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Bible Commentary Index
Necessity of Prayer Index
XII. PRAYER AND THE WORD OF GOD
"How constantly, in the Scriptures,
do we encounter such words as 'field,' 'seed,' 'sower,' 'reaper,'
'seed-time,' 'harvest'! Employing such metaphors interprets a fact of nature
by a parable of grace. The field is the world and the good seed is the Word
of God .Whether the Word be spoken or written, it is the power of God unto
salvation. In our work of evangelism, the whole world is our field, every
creature the object of effort and every book and tract, a seed of God." --
DAVID FANT, JR.
GOD'S Word is a record of prayer -- of praying men and
their achievements, of the Divine warrant of prayer and of the encouragement
given to those who pray. No one can read the instances, commands, examples,
multiform statements which concern themselves with prayer, without realizing
that the cause of God, and the success of His work in this world is
committed to prayer; that praying men have been God's vicegerents on earth;
that prayerless men have never been used of Him.
A reverence for God's holy Name is closely related to a
high regard for His Word. This hallowing of God's Name; the ability to do
His will on earth, as it is done in heaven; the establishment and glory of
God's kingdom, are as much involved in prayer, as when Jesus taught men the
Universal Prayer. That "men ought always to pray and not to faint," is as
fundamental to God's cause, today, as when Jesus Christ enshrined that great
truth in the immortal settings of the Parable of the Importunate Widow.
As God's house is called "the house of prayer," because
prayer is the most important of its holy offices; so by the same token, the
Bible may be called the Book of Prayer. Prayer is the great theme and
content of its message to mankind.
God's Word is the basis, as it is the directory of the
prayer of faith. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,"
says St. Paul, "teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
As this word of Christ dwelling in us richly is transmuted
and assimilated, it issues in praying. Faith is constructed of the Word and
the Spirit, and faith is the body and substance of prayer.
In many of its aspects, prayer is dependent upon the Word
of God. Jesus says:
"If ye abide in Me, and My words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
The Word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of
prayer is placed, and by which things are mightily moved. God has committed
Himself, His purpose and His promise to prayer. His Word becomes the basis,
the inspiration of our praying, and there are circumstances under which, by
importunate prayer, we may obtain an addition, or an enlargement of His
promises. It is said of the old saints that they, "through faith obtained
promises." There would seem to be in prayer the capacity for going even
beyond the Word, of getting even beyond His promise, into the very presence
of God, Himself.
Jacob wrestled, not so much with a promise, as with the
Promiser. We must take hold of the Promiser, lest the promise prove
nugatory. Prayer may well be defined as that force which vitalizes and
energizes the Word of God, by taking hold of God, Himself. By taking hold of
the Promiser, prayer reissues, and makes personal the promise. "There is
none that stirreth up himself to take hold of Me," is God's sad lament. "Let
him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me," is God's
recipe for prayer.
By Scriptural warrant, prayer may be divided into the
petition of faith and that of submission. The prayer of faith is based on
the written Word, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of
God." It receives its answer, inevitably -- the very thing for which it
prays.
The prayer of submission is without a definite word of
promise, so to speak, but takes hold of God with a lowly and contrite
spirit, and asks and pleads with Him, for that which the soul desires.
Abraham had no definite promise that God would spare Sodom. Moses had no
definite promise that God would spare Israel; on the contrary, there was the
declaration of His wrath, and of His purpose to destroy. But the devoted
leader gained his plea with God, when he interceded for the Israelites with
incessant prayers and many tears. Daniel had no definite promise that God
would reveal to him the meaning of the king's dream, but he prayed
specifically, and God answered definitely.
The Word of God is made effectual and operative, by the
process and practice of prayer. The Word of the Lord came to Elijah, "Go
show thyself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth." Elijah showed
himself to Ahab; but the answer to his prayer did not come, until he had
pressed his fiery prayer upon the Lord seven times.
Paul had the definite promise from Christ, that he "would
be delivered from the people and the Gentiles," but we find him exhorting
the Romans in the urgent and solemn manner concerning this very matter:
"Now I beseech you, brethren, for
the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive
together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from
them that do not believe in Judaea, and that my service which I have for
Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints."
The Word of God is a great help in prayer. If it be
lodged and written in our hearts, it will form an outflowing current of
prayer, full and irresistible. Promises, stored in the heart, are to be the
fuel from which prayer receives life and warmth, just as the coal, stored in
the earth, ministers to our comfort on stormy days and wintry nights. The
Word of God is the food, by which prayer is nourished and made strong.
Prayer, like man, cannot live by bread alone, "but by every word which
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord."
Unless the vital forces of prayer are supplied by God's
Word, prayer, though earnest, even vociferous, in its urgency, is, in
reality, flabby, and vapid, and void. The absence of vital force in praying,
can be traced to the absence of a constant supply of God's Word, to repair
the waste, and renew the life. He who would learn to pray well, must first
study God's Word, and store it in his memory and thought.
When we consult God's Word, we find that no duty is more
binding, more exacting, than that of prayer. On the other hand, we discover
that no privilege is more exalted, no habit more richly owned of God. No
promises are more radiant, more abounding, more explicit, more often
reiterated, than those which are attached to prayer. "All things,
whatsoever" are received by prayer, because "all things whatsoever" are
promised. There is no limit to the provisions, included in the promises to
prayer, and no exclusion from its promises. "Every one that asketh,
receiveth." The word of our Lord is to this all-embracing effect: "If ye
shall ask anything in My Name, I will do it."
Here are some of the comprehensive, and exhaustive
statements of the Word of God about prayer, the things to be taken in by
prayer, the strong promise made in answer to prayer:
"Pray without ceasing;" "continue
in prayer;" "continuing instant in prayer;" "in everything by prayer, let
your request be made known unto God;" "pray always, pray and not faint;"
"men should pray everywhere;" "praying always, with all prayer and
supplication."
What clear and strong statements are those which are put
in the Divine record, to furnish us with a sure basis of faith, and to urge,
constrain and encourage us to pray! How wide the range of prayer, as given
us, in the Divine Revelation! How these Scriptures incite us to seek the God
of prayer, with all our wants, with all our burdens!
In addition to these statements left on record for our
encouragement, the sacred pages teem with facts, examples, incidents, and
observations, stressing the importance and the absolute necessity of prayer,
and putting emphasis on its all-prevailing power.
The utmost reach and full benefit of the rich promises of
the Word of God, should humbly be received by us, and put to the test. The
world will never receive the full benefits of the Gospel until this be done.
Neither Christian experience nor Christian living will be what they ought to
be till these Divine promises have been fully tested by those who pray. By
prayer, we bring these promises of God's holy will into the realm of the
actual and the real. Prayer is the philosopher's stone which transmutes them
into gold.
If it be asked, what is to be done in order to render
God's promises real, the answer is, that we must pray, until the words of
the promise are clothed upon with the rich raiment of fulfilment.
God's promises are altogether too large to be mastered by
desultory praying. When we examine ourselves, all too often, we discover
that our praying does not rise to the demands of the situation; is so
limited that it is little more than a mere oasis amid the waste and desert
of the world's sin. Who of us, in our praying, measures up to this promise
of our Lord:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater
works than these shall he do, because I go to My Father."
How comprehensive, how far reaching, how all-embracing!
How much is here, for the glory of God, how much for the good of man! How
much for the manifestation of Christ's enthroned power, how much for the
reward of abundant faith! And how great and gracious are the results which
can be made to accrue from the exercise of commensurate, believing prayer!
Look, for a moment, at another of God's great promises,
and discover how we may be undergirded by the Word as we pray, and on what
firm ground we may stand on which to make our petitions to our God:
"If ye abide in Me, and My words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
In these comprehensive words, God turns Himself over to
the will of His people. When Christ becomes our all-in-all, prayer lays
God's treasures at our feet. Primitive Christianity had an easy and
practical solution of the situation, and got all which God had to give. That
simple and terse solution is recorded in John's First Epistle:
"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of
Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things which are
pleasing in His sight."
Prayer, coupled with loving obedience, is the way to put
God to the test, and to make prayer answer all ends and all things. Prayer,
joined to the Word of God, hallows and makes sacred all God's gifts. Prayer
is not simply to get things from God, but to make those things holy, which
already have been received from Him. It is not merely to get a blessing, but
also to be able to give a blessing. Prayer makes common things holy and
secular things, sacred. It receives things from God with thanksgiving and
hallows them with thankful hearts, and devoted service.
In the First Epistle to Timothy, Paul gives us
these words:
"For every creature of God is good,
and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is
sanctified by the word of God and prayer."
That is a statement which gives a negative to mere
asceticism. God's good gifts are to be holy, not only by God's creative
power, but, also, because they are made holy to us by prayer. We receive
them, appropriate them and sanctify them by prayer.
Doing God's will, and having His Word abiding in us, is
an imperative of effectual praying. But, it may be asked, how are we to know
what God's will is? The answer is, by studying His Word, by hiding it in our
hearts, and by letting the Word dwell in us richly. "The entrance of Thy
word, giveth light."
To know God's will in prayer, we must be filled with
God's Spirit, who maketh intercession for the saints, and in the saints,
according to the will of God. To be filled with God's Spirit, to be filled
with God's Word, is to know God's will. It is to be put in such a frame of
mind, to be found in such a state of heart, as will enable us to read and
interpret aright the purposes of the Infinite. Such filling of the heart,
with the Word and the Spirit, gives us an insight into the will of the
Father, and enables us to rightly discern His will, and puts within us, a
disposition of mind and heart to make it the guide and compass of our lives.
Epaphras prayed that the Colossians might stand "perfect
and complete in all the will of God." This is proof positive that, not only
may we know the will of God, but that we may know all the will of
God. And not only may we know all the will of God, but we may do all
the will of God. We may, moreover, do all the will of God, not occasionally,
or by a mere impulse, but with a settled habit of conduct. Still further, it
shows us that we may not only do the will of God externally, but from the
heart, doing it cheerfully, without reluctance, or secret disinclination, or
any drawing or holding back from the intimate presence of the Lord.
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