The more divinely instructed we are, the more the word of Christ dwells in us, the more shall we value and be in dependence on God. The more conscious I am (and this true intelligence imparts) that all I have and all I am comes from God, the more natural and happy is it for me to be dependent on Him. Anything else would be dishonest and unseemly. If I feel that I derive everything from Him, and know that everything concerning myself is of interest to Him, I must feel that it is true and right of me to own all as coming from Him; and that both my happiness and strength are according to the constancy and accuracy in which I look to Him for everything that in any degree concerns or interests me. This is prayer, though it may be subdivided into various orders, as I trust to show. Prayer, then, in itself, is our natural and wondrous privilege. It is the expression of my dependence, but my dependence on One from whom I know I derive all. It is but just of me to refer all to Him, and it is most blessed for myself to be assured in my heart, that He not only confers on me everything that I have, but that I am, because of His interest in me, free to speak to Him on any subject of any moment to me.
Prayer properly combines dependence and confidence, and according as they mutually increase, so is prayer better known. If I am dependent on God for everything, I must look to Him for everything. I grow in confidence as I grow in practical dependence, because if I can depend on Him for everything, I may, nay, must, as I feel this, confide everything to Him. I have nowhere else to confide it, and if I but know that may confide, I must depend on Him, for everything comes from Him. But I confide, also, as I know that His love is as great as His power; His will to serve me as great as His power to do so. Prayer is the expression of this combined dependence and confidence, and the absence of either must necessarily make the prayer defective.
Prayer is awakened when one realizes that God orders everything; and that He is so near me and easy of access, that I may speak to Him. Abraham's prayer, where he is especially called the " friend of God," is recorded for us. The Lord communicates His mind to Abraham in a near, intimate way; and Abraham then, according to his confidence, prays to Him respecting Sodom. In like manner when David heard from Nathan bow God felt and purposed about him and his house (1 Chron. 17), he went in and " sat before the Lord;" and then states that because he had heard of the Lord's mind about him and his house, " therefore thy servant hall found in his heart to pray before thee." Prayer necessarily must express the amount of my dependence and of my confidence. If I am not dependent, why do I pray? And if have no confidence, what is the use? I may know that there is power there, but if that power is not available to me, if it cannot be enlisted on my behalf, what object is there in my appealing to it? Prayer is the expression of life in a new-born soul, its instinct according as it feels its new relation toward God to be that of dependence and confidence, instead of distance and distrust. Thus the evidence the Lord gives to Ananias of Saul's change of heart is, " Behold he prayeth."
There is such a thing as crying to God without any thought of being heard, more from superstition, if haply on account of it a desired answer might come. This is rather tempting than believing, and not properly prayer, which cannot exist unless the soul has some sense of its dependence on God and some faith in Him as being One who will attend to a supplication. The more we contemplate prayer, the more impressed must we be with the grace and mercy of God in ordaining such a link between us and Him. Such a sense of dependence and yet confidence is imparted as we know what prayer is by the use of it. I may have the fullest conviction of God's omniscience and omnipotence, and yet not at all apprehend the intent and value of prayer. In prayer I am of myself assuring my own heart of not only my dependence on God, but of my confidence in Him; my prayer goes no further. It is always characteristic of my real apprehension of Him in His relation to myself. It is not so much impressions of Him coming from Him to me, but rather my expressing my state and circumstances and impression of Him to Him. There is something peculiarly expressive of our relation to God, or the relation He would have subsisting between Himself and us in that we are not only permitted to pray, but enjoined to do so. The true relation between God and us on earth is maintained by prayer, and while His permitting it is a marvelous expression of His grace; it at the same time indicates the truest expression on our part of our place of dependence. Man ought never to have departed from the place of dependence. The Lord Jesus here a man used it and appropriated its value fully, for He was entirely dependent. It is not a question as to whether my prayers move God or alter His purposes. My simple duty and blessing too is to unfold all to Him, sensible of my dependence on Him for everything; and confiding in His love for me that He will in some way assure my heart touching the state of things through which I am passing, of His unfailing wisdom and His care of rue. This the soul truly praying is always sure to obtain.
Let us now examine how prayer is presented to us in the New Testament. In order to make the subject clearer, I propose to divide prayer into three orders, only premising that the first order may reach to the third, but that the second may not touch on either the first or third, and that the third may exist without embracing the two others.
The first I may call the prayer of persistance (αναιδεια), and the scripture I refer to is Luke 11 Here we find the disciples asking the Lord to teach them to pray, and consequently here we are taught the first rudiments, or the first right ideas of prayer. The state of the disciples must be taken into account or we shall not arrive at the instruction communicated in this passage. They were but just awakened to the sense and value of prayer, and meeting them exactly and suitably to their then state and intelligence, He replies and instructs them, divinely of course. Having told them the subjects which should form their prayer, subjects, as I have above said, which were correlative to the apprehension of their relation to God at the moment they uttered them, for had it been otherwise it would not have been prayer. It could not be prayer for me to address God in terms as to His relation to me of which I had no ideas or warrant for at the time. The place their souls ought to have occupied with God at that very moment was embodied in the words which the Lord dictated. It was a prayer for that present moment, and useable only by those who could personate the disciples' state at that moment. From this the Lord enlarges on the subject and nature of prayer, showing the state of soul in which one must be towards God in prayer. it is simply, as we gather from the parable of the man going to his friend at midnight, not only that I have a want, but that I know of none who can relieve me but One-that is God. It is the sense of my entire dependence on Him without any other resource; and hence the needy one at midnight persisted in his request, even after there was no response on the ground of friendship. The sense of necessity on his own side, and the conviction that his friend could help him, is what he exemplifies. Now this is the first and simplest order of prayer. I am sensible of a want, and I know God alone can supply it; and the greater the power with which these two convictions engage my soul, the more continuous am I in prayer, and the more am I simply and entirely confined to Him. Instead of in the natural restlessness of my heart trying one here and another there, I am ever looking to Him in the unquestioning conviction that no one else can help me. We are often reduced to the last strait and extremity in order to establish unequivocally this dependence on God.
After this the Lord sets forth, that while the persistance proves that I have no other resource, for I should not continue importuning unless I were convinced that I could be supplied, and that my need demanded it; yet, besides the importunity, which is the evidence of my sincerity, I should know in myself that I am appealing to a Father from whom every good and perfect gift cometh down. The Lord impresses that we have to deal with one superior to a natural father. If we ask, we shall receive; if we seek, we shall find; if we knock, it shall be opened; but we must bear in mind the nature and relation of God towards us. If a natural father would not give us a stone, if we asked for bread, or a serpent for a fish, or a scorpion for an egg; if one evil in himself knows how to give good gifts unto his children, how much more shall the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. The gift would be in keeping with the goodness of the Giver, and the relation in which He stood toward us. The better and the nearer any one is to me, the better, intrinsically, are all his gifts to me. If I ask of God, knowing the relation in which He stands to me, I may depend that He will not give me anything inferior to that which I have asked for; but, on the contrary, something superior and after the order of His own Holy Spirit; something which will assure my heart and establish it in the nature and holiness of Himself. He would not give me that which would only prove a stone instead of bread. He is the judge of what is really bread -the bread of affliction from Him is bread and no stone. I may seek a fish, something more than bread; He takes care that what He gives me will not be a serpent, something poisonous to me. How often the fish, something to please nature, turns out to be a poisonous reptile I What He gives will never be of this kind; and if I ask an egg (something more of a luxury), He will not give me a scorpion-something to wound and afflict, as a luxury to nature always proves to be. He will gratify, He will answer, but always after the manner and order of His own holy mind and interest as a Father about us. Now in this, as I term it, the first order of prayer, there is some pressing need, some need, from whatever cause it may arise, that so oppresses us, that we feel compromised unless we be relieved; sometimes it may be on account of our imprudence or failure-such, for instance, as borrowing an ax, and then the head of it falling into the water. (2 Kings 6) We may be to blame in the first instance, i.e., the cause of our present embarrassment may be attributable to our want of faith or wisdom in some form or another; yet we have no other resource but God, and we turn to Him, and wait on Him, importuning for relief, and the more so as we are pressed by the need and believe that no one else can help us; and He does help when we are simply and entirely dependent on Him; not always as we may have proposed to Him, but in a way to assure our hearts of the high quality of His love and interest.
The next order of prayer is described in Phil. 4:77And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7). There we are told by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to make known all our requests unto God, and that the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Here all our requests are made known by prayer, simply pouring forth of the heart; and supplication, which is more expressive of want, but all with thanksgiving, the sense of having already received, for it encourages one's heart greatly to recall God's love and goodness, and how He has dealt with one in times past. Now when you are in this state of soul, making known all your requests, it is not so much obtaining answers for your requests which relieves you, but you derive from so doing such a sense of God's interest in you, such a reliance on Him that the peace of God which passeth all understanding keeps your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. You may have want; you spread out all before God. You make known all to Him; and if your conscience refuses to submit to Him anything you desire; you are convinced that you must not seek it; but all you can conscientiously make known to Him, you feel is so before Him. You are so conscious of being with Him, if you have made it known to Him (merely formal utterance would not come up to that), you are assured that the pressure is gone. You feel that He is for you, and you have in lieu of the pressure, the peace of God which passeth all understanding keeping your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The question of results or answer does not arise here. The soul is assured of God's intervention, and in the consciousness of this there is the peace of God which passeth all understanding, which is far better than any answer, keeping the heart and mind through Christ Jesus, who is our Lord and life. The soul, through this order of prayer, is set in a very blessed and wealthy place; the peace of God barring out pressure, keeping the heart and mind from anxiety through Christ Jesus. He is the source of this peace to me, so that it is not only good in itself passing all understanding, but the source is inexhaustible, and I know it to be so. If this order of prayer were better known and more cultivated, there would be more real happiness of heart in passing through the circumstances of this evil world. The sense that I had made known every pressure or question on my heart to God, and that I had His peace, keeping my heart and mind through Christ Jesus, would enable me to go on brightly and cheerfully through everything with my feet like hind's feet. The soul is in the fruition of this order of prayer in Eph. 6 When after being invested with the whole armor of God, you are praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto unto this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, the sense of security from all antagonistic agencies, only enables you the better to spread out not merely your own wants, but the circumstances and wants of all the saints unto God; and you are thus watching unto this very thing, engrossed with the communication and reference of everything to God, as also for the word of the testimony.
The third order of prayer differs only from the second in this: that while the second reaches to happy, unquestioning reliance on God, and has simple rest in Him with respect to everything presented to Him, in this order the heart is so assured that the thing asked for is according to His will, that there is distinct faith as to the answer (1 John 5:1515And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (1 John 5:15)), we have the petitions which we desired of Him. In this scripture we find, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us, and we know that if He heareth us, we know that we have the petitions which we desired of Him. The point practically turns on our knowing that He heareth us; the peculiar sense of His hearing us assures us that we have the petitions which we have desired of Him. In Phil. 4, the preceding order, it is our making known our requests to Him, and we resting in the fact that we have made them known to Him. It is different my making known my requests to God, and therefore resting in the certainty that as He knows them all will be ordered aright; and the assurance that He hears me because I have asked according to His will. Our Lord could say, " I know that thou hearest me always." Hearing implies acceptance. I have a sense of having asked what is acceptable. He has heard me, and if I know that He has heard me, I know that I have the petitions I desired of Him. I think, that in making known my requests, there is a sense of what He is for me, that I have Him to see about them; but when I know that He hears me, I am assured in myself that I am asking according to His will, and therefore the things I desire shall be granted; and I feel that they will.
In the first order I am engaged with my want, and with God as my only resource, all the more so as I understand Him to be my Father. In the second, it is rather to acquire rest for my heart from the pressure bearing on me; and this is done by making known all my requests to God; and then I am assured, not that all shall turn out as I desire, but that God is everything to me and gives me such confidence in His love, that His peace keeps my heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Now, in the third, it is more; it is my heart being assured of certain petitions being according to His mind; and that as I know He hears me, I may reckon that I shall have the petitions which I desired of Him. When I know that I have made known to Him all my requests, I am at rest, and my heart and mind are kept in peace through Christ Jesus; but when I know that He hears me respecting what I ask for, because it is with reference to this that I am aware of His hearing me; when I am conscious of this, I may rest assured that I have the petitions which I desired of Him. They may not, however, be granted as I may have expected or described, but they are granted in a divine way. Paul may have prayed, and have been assured that he should serve the Church after his capture at Jerusalem, but it is not likely that he expected his prayer would be answered by his writing his epistles, by which he has served the Church better and more amply than if he had obtained his liberty, and had resumed his former labors. The petition is granted, not after our small selfish idea, but according to the grace and greatness of God who answers the prayer in the largeness of His own heart.
I think prayer in John 14;15;16. is of this order. In chapter xiv. 13, 14, the heart troubled during Christ's absence, prays in His name, and is cheered and helped by the Lord Himself, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; i.e., that the goodness of the Father may be known through the Son's helping us, and answering the prayer which we have asked in His name, realizing so what becomes Him that we can assume to personate Him, and therefore taking His name upon us, asking thereby, and thus asking, receiving. Chapter 15:7 is of the same order but with reference to fruit-bearing and service, while in chapter xvi. 24 it is with reference to our place in the world during our Lord's absence; and hence it is added, " Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full;" so personating our absent Lord in the world, that we can ask in His name and have our joy full amidst all the surrounding antagonism, because we are receiving from God whatever we ask, and asking only what in such a position we could only value, even what suits us as of Christ here.
I may add one word as to Matt. 18:1919Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 18:19), " If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Here alrtlepends on the agreeing, " If two do agree." It is the power of God's Spirit rising above their individual selfishness, and giving each of them a common desire; and. this will be owned of our Father in heaven.
I need hardly after the foregoing refer to Mark 11:2424Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. (Mark 11:24), " Whatsoever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive, and ye shall have." This is simply realizing that I believe He hears me, and therefore I am assured that the petitions I desire will be granted to me.
The Lord lead us more into dependence on Himself and rest in Him; always conscious that we have made known to Him all our requests, and glad of heart when in His goodness to us He lets us know that He hears us respecting anything we may desire of Him; our hearts growing and deepening in our confidence in Him, and in the knowledge of His heart toward us for His name's sake.