah after the sore famine had
cursed the land. Many glorious results marked that day of heroic faith and
dauntless courage on Elijah's part. The sublime issue with Israel had been
successful, the fire had fallen, Israel had been reclaimed, the prophets
of Baal had been killed, but there was no rain. The one thing, the only
thing, which God had promised, had not been given. The day was declining,
and the awestruck crowds were faint, and yet held by an invisible hand.
Elijah turns from Israel to God and from Baal to the one source of help
for a final issue and a final victory. But seven times is the restless eagerness
of the prophet stayed. Not till the seventh repeated time is his vigilance
rewarded and the promise pressed to its final fulfillment. Elijah's fiery,
relentless praying bore to its triumphant results the promise of God, and
rain descended in full showers.
"Thy promise, Lord, is ever sure,
And they that in Thy house would dwell
That happy station to secure,
Must still in holiness excel."
Our prayers are too little and feeble to execute the purposes or to claim
the promises of God with appropriating power. Marvellous purposes need marvellous
praying to execute them. Miracle-making promises need miracle-making praying
to realize them. Only Divine praying can operate Divine promises or carry
out Divine purposes. How great, how sublime, and how exalted are the promises
God makes to His people! How eternal are the purposes of God!
Why are we so impoverished in experience and so low in life when God's promises
are so "exceeding great and precious"? Why do the eternal purposes
of God move so tardily? Why are they so poorly executed? Our failure to
appropriate the Divine promises and rest our faith on them, and to pray
believingly is the solution. "We have not because we ask not."
"We ask and receive not because we ask amiss." Prayer is based
on the purpose and promise of God. Prayer is submission to God. Prayer has
no sigh of disloyalty against God's will. It may cry out against the bitterness
and the dread weight of an hour of unutterable anguish: "If it be possible,
let this cup pass from me." But it is surcharged with the sweetest
and promptest submission. "Yet not my will, but thine be done."
But prayer in its usual uniform and deep current is conscious conformity
to God's will, based upon the direct promise of God's Word, and under the
illumination and application of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is surer than that
the Word of God is the sure foundation of prayer. We pray just as we believe
God's Word. Prayer is based directly and specifically upon God's revealed
promises in Christ Jesus. It has no other ground upon which to base its
plea. All else is shadowy, sandy, fickle. Not our feelings, not our merits,
not our works, but God's promise is the basis of faith and the solid ground
of prayer.
"Now I have found the ground wherein Sure my soul's anchor
may remain;
The wounds of Jesus -- for my sin, Before the world's foundation slain."
The converse of this proposition is also true. God's promises are dependent
and conditioned upon prayer to appropriate them and make them a conscious
realization. The promises are inwrought in us, appropriated by us, and held
in the arms of faith by prayer. Let it be noted that prayer gives the promises
their efficiency, localizes and appropriates them, and utilizes them. Prayer
puts the promises to practical and present uses. Prayer puts the promises
as the seed in the fructifying soil. Promises, like the rain, are general.
Prayer embodies, precipitates, and locates them for personal use. Prayer
goes by faith into the great fruit orchard of God's exceeding great and
precious promises, and with hand and heart picks the ripest and richest
fruit. The promises, like electricity, may sparkle and dazzle and yet be
impotent for good till these dynamic, life-giving currents are chained by
prayer, and are made the mighty forces which move and bless. |