I. We have in these words, not formal definition of prayer, but an incidental definition, and most complete. To pray is to “ask” of God; the more childlike the asking the better.
II. A recognition of the hindrances which we meet in prayer. We are to ask when God is nigh; mercies are sometimes hid, then seek.
III. A positive injunction. Prayer not optional; it is a duty.
IV. Christ stimulates to obedience by words of encouragement.
1. He calls attention to universal experience-“Every one that asketh, receiveth.” Prayer is not an experiment.
2. Christ points to the conduct of parents towards their children.
3. A gentle reference to our common depravity-“If ye, being evil.” God far above all earthly parents, mere willing to give good gifts. (S. Martin.)
Prayer a duty, even though there be no desire to pray
In certain states of the body men lose all appetite for food. Are they to yield to this want of appetite? If they do yield to it, they are soon starved to death. Sometimes without appetite, it becomes necessary for them to take, day by day, nourishment. Just so with prayer. If I cannot pray as a privilege, I am to pray as a duty.
Prayer not a runaway knock
Watchin prayer to see what cometh. Foolish boys, that knock at a door in wantonness, will not stay till somebody cometh to open to them; but a man that hath business will knock, and knock again, till he gets his answer. (T. Manton.)
Keeping up a suit
Keep up the suit and it will come to a hearing-day ere it be long. (T. Manton.)
Ask and receive
1. Every promise is attached to a duty.
2. That concerning any duty it is not enough that you do it, you must do it scripturally.
3. It does not say when you shall receive.
4. The whole Trinity combine before there can be prayer.
5. This is the language of entire dependence. “Ask.” Man is empty.
6. It is God’s method to try the grace which He intends to crown. “Seek.”
7. Never be afraid of being too earnest. “Knock.”
8. God wishes you to have a clear understanding about the certainty of prayer. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Ask: Children speaking to God
I. Ask, whom? Not to angels, saints. God is the only Being who is everywhere present, and therefore the only one to whom we should pray.
II. Ask, when? Any time; some times better than others. Morning, etc.; the time of perplexity, etc.
III. Ask, where? “I will that men pray everywhere.”
IV. Ask, How?
1. Orderly; think about what you are going to ask.
2. Earnestly; not carelessly.
3. Repeatedly: until you receive an answer.
4. In your own style-as children.
5. In faith.
6. In the name of Jesus, the only Mediator, etc. (A. McAuslane, D. D.)
How to find the Lord
A man said to me the other night in the inquiry-room, “Mr. Moody, I wish you would tell me why I can’t find the Lord.” Said I: “I can tell you why you can’t find Him.” “Why is it?” “Why, you haven’t sought for Him with all your heart.” He looked at me, and said he thought he had. “Well,” said I, “I think you haven’t; because you will surely find Him when you seek for Him with all your heart. Now, my friend, I can tell you the day and hour you are going to be converted.” The man looked at me, and I have no doubt thought I was a little wild. Said I: “The Scripture tells me, ‘He that seeketh findeth.’” It don’t take a man long to find the Lord when he makes his mind up to do it.
Life a research
1 Life is a research.
2. Not get some one else to seek for you.
3. The Lord assigns no limit to the research. (A. Coquerel.)
Rogation Days. Ask, and it shall be given you
In May almost always the Rogation Days come. The fitness of this. These days are meant to prepare the people’s hearts for the coming festival of the Ascension; but mainly to be days of intercession “ for the fruits of the earth, which are then tender, that they may not be blasted,” as well as for health and peace at that season of the year when war and pestilence may be expected to begin. These intentions are indeed closely blended, for when our Lord ascended up on high He received gifts for men.
I. We pray for a blessing upon the fruits of the earth. We can scarcely help it unless we are untrue to nature. Man’s heart is on his fields; he has done all his work as far as crops are concerned-now he can only hope, watch, and pray. Now all depends upon what God will be pleased to do. We are not powerless: prayer is left to us. Thirteen centuries ago Rogation Days were first appointed; it was then felt that prayer was a power to secure peace and plenty. Though there is no service for these Days, there is nothing to prevent us from keeping them. Our great authority for them is found in the first and second chapters of Joel. In these days of agricultural depression we have need to remember them. (E. T. Marshall, M. A.)
Prayer, Knock with confidence
When thou standest before His gate, knock loudly and boldly, not as a beggar knocks, but as one who belongs to the house; not as a vagabond, who is afraid of the police, but as a friend and an intimate acquaintance; not as one who is apprehensive of being troublesome, or of coming at an improper time, but of a guest who may rest assured of a hearty welcome. (Dr. F. W. Krummacher.)
The nature and efficacy of prayer
I. The precept.
1. The nature of the duty.
2. A few of our obligations to this holy duty:
(1) The Divine command.
(2) The pious example of holy men.
(3) It is reasonable.
3. Some of the motives by which it is enforced:
(1) Its necessity.
(2) Its great importance in preparing the mind for the duties of the sanctuary and the family.
(3) Another motive arises from the maintenance of the power of religion within us.
(4) The pleasure of walking with God is a powerful incentive.
II. The encouragement which the text affords us.
1. The promise itself.
2. Its Divine fulness.
(1) It comprehends every human being that presents his prayer for relief.
(2) The quality of the blessing-“good things.”
Two reflections:
1. How happy is the believer.
2. How important to know the medium of acceptable prayer. (J. E. Good.)
Prayer the characteristic action of religion
I. Prayer is religion in action. It is the soul of man engaging in that particular form of activity which presupposes the existence of a great bond between itself and God. It is the noblest kind of human action, in which man realizes the highest capacity of his being. This estimate of prayer not universal amongst even educated people. They regard it as an outlet for feeling, a means of discipline; but less worthy the energies of a thinking man than hard work. But prayer is indeed work. The dignity of labour is proverbial.
1. Is it true that prayer is little else than the half-passive play of sentiment? Let those who have truly prayed give the answer. Jacob wrestled with an unseen Power (Mat_11:12).
2. Take prayer to pieces; it consists of three different forms of activity.
(1) To pray is to put the understanding in motion, and to direct it upon the Highest Object. How overwhelming are the ideas which thus pass before it. The issues are realized. This an absorbing occupation for the understanding.
(2) To pray is to put the affections in motion, it is to open the heart; this movement of the affections is sustained throughout prayer.
(3) To pray is to put the will in motion, just as decidedly as we do when we sit down to read hard, or when we walk up a steep hill. It enters vitally into the action of prayer, and is in proportion to sincerity. Now these three ingredients of prayer are also ingredients in all real work, whether of brain or hand; in prayer they are more evenly balanced. The dignity of prayer as being real work becomes clear if we reflect on the faculties it employs; and clearer if we consider the effect of it upon the habitual atmosphere of the soul. It places the soul face to face with facts of the first order of solemnity; with its real self and with its God. And just as labour in any department is elevating when it takes us out of and beyond the petty range of daily and material interests, while yet it quickens interest in them by kindling higher enthusiasms into life, so in a transcendent sense is it with prayer. It is so noble, because it is the work of man as man; of man realizing his being and destiny with a vividness which is necessary to him in no other occupation. The nobleness of his best form of toil must fall infinitely below that of a spirit entering consciously into converse with the eternal God.
II. But granted the dignity of prayer even as of labour: what if this labour be misapplied?
1. There is here no question as to the subjective effects of prayer; this is admitted by all.
2. Prayer is not chiefly a petition for something that we want and do not possess. It is intercourse with God, often seeking no end.
3. If prayer is to be persevered in, it must be on the conviction that it is heard by a living Person. We cannot practise trickery upon ourselves with a view to our moral edification. If God exists, if He be a Personal Being, then surely we may reach Him if we will. Where is the barrier that can arrest our thought, as it rises to the all-embracing intelligence of God. And if God be not merely an infinite intelligence, but a moral Being, a mighty heart, so that justice and tenderness are attributes of His, then surely we appeal to Him with some purpose. It is on this ground that God is said to hear prayer in Scripture. That He should do so follows from the reality of His nature as God. He who has planted in our breasts feelings of interest and pity for one another cannot be insensible to our need and pain.
III. But will God answer prayer when it takes the form of a petition for some specific blessing which must be either granted or refused?
1. The first presumed barrier against the efficacy of prayer to which men point is the scientific idea of law reigning throughout the spiritual as well as the material universe. But the laws of nature are not self-sustained forces; God can use His own laws. They have not escaped His control.
2. A second barrier to the efficacy of prayer is sometimes discovered in the truth that all which comes to pass is fore-determined in the predestination of God. Prayer, too, is a foreseen action of man, and is embraced in the eternal purpose of God.
3. The third barrier is the false idea of the Divine dignity which is borrowed from our notions of human royalties. Need not depreciate man’s place in the universe; God’s best creature, and He cares for the lowest.
4. A fourth barrier to the efficacy of prayer is thought to be discernible in an inadequate conception of the interests of human beings as a whole. But Christian prayer is conditioned.
5. The last barrier is really to be discovered in man’s idea of his own self-sufficiency,
6. That prayer is answered is a matter of personal experience. (Canon Liddon.)
