1. Personal conviction of the power and influence of prayer can be gained only by a man who himself lives in prayer. It is attainable in the same way as one becomes convinced of the love of another, namely, by living along with him. And a proof that we are not the victims of any form of self-deception is afforded us in the harmonious testimony of all those who have been thoroughly versed and experienced in the world of prayer. Every actual experience of prayer is a Yea and Amen to the promises of the Lord, to His positive declaration that God hears prayer. He said: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”. When describing the woe falling on the whole Jewish nation at the destruction of Jerusalem, He said to His disciples: “And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.” Here, therefore, the Saviour charges His disciples to pray for a mitigation of impending calamities. Would He have so charged them if there were no answering of prayer? When He saw the people, and had compassion on them because they were faint and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd, He said to the disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his harvest.” Would He have made such a prayer binding on us if He had deemed it unmeaning? Finally, He assured His people that where two or three of them agree to ask anything it shall be done for them by their Heavenly Father, and then added, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Whoever believes in the Saviour at all has, along with faith in the truth of His sayings, the pledge that God answers prayer.
To mitigate or ease the sorowis of our woundit conscience, two plaisteris hath oure maist prudent Phisitioun provydit to gif us incouragement to pray (notwithstanding the knawledge of offences committit), that is, a precept and a promeis. The precept or commandement to pray is universall, frequentlie inculcat and repeatit in God is Scriptures: “Aske, and it salbe gevin unto yow”. “Call upon me in the day of trubill.” “Watche and pray that ye fall not into temptatioun.” “I command that ye pray ever without ceassing.” “Mak deprecationis incessabill, and gif thankis in all thingis.” Whilk commandementis, who so contempneth or dispyseth, doith equallie sin with him that doith steill; for in this commandement thow sall not stein is a precept negative; sa thou sall pray is a commandement affirmative. And God requyreth equall obedience of and to all his commandementis.
To this commandement he addeth his maist undoutit promeis in many places, “Aske, and ye sail receave; seik, and ye sall find”. And by the Prophet Jeremie, God sayeth, “Ye sall call upon me, and I sall heir yow”. “Ye sail seik and sall find me.” And by Esay, he sayeth, “May the Father forget his naturall son, or the Mother the chyld of hir wombe? and althocht thai do, yit sall I not forget suche as call upon me.” And heirto correspond and agrie the wordis of Jesus Chryst, saying, “Yf ye being wickit can gif gud giftis to your children, muche more my heavinlie Father sall gif the Halie Gaist to thame that aske him.” And that we suld not think God to be absent, or not to heir us, accuseth Moses, saying, “Thair is no natioun that have thair Godis so adherent, or neir unto thame as oure God, whilk is present at all oure prayeris”. Also the Psalmist “Neir is the Lord unto all that call upon him in veritie”. And Chryst sayeth, “Whairsoever tuo or thrie ar gatherit together in my name, thair am I in the middis of thame.” [Note: The Works of John Knox, 3: 91]
No one who knows the largeness and liberality of the Divine promises will complain of their being scanty. The roll of the promises let down from heaven is more full of varied food for the spirit of man than that great sheet which the Apostle saw in vision was full of varied food for his body. They are a goodly body of most gracious store for equipping the immortal spirit for its wilderness journey, and, moreover, like the ark of Noah, containing the seeds and rudiments and enjoyments in that new world where she is soon to rest for ever; or, according to St. Peter, they are like so many beacons lighted up in the dark, wild, and untrodden future, whereunto we do well that we take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts. And, to carry the figure a little further, in each of these enlightened beacons resides an oracle from the Most High to guide the goings forth of the believer’s hopes and purposes. In sight of these he is not far from tidings of the land to which he sojourns; out of sight of them, he is guideless, aimless, and helpless, in the midst of a wide and waste ocean of uncertainty. [Note: The Collected Writings of Edward Irving, iii. 9.]
2. The manner of God’s dealing is largely by promise, and on the ground of that promise must we deal with Him. From the beginning it has been so. God’s covenant has been evermore a covenant of promise. Not a contract or compact; not, Bring this, and I will accept; not, Do this, and I will bless; but rather, I promise, therefore live—I promise, therefore love! The covenant itself was promise. And that prayer which is based on knowledge must ever on that account be based on promise.
The promise is no single separate utterance; no number, no multitude, of bare literal engagements, which must be found somewhere in the bond, and then rehearsed, by page and clause, as the justification of the particular demand. The promise of God, like the revelation of God, like the counsel of God, like the character of God, is at once ample to magnificence and simple even to unity. One broad, deep, majestic stream, like the river which went forth from Eden, compasses all God’s earth, and waters on every side the garden of His creation. It is the declaration of His will that all should be saved. It is the cry from the temple-court on the last and great day of the feast, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink”. “There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.” “This is the will of God, even your sanctification.”
In going to God, we greatly honour Him, when we remind Him of His promises, and declare our entire dependence on them. See the example of Jacob, who for his power in prayer was surnamed Israel. He had been assured, in a dream, that God would be with him in all places, and never leave him till He had fulfilled to him His promises in their fullest extent. Full twenty years afterwards, Jacob, in a season of great distress, reminded God of this promise, saying, “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: deliver me, I pray thee, for thou saidst, I will surely do thee good”. Thus we should bear in mind the promises which God has given us, and present before Him those which are in a more peculiar manner suited to our state. This will give us confidence before God; and it will secure to us infallibly an answer of peace: for “this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him”. [Note: C. Simeon, Works, iii. 264.]
If God had promised nothing, we could have expected nothing: and if His promises were not steadfast, we might have been deceived in our expectation. Therefore it is that the first revelation was a promise, and the revelations to Noah and to Abraham were promises, and the law was a prefiguration of good things to come, and the prophecies are dark declarations of the events of promises, and the gifts of God’s Spirit, with all the attainments of the Christian life, are promises, and the Apocalypse is a promise extending to the end of time; and when it comes to pass that there are no promises unaccomplished, then will prayer cease; but that will never be, till prayer and all other instruments of grace be rendered useless by the revelation of glory, when instead of faith shall come honour, and in place of hope the things hoped for. [Note: The Collected Writings of Edward Irving, iii. 7.]
John Bunyan spoke of “leaping into the bosom of the promise”. They find a tranquil refuge who so do. Take example of Bunyan, my friend! When prayer seems impossible set the promise of God before your eyes and leap into its sheltering bosom. Peter speaks of God’s “precious and exceeding great promises,” and that is characterization incomparable because inspired of God. God’s promises are all “precious” and all “exceeding great”. Nor is this least true of the promises which relate to prayer. What strong encouragement the promises give to the prayer of faith! The practical difficulty of prayer would melt away did we but avail ourselves of the resource of promise which God has given us in the Scriptures. I am ever and anon saying despondently, “How can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord?” because I fail to remember His promises. [Note: Dinsdale T. Young, The Enthusiasm of God, 198.]
3. Last of all, our prayer should be in line with God’s promises. Not every desire is a fit subject for prayer. No one would pray a sinful wish; there are desires which, like birds of evil omen, shun, of themselves, the light of God. A prayer might be sincere, in so far as it breathed a wish, and yet conscience itself might condemn it as unfit for God’s hearing. When we pursue and ponder this distinction—and it is an important one—we shall find no rest for our reflections till we reach this point, that promise is the chart and rudder and compass of supplication; that only such things as God has promised are safe and fitting topics for His people’s prayers.
We are not counselling that poor and servile use of the word of promise which would turn the texts of the Bible into a string of engagements and compacts, which are to be urged, as it were, and pleaded, singly and severally, as making God man’s debtor, and false if He pays not. The Bible is not thus indexed and labelled for quotation, nor is the free Spirit thus to be tied and fettered by the lifeless letter. Away with such uses of the Bible as would make it over again a mere Decalogue of conditions and precepts, instead of a fresh rustling breeze, sweeping with health and fragrance over the dry arid wastes of man’s servitude and man’s corruption. Prayer opens an outlet for the promises, removes the hindrances in the way of their execution, puts them into working order, and secures their gracious ends.
When you examine the utterances of Christ with regard to prayer, you find that they consist of large general promises, subsequently defined and made more exact. “Ask, and ye shall receive.” Here is a large general promise. It arrests the attention by its obvious contradiction to facts of experience. It stimulates further inquiry, and further inquiry is met by exacter statements. “Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.” Again, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you”. Once more, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled.” When we come to consider them, these further definitions of the conditions of prayer are found to be in close agreement. Thus it is morally impossible to have a real confidence that the things we are asking for shall be certainly received, unless our petitions are grounded on some real knowledge of the mind and method of God; otherwise asking would be a mere crying for the moon. [Note: C. Gore, Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer, 15.]
Christ’s signature is at every promise, His name perfumes each one. They are all “yea” in Him. [Note: A. A. Bonar, Wayside Wells, 111.]
