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The Book's Purpose
- Answer the question,
What is prayer?
- Illustrate types of prayer
through biblical examples
- Describe characteristics of
effective prayer
The Book's Message
Prayer is a science and an art,
a discipline and an achievement. If you seek God~His works, His Son, His
Word~with patience, humility,
faith, hope, and love, you are never far from Him! He will
fill your whole soul with Himself. And someday, when we are all
together for eternity, and all shut doors are opened, and all secrets
are told, we will be amazed by what we owe to one another’s intercession.
It may be part of the first joyful surprise of heaven to see
what our prayers did for others and what theirs did for us.
Prayer
The Magnificence of Prayer
In Romans, Paul states, “I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify
mine office” (11:13). We may not have an apostolic calling, but
Paul
would be definite in his opinion that our office is just as magnificent
as his.
Our office is the “royal priesthood.” Our office includes
momentous duties
and incalculable and everlasting rewards.
Often, we who hold this office are of such small mind, and we cleave
so closely to this earth that we do not aspire to rise to the height
and splendor
our office offers. It is beyond our ability to conceive what God has
prepared
for those of us who properly perform our office as kings and priests
unto God. Ours is the office of magnificent prayer! True prayer is
noble,
royal, and divine. It is the greatest act that man or angel can ever
perform.
“Earth is at its very best; and heaven
is at its very
highest, when men and angels magnify their office
of prayer and of praise before the throne of God.”
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Jesus said, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
believing,
ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). What a thing for God to say
to us! We
occupy a magnificent office rich with royal dignity! What a generous
command!
What an encouragement to pray!
In Christ is time and eternity, creation and providence, grace and glory,
heaven and earth; and in prayer, all of who He is and what He has is
laid
open to us. He instructs us to choose what we will have and command
Him for it! We must choose. Will our Bible lie unopened and unread, or
will we drink it in and cleave unto God’s Throne of Grace? Will
we choose to rise to this noble office and allow
ourselves to be cast into a noble
mold? We who chose to honor this
path are of magnificent heart, and
only in prayer do our hearts ever
experience full scope and proper
atmosphere. Our hearts would die
if we did not pray. Choose to be as
these! Choose to magnify the office
to which you have been called and
be counted among the men of this
description:
“You would not believe
it about that man of
secret prayer. When you
see and hear him, he is
the poorest, the meekest,
the most contrite, and the
most silent of men: and
you rebuke him because
he so trembles at God’s
word. If you could but
see him when he is alone
with the King! If you
could but see his nearness
and his boldness!
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Let us choose, then, to be like
this man, to magnify our office
that we may think and speak and
sing magnificently of our God!
Biblical Examples of Prayer
Jacob~Wrestling
During the two decades Jacob spent in Padanaram, he
“wholly neglected, avoided, and lived without God.” Then,
the Lord
said unto Jacob, “Return unto the land of thy fathers and of thy
kindred;
and I will be with thee” (Genesis 31:3).
By the time Jacob arrived in Jabbok, he was terrified at the thought
of
again being face-to-face with Esau. Jacob sent a gift to win his brother’s
favor. Esau did not even look at the gift. He put on his armor and led
his
army toward Jacob. In response, Jacob sent away his women, children,
and cattle to a place of safety. He was
left alone, and for that entire night
he felt Esau’s heavy hand of anger~
or was it God he wrestled with? It
was Esau. It was God. It was God
and Esau. Till the day he died,
Jacob never knew who the terrible
wrestler was. But, as the sun rose
and he departed, the wrestler said
to Jacob, “Thy name shall be called
no more Jacob, but Israel” (Genesis
32:28). Jacob concluded, “I have
seen God face to face, and my life
is preserved” (Genesis 32:30).
The whole of Jacob’s life was
laid out, orchestrated, and attended by God in order to teach Jacob to
pray~to make Jacob a maestro of prayer!
Even so, it took a bit of time for Jacob to arrive at that place.
We see five lessons in Jacobs’s story:
- As long as all goes well and we are gliding along free of worry,
we are
tempted to neglect God. We tend to seldom~or never~pray. During
the 20 years Jacob was separated from his family, life had progressed
smoothly. The result was spiritual neglectfulness.
- We have seasons in our lives when true prayer demands time, place,
preparation, and solitude. When Jacob set himself apart from the
others
that night to watch and pray, he was doing exactly what the Lord
later
instructed us to do. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into
thy closet,
and shut thy door” (Matthew 6:6).
- We need a humble, repentant posture to be effective in prayer. Jacob’s
prayers lasted through the night, until the break of day. Was God
unwilling to hear his prayer? No. God is always ready to hear our
prayer
but in this case (as often is the case for many of us), Jacob was
not yet
in the appropriate spirit. Jacob had just lived 20 years in unbelief
and
self-absorption and needed time to come to terms with penitence,
humiliation, and sorrow for sin before he could pray in earnest.
- Prayer requires work and sometimes even pain. In Gethsemane, Jesus
agonized in prayer to the point of shedding sweat drops of blood. “The
very Son of God, Himself, had to drag His human heart to God’s
feet,
with all His might, and till His sweat was blood, with the awful
agony
of it.”
- Prayer is princely, royal work. By the end of the night, Jacob was
truly
worthy of his new name, Israel. He had survived a harrowing
night and had behaved as a prince of the Kingdom of Heaven. He had
performed a colossal work.
Moses~Making haste
The day the Lord descended and proclaimed to Moses the Name of the
Lord (Exodus 34:5) was a day above every other day in the Old Testament.
It was a day to be remembered and celebrated! The only other days that
can even be compared might be the day God created man in His own image,
the day Jesus was born, the day He died on the Cross, and the day He
rose
from the dead.
After this experience we observe, “And Moses made haste, and bowed
his head toward the earth, and worshipped” (Exodus 34:8). What
caused
the haste with which Moses acted? Moses had suffered great stress as
the
leader of Israel~Israel was behaving like a disobedient child, Moses
was responsible
to lead them through wilderness, his brother Aaron had fallen
into sin, and much more. Moses had reached a point of despair. And then,
it happened. He experienced the unexpected and magnificent manifestation
of the presence, grace, and faithfulness of God! Moses, alone with God,
experienced His Divine Hand, Divine Voice, and Divine Name.
It was this overwhelming experience that made Moses make haste, bow
his head, and say, “Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us
for thine
inheritance” (Exodus 34:9). Moses had experienced God face-to-face
and
from that moment on “made haste” to pray.
“Seek ye the
LORD while
he may be
found,
call ye upon
him while
he is near”
(Isaiah 55:6).
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Elijah~Passionate in prayer
Elijah was a mass of a man who
had a hurricane for a heart. He did
nothing half-way. Elijah invested
his entire heart into all he did. And
what a heart it was!
“He, among us, who has the
most heart: he, among us,
who has the most manhood:
he, among us, who has the
most passion in his heart~the
most love and the most hate;
the most anger and the most
meekness; the most scorn,
and the most contempt,
and the most humility, and
the most honour; the most
fear, and the most faith;
the most melancholy, and the
most sunny spirit; the most
agony of prayer, both in his
body and in his soul, and the
most victorious assurance
that his prayer is already
answered before it is yet
offered~that man is the likest
of us all to Elijah.”
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We all have a sufficient variety
and amount of passion to make us
mighty with God, if only our passions
find their proper place~in our
prayers. Does the very thought of
God quicken your heart to holy passion? Does the name Jesus Christ, cause
you to break into song? Do
you count the days until you will be with Him forever? Then pray like
Elijah and like James. Let passion fill your prayers! If you focus and
expend
your passions on prayer, you too will receive favor and blessings
from our magnificent and faithful God!
The Psalmist~Setting the Lord always before him
If we had lived during the time of David and had asked of him, “David,
you are a man after God’s own heart. Sir, teach me to pray,” David’s
reply
would surely have been, “Set the Lord before you.” David was
a companion
to all who feared the Lord and kept His precepts. This made
David very accessible in divine things. If we were to then have asked
David how he was able to write such wonderful psalms and prayers,
David would likely have answered, “I just set the Lord before me
each
time I begin to sing and to pray. I begin and immediately I know that
my prayer is answered, and my psalm is accepted.”
“My
brethren, set the Lord Jesus on His Cross and on His
Throne before you in all your psalms, in all your prayers, in all
your Scriptures, and at all times, till He is ever with you: and
till it would not surprise you to feel His hand laid on your
head, and to look up and see His face some night-watch as you
so abide before Him. Set your Lord, in all these ways, before
you, till, suddenly, some midnight soon, the Bridegroom is
with you and you are for ever with Him!” |
Characteristics of Prayer
Prayer to the Most High
God created man in His own image. He made man for Himself
and for Himself alone. The purpose of man is to glorify God and to
enjoy
God forever. The sin in the garden separated us from Him. Every
step we take in an attempt to return to God is called prayer. True
prayer,
the most abounding, succulent, gratifying prayer, embraces many processes
of the mind and motions of the heart.
“Against
Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done
this evil in Thy sight. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. Behold, Thou desirest truth
in the inward parts: and in the hidden part Thou shalt make
me to know wisdom. Hide Thy face from my sins: and blot
out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God:
and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite
heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:4–17). |
Do we keep in mind the presence
of God when we pray? Do we
know He is at our sides when we
stand up to sing and kneel down
to pray? Do we sense His presence
as just as real as that of the presence
of our fellow-worshippers?
If not, then make it real in your
mind! Think that you are one of
the Twelve, living in Jerusalem.
Think that He walked your street
and dined at your table. And then,
bow down before Him as they did.
Speak to Him. Show Him your
weakness, your sickness, and your
need as they did. Follow Him and
tell Him about your children as
they did. Wash His feet with your
tears and wipe them with your hair
as they did. Exercise faith by believing
that He is as much with you
as He was with the Twelve and all
those His hands touched. Touch
the hem of His cloak and fall at His
feet. Look into His eyes. Put your
finger on His wound and ask Him
if it is all true.
We may follow ordinances and
sacraments, but these are not the
Fountain. God is the Fountain and
when we return to God, when we
submerge ourselves in the true
Fountain of living waters, we immediately
know the assurance, peace,
and fullness of joy~joy only known
to those who truly return to the
Most High. Then we are able to
say, through personal and indisputable
experience, “Whom have I
in heaven but thee? And there is
none upon earth that I desire beside
thee. My flesh and my heart
faileth: but God is the strength of
my heart, and my portion for ever”
(Psalm 73:25–26).
The costliness of prayer
When we consider the whole
subject of prayer, we begin to understand
that it comes with a cost.
- A good habit of prayer costs
us time.
- It costs us thought. While it is
not necessary to invest commanding powers of thought
to prayer, those who possess
immense and commanding
powers of thought must learn
to focus all of it upon their
prayers. God wants all we are.
- Time and thought are minor costs compared to this~Thy
will be done.
To say, “Thy will be done,” when we enter our Gethsemane,
throws
us face down upon the earth and brings blood to our brows. And
yet God’s own Son paid the same price. Pay that price we must
if
we, like our Lord, are to be made perfect by suffering. When you
suffer a disappointment and darkness in your life, when hope is gone,
when a great opportunity and expectation suddenly ends, lie on your
face before God and say, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Oh,
what a cost! It costs all bitterness, gloom, envy, and ill-will that
may
seem your right towards another. It costs the loneliness and desolation
that would have been your constant companion to the end of your
life. The reward~a life full of love and service to God and man, at
the end of which God will say, “Come my beloved one, in whom
I
am well pleased! Come and inherit the kingdom prepared for thee
before the foundation of the world!”
- And then, consider the cost to pay down all our transgressions
and
secret sins before our prayers will be heard; prayer is the only
way
to amend your life: and, without prayer, it will never be mended.
- Prayer will also cost you all your soft, easy, slothful, and self-indulgent
habits.
“The half of the price of prayer has not
been told.
For, after we have paid down all that immense price
for prayer, and for the things that come to us by prayer,
the things we paid so much for are not to be called
our own after all. We have still to hold them, and enjoy
them, in a life of prayer and praise.… Stand forth,
then, all you who are men of much prayer. Stand forth,
and say whether or not the wise Stoic was right when
he said that nothing is so costly, so exorbitant,
so extortionate, as that which is bought by prayer.
While, on the other hand, nothing is so truly and
everlastingly enriching as that which is gotten and
held by prayer, and by prayer alone.”
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Reverence in prayer
In the Book of Malachi, the prophet protests the scandalous irreverence
and profanity of the people of Israel in their approach to Almighty God.
“Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought?
neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure
in
you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your
hand” (Malachi 1:10).
To ensure that your prayers show proper reverence, ask yourself these
things:
- If you were in the company of a King or a President, would you
have
your mind taken away by impertinent and utterly trifling things?
Would you turn to see who is coming in the door? Would you look
to see who is passing by? Would your eyes wander around the room
while your sovereign is speaking to you, and you to him? Of course
not; in the same way let us show reverence to our Lord in prayer.
- Do you have a dedicated time in your home for family prayer? Or,
is family prayer time made to give way to anything and everything that
presents itself? Few prepare
themselves for family prayers as
they do for formal services and
ceremonial devotions. But some
do, and they will be rewarded.
- Do you invest proper time to
focus upon your secret prayer
time? Or is it a time of chanciness, fitfulness, shortness, and
hastiness to get it over~to get
away from it and from Him?
The pleading note
in prayer
Petitioning in prayer and pleading
in prayer are two distinctly different
things. To petition is to simply
ask that something be given to
us. To plead, we must list reasons
that our petition should be granted.
To petition is to ask; to plead is to
argue.
Job is an excellent example of
superb speeches of argumentation
and pleading both with God and
with man; however, the most wonderful,
instructive, impressive, and
heart-consoling of all is the 17th
chapter of John.
And then we have the examples
of the prophets and psalmists who
plead before God. They plead His
Divine Nature and His Divine Name.
They remind God of His promises
and of what He can do! Tell Him!
Search the Scriptures, collect the
promises, and plead your case before
Him. He will see your tears
and hear the cry of your heart!
Concentration in prayer
God’s words do not state how
often nor how long we should pray.
He leaves that up to each of us to
decide. He simply asks us to set
apart time, away from others, to
commune with Him. There is no
place~no altar, no prayer meeting,
no church, no street corner~that
we cannot find God. God is everywhere
to those who diligently seek
Him. But, in a closet or behind
a closed door, God is present in
a special way.
“The
shortest, the surest, the safest way
to seek God is to seek Him ‘in secret.’
It is not that God is any more real in secret
than He is in public: but we are.” |
Not only will you experience the grandeur and majesty
of God, you
will also see Jesus Christ. You will speak with Him with the same intimacy
and confidence that the disciples themselves experienced.
Someday, when we are all in Heaven and “all shut doors are opened,
and all secrets told out, we may be let see what we owe to one another’s
intercession.
It may be part of the first joyful surprise of heaven to see what
we did for other men and what they did for us.”
Imagination in prayer
Frequently we hear of imagination as something sinful when, in reality
the real sin is in its inappropriate application~unbalanced and ill-regulated
judgment. In truth, “Imagination, as God in
His goodness gave it at
first to man,~imagination is nothing less than the noblest intellectual
attribute of the human mind.”
The imagination can be used in prayer in such a way that it glorifies
the Lord. In your mind, let yourself soar past the sun, moon, and stars.
As you take in the beauty, remind yourself that God made these things.
This is God’s sun. This is God’s moon. These are God’s
stars. He made
them all!
In your imagination, live the New Testament.
“At one time, you are the publican:
at another time, you are the prodigal: at another
time, you are Lazarus, in his grave, beside whose
dead body it was not safe or fit for a living man
to come: at another time, you are Mary
Magdalene: at another time, Peter in the porch:
and then at another time, Judas with the money
of the chief priest in his hand, and afterwards
with his halter round his neck. Till your whole
New Testament is all over autobiographic of
you. And till you can say to Matthew, and Mark,
and Luke, and to John himself: Now
I believe; and not for your sayings so much;
for I have seen Him myself, and have myself
been healed of Him, and know that this
is indeed the Christ of God, and the
Saviour of the World.”
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The forgiving spirit
in prayer
Prayer is a science and an art.
It is a discipline and an achievement.
A critical prerequisite of prayer is
to let go of past hurts and forgive
all those who we perceive as having
wronged us. We must guard against
letting pride and self-importance
blow up small matters into mortal
injury. Most of our insults and injuries
are more imaginary than real;
however, our reaction to them,
our sin and our misery on account
of them, are very real.
The secret burden
“But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when
thou hast shut thy door, pray to
thy Father which is in secret; and
thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly” (Matthew
6:6).
Confession of sin is a very private
matter better spoken in private
with God than in public. It is almost
impossible to lay in public as
bare as is necessary to truly expose
the inner sin.
And, the case of intercessory
prayer, it would be entirely inappropriate
to pray intimately for specific
needs that have not otherwise been
confessed by the individual to the
public.
“But
in private, neither your
friend nor your enemy will
ever know, or even guess, till
the last day, what they owe to
you, and to your closet.
You will never incur either
blame or resentment or
retaliation by the way you
speak about them and their
needs in the ear of God. The
things that are notoriously
and irrecoverably destroying
the character and the
usefulness of your fellowworshipper~
you may not so
much as whisper them to your
best friend, or to his. But you
can, and you must, bear him
by name, and all his sins and
vices, all that is deplorable,
and all that is contemptible
about him, before God.” |
The endless quest
And so, urgently return to God~seek Him, walk with Him, be alone
with Him, spend time with Him. Pray! When you do …
“He will fill your whole soul with Himself.
That was the way, and it was in no other way,
that Enoch ‘walked with God.’ And you too will walk
with God, and God with you, just in the measure in
which you put on humility, and put off pride;
and fill your hot heart full of the meekness and lowlymindedness
of the Son of God; and, beside it,
with the contrition, and the penitence, and the
watchfulness, and the constant prayerfulness
of one of His true disciples.”
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Amen.
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