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PRAYER EFFECTUAL, TO ANY EXTENT
ACCESS to God, and a certainty of acceptance with him, have been amongst the most distinguished privileges of the Lord’s people in all ages. To his ancient people the Jews, God said, “What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?” To us, under the Christian dispensation, it is promised, that “wherever two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus, there will that blessed Saviour be in the midst of them.” None shall “draw nigh to him in prayer, but he will also draw nigh to them,” to answer their prayers. In the psalm before us, God most affectionately encourages his people to come to him, and to enlarge their requests to the utmost extent of their necessities: “Hear, O my people! and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me.” “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
Here, Brethren, let me call your attention to,
I. The invitation given us—
How comprehensive the words in which it is contained!
[Here is no limit to our petitions. On the contrary, we are encouraged to extend them to every thing that our souls can desire. Nor is there any limit assigned, beyond which we are not to expect an answer. Whatever we want for body or for soul, for time or for eternity, it shall all be given us, if only we will “approach unto God,” and “make our requests known unto him.”]
And how marvellous the invitation, as sent by God to sinful man!
[God can receive nothing from us: “our goodness can never extend to him.” He is altogether independent of us: and if the whole human race were annihilated this very moment, God would suffer no loss. Neither his honour nor his happiness were in the least diminished, when the fallen angels were cast out of heaven into the bottomless abyss of hell: nor if we were all plunged into the same abyss of misery, would God be in the least affected by it. Yet, behold, He deigns to send us the gracious invitation which we have just heard, and permits even the vilest amongst us to regard it as addressed personally to himself. To every soul amongst us he says, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”]
Listen then with wonder to,
II. The consideration with which it is enforced—
Surprising encouragement! Mark it,
1. As referring to God’s ancient people—
[God had brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm. What an evidence was this of his power! and what a pledge was this of his willingness to do for them all that their necessities might require! Behold the sea opening before them, to give a dry path to them, and to overwhelm in one common ruin every one of their pursuers! Behold the bread given them for forty years by a daily miraculous supply from heaven, and the water from the rock following them in all their way! See them at last established in the Promised Land! Could they ask more than had already been done for them? And if these things had been done notwithstanding all their rebellions, what should they not obtain if they would implore it with all humility from God?]
2. As comprehending that more wonderful redemption vouchsafed to us—
[If the typical redemption from Egypt afforded such encouragement to prayer, what must we think of that redemption which it shadowed forth, even the redemption of our souls from death and hell, by the precious blood of God’s only dear Son? Hear Jehovah saying, ‘I am the Lord thy God, who became a man for thee; who died upon the cross for thee; who bore thy sins in my own body on the tree, that thou mightest be freed from the condemnation due to them, and mightest inherit a throne of glory!’ What a claim is this to our gratitude! what an incentive to the utmost possible enlargement of our petitions! and what an encouragement to our most unshaken affiance! Take the invitation by itself, and it expresses all that we can wish: but take it in connexion with this consideration with which it is enforced, and methinks there will not be one amongst us that will not most cordially accept it, and most thankfully avail himself of the liberty, the inestimable liberty, thus accorded to him.]
But, seeing that this invitation has been so often sent to us,
1. How amazing is it that any of us can live without prayer!
[Methinks it were almost a libel upon human nature to suppose that there should be any one so stupid and so brutish as to live without prayer; and I ought to make an apology for suggesting even a possibility that such an one may be found in this assembly. Well; forgive me, if in this I have erred: yet I would affectionately put it home to the consciences of all who are here present, and ask, Have you, my Brethren, and you, and you, really sought after God, and spread your wants before him, and implored mercy at his hands, and wrestled with him, as it were, in prayer, for an out-pouring of his Spirit upon you? Have you done it this week past? Have you done it this very morning? Can you call God to witness that you have thus opened your mouth wide before him, in the hope that he would fill and satisfy you with the abundance of his grace? Is there no one amongst you that stands reproved for his neglect of this duty? Yea, rather, are there not some amongst you who have never poured out their souls before God in prayer during their whole life, or, at all events, only under the pressure of some great calamity, which, when it was past, left them in the same careless and obdurate state as before? Perhaps some of you may have repeated some form which you learned in carly life, or may have read some form out of a book: but this is not prayer, if it be unattended with the real desires of the heart: prayer, is not a mere service of the lip and knee, but the effusion of the soul before God in earnest supplication. I lament to think how many there are utter strangers to such holy wrestlings, such sweet communion with their God. Let me, then, remind such persons what sad regret they excite in the bosom of Jehovah; and what bitter regret they themselves also will one day experience in their own bosoms. God says, “O that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways!” And will not you also, ere long, adopt a similar language, and say, “O that I had hearkened to the voice of my God, and had walked in the ways to which he called me!” And if God contemplate with such regret the blessings which he would have bestowed [Note: ver. 13–16.], with what sad regret will you one day view the blessings you have lost! Be wise in time; and now avail yourselves of the opportunity that is afforded you, “seeking the Lord whilst he may be found, and calling upon him whilst he is near.”]
2. How lamentable is it that any one should yield to discouragement in prayer!
[What could God say to you, more than he has said; or do for you, more than he has done? St. Paul says, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?” Only reflect on what he has done, and how impossible it was any fallen creature should dare to ask such things at God’s hands, and you need not fear to enlarge your petitions, to the utmost extent of language to express, or of imagination to conceive. You are not straitened in him; be not straitened in yourselves [Note: 2Co_6:12.]. Only spread your wants before him freely, and you shall find that “He is able to do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or even think [Note: Eph_3:20.].” Go to him, then, and “pray to him with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit;” yea, “pray without ceasing,” and “give him no rest” till he has answered your requests. But be not hasty to imagine that he will not hear; because he may already have heard and answered in the way most conducive to your good, whilst you are doubting whether he will so much as listen to your petitions. Of course you cannot expect to receive, unless you ask according to his will [Note: 1Jn_5:14.]; but, with that reserve only, I assure you, that “ye may ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you [Note: Joh_15:7.].” Only “ask in faith,” and “according to your faith it shall be done unto you.”]