Constrained at the darkest hour to confess humbly that
without God's help I was helpless, I vowed a vow in the forest solitude
that I would confess His aid before men. A silence as a death was around
me; it was midnight, I was weakened by illness, prostrated with fatigue
and worn with anxiety for my white and black companions, whose fate was
a mystery. In this physical and mental distress I besought God to give
me back my people. Nine hours later we were exulting with rapturous joy.
In full view of all was the crimson flag with the crescent and beneath
its waving folds was the long-lost rear column. -- HENRY M. STANLEY
GOD has committed Himself to us by His Word in our praying. The Word of
God is the basis and the inspiration and the heart of prayer. Jesus Christ
stands as the illustration of God's Word, its illimitable good in promise
as well as in realization. God takes nothing by halves. He gives nothing
by halves. We can have the whole of Him when He has the whole of us. His
words of promise are so far-reaching, and so all-comprehending, that they
seem to have deadened our comprehension and have paralyzed our praying.
This appears when we consider those large words, when He almost exhausts
human language in promises, as in "whatever," "anything,"
and in the all-inclusive "whatsoever," and "all things."
These oft-repeated promises, so very great, seem to daze us, and instead
of allowing them to move us to asking, testing, and receiving, we turn away
full of wonder, but empty handed and with empty hearts.
We quote another passage from our Lord's teaching about prayer. By the most
solemn verification, He declares as follows:
"And in that day ye shall ask me nothing; Verily, Verily,
I say unto you: Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will
give it to you. "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name. Ask,
and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."
Twice in this passage He declares the answer, and pledging His Father, "He
will give it to you," and declaring with impressive and most suggestive
iteration, "Ask, and ye shall receive." So strong and so often
did Jesus declare and repeat the answer as an inducement to pray, and as
an inevitable result of prayer, the Apostles held it as so fully and invincibly
established, that prayer would be answered, they held it to be their main
duty to urge and command men to pray. So firmly were they established as
to the truth of the law of prayer as laid down by our Lord, that they were
led to affirm that the answer to prayer was involved in and necessarily
bound up with all right praying. God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son,
are both strongly committed by all the truth of their word and by the fidelity
of their character, to answer prayer. Not only do these and all the promises
pledge Almighty God to answer prayer, but they assure us that the answer
will be specific, and that the very thing for which we pray will be given.
Our Lord's invariable teaching was that we receive that for which we ask,
and obtain that for which we seek, and have that door opened at which we
knock. This is according to our Heavenly Father's direction to us, and His
giving to us for our asking. He will not disappoint us by not answering,
neither will He deny us by giving us some other thing for which we have
not asked, or by letting us find some other thing for which we have not
sought, or by opening to us the wrong door, at which we were not knocking.
If we ask bread, He will give us bread. If we ask an egg, He will give us
an egg. If we ask a fish, He will give us a fish. Not something like bread,
but bread itself will be given unto us. Not something like a fish, but a
fish will be given. Not evil will be given us in answer to prayer, but good.
Earthly parents, though evil in nature, give for the asking, and answer
to the crying of their children. The encouragement to prayer is transferred
from our earthly father to our Heavenly Father, from the evil to the good,
to the supremely good; from the weak to the omnipotent, our Heavenly Father,
centering in Himself all the highest conceptions of Fatherhood, abler, readier,
and much more than the best, and much more than the ablest earthly father.
"How much more," who can tell? Much more than our earthly father,
will He supply all our needs, give us all good things, and enable us to
meet every difficult duty and fulfill every law, though hard to flesh and
blood, but made easy under the full supply of our Father's beneficent and
exhaustless help.
Here we have in symbol and as initial, more than an intimation of the necessity,
not only of perseverance in prayer, but of the progressive stages of intentness
and effort in the outlay of increasing spiritual force. Asking, seeking,
and knocking. Here is an ascending scale from the mere words of asking,
to a settled attitude of seeking, resulting in a determined, clamorous and
vigorous direct effort of praying. Just as God has commanded us to pray
always, to pray everywhere, and to pray in everything, so He will answer
always, everywhere and in everything. God has plainly and with directness
committed Himself to answer prayer. If we fulfill the conditions of prayer,
the answer is bound to come. The laws of nature are not so invariable and
so inexorable as the promised answer to pray. The ordinances of nature might
fail, but the ordinances of grace can never fail.
There are no limitations, no adverse conditions, no weakness, no inability,
which can or will hinder the answer to prayer. God's doing for us when we
pray has no limitations, is not hedged about, by provisos in Himself, or
in the peculiar circumstances of any particular case. If we really pray,
God masters and defies all things and is above all conditions. God explicitly
says, "Call unto me, and I will answer." There are no limitations,
no hedges, no hindrances in the way of God fulfilling the promise. His word
is at stake. His word is involved. God solemnly engages to answer prayer.
Man is to look for the answer, be inspired by the expectation of the answer,
and may with humble boldness demand the answer. God, who cannot lie, is
bound to answer. He has voluntarily placed Himself under obligation to answer
the prayer of him who truly prays.
"To God your every want In instant prayer display;
Pray always; pray, and never faint; Pray, without ceasing, pray.
"In fellowship, alone, To God with faith draw near;
Approach His courts, beseech His throne, With all the power of prayer."
The prophets and the men of God of Old Testament times were unshaken in
their faith in the absolute certainty of God fulfilling His promises to
them. They rested in security on the word of God, and had no doubt whatever
either as to the fidelity of God in answering prayer or of His willingness
or ability. So that their history is marked by repeated asking and receiving
at the hands of God, The same is true of the early Church. They received
without question the doctrine their Lord and Master had so often affirmed
that the answer to prayer was sure. The certainty of the answer to prayer
was as fixed as God's Word was true.
The Holy Ghost dispensation was ushered in by the disciples carrying this
faith into practice. When Jesus told them to "Tarry at Jerusalem till
they were endued with power from on high," they received it as a sure
promise that if they obeyed the command, they would certainly receive the
Divine power. So in prayer for ten days they tarried in the upper room,
and the promise was fulfilled. The answer came just as Jesus said. So when
Peter and John were arrested for healing the man who sat at the beautiful
gate of the temple, after being threatened by the rulers in Jerusalem, they
were released. "
And being let go, they went to their own company," they went to those
with whom they were in affinity, those of like minds, and not to men of
the world. Still believing in prayer and its efficacy, they gave themselves
to prayer, the prayer itself being recorded in Acts, chapter four. They
recited some things to the Lord, and "when they had prayed, the place
was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were filled with
the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." Here
they were refilled for this special occasion with the Holy Ghost. The answer
to prayer responded to their faith and prayer. The fullness of the Spirit
always brings boldness. The cure for fear in the face of threatenings of
the enemies of the Lord is being filled with the Spirit. This gives power
to speak the word of the Lord with boldness. This gives courage and drives
away fear. |