In a letter recently received from a young Christian I find the following paragraph, which, as I believe it expresses a difficulty felt by many, I reproduce here with the purpose of making it the text of a short paper on the question that perplexed the one referred to :
"The faith question is what troubles me. I have hardly any faith-I mean, in asking and receiving. The Lord saith that if we would ask in faith, believing, we should receive, and that whatever we should ask in prayer, believing, He would give. Now I believed in Jesus, and was saved, and I believe every word in the Bible:and yet, when it comes to praying for certain things, I don't seem to have faith that it will always be answered. This thought comes to me so often:'Well, if you don't believe, you doubt; and surely you can't doubt Christ. If you believe Him in regard to salvation, why can't you just take Him at His word, and pray, believing?'I pray for Sister — to be made well and strong, and then this comes up. I pray over it, and reason with myself. I don't doubt Christ, and yet why is it that I don't have more faith ?"
The difficulty here expressed is a very real one; and there are few, if any, Christians who do not at some time feel perplexed and troubled by it. Yet a careful attention to the very words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, and of the Holy Spirit in the Epistles, ought to make all clear and simple.
The bald statement, apart from particular conditions, that we may ask the Lord for anything in faith and we will get it, is not found in Scripture. This is just what many fail to note. People go to God in prayer for all kinds of things, and in all kinds of condition of soul; and often they pray earnestly, and they try to exercise faith that they will receive what they ask; yet there is no answer visible to sight.
It is of all Importance that we realize the following three great principles in regard to prayer:
1st. None have a right to expect an answer to prayer who are conscious of any controversy with God, however slight, unjudged in their hearts.
2nd. No prayer is certain to be answered in the way we might desire unless it is indited by the Holy Spirit.
3rd. Prayer that springs from selfishness or covetousness will not be answered, unless it be to our sorrow.
Now the first of these propositions is often utterly overlooked. David said, " If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me " (Ps. 66:18). But how often do we go to God in prayer, hoping to receive from Him, when all the time there is some unjudged evil hidden away in our hearts ! I cannot pray "in faith, believing," if this is the case. To attempt to reach God while unconfessed sin is on my conscience, would be like trying to telephone without being connected with the party I desired to speak to. Sin instantly breaks the line of communication between my soul and God. I cannot pray, in the scriptural sense, if I am disobedient, or indifferent to evil. This is the secret of many of our unanswered petitions. God has never pledged Himself to hear the voice of those who do not hear His voice, nor to open the windows of heaven to those who refuse to bring all the tithes into the storehouse.
The second proposition is equally true, and it really involves the third; so they may be treated together. Jude exhorts the saints to pray "in the Holy Spirit." He is the source of all real prayer. When He indites my petition, it is certain to be answered. Now I cannot always pray for the healing of the sick in the energy of the Holy Spirit, for I cannot know certainly that it is the will of God to raise up the sick one. '' There is a sin unto death:I do not say that he shall pray for it," is a case in point. While " Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed," gives the other side. Sickness may be needed discipline which I cannot confidently ask God to remove. But if assured the healing of a sick one is in accordance with the mind of the Spirit, I can then pray in faith, nothing wavering.
Manifestly I cannot so pray if actuated by selfish or covetous motives. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts [or, pleasures]" (James 4:3). This one verse gives the secret of many of our unanswered prayers. We are thinking of our own comfort, fretting against discipline, trying to evade trial, and we get no relief, for God would teach us that it is better to be sustained by His grace in the path of affliction than to be delivered from it altogether. Paul prayed thrice to be freed from the thorn in the flesh. Instead of that, the Lord revealed Himself as able to sustain in the trial, saying, '' My grace is sufficient for thee." How much better for the apostle to enter into the blessedness of such abounding grace than to have had his prayer answered in the way he would have chosen !
Sometimes God gives people what they ask for, but gives it in judgment. Of Israel He says, "I gave them a king in Mine anger," and their king was but a troublers of the people. Likewise, when in the wilderness, He "gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls." Surely the example of our Lord Jesus may well be followed by us, who prayed, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt."
Thus far we have been looking at our subject chiefly negatively. Ere closing this paper I wish to say a little on the positive side, as to prevailing prayer.
The believer is encouraged to "be careful (or anxious) for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." Many times we may not be sure if it is His mind that certain things be given us, but that need not hinder our praying for them, always with the proviso, " Thy will be done."
When clear in conscience before Him, 1:e., possessing a good conscience and a heart that condemns us not, we may boldly bring our petitions to Him, assured that He delights to have us do so, and "if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us."
He has said, "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart." This is the high ground on which prayer is treated in the Gospel of John. The communion of the soul with God is taken for granted, and hence He can say, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you" (John 16:23). To ask "in His name " implies that I am so truly in touch with Him that I can speak on His behalf, assured that my prayer is according to His mind. Thus He says in the previous chapter, verse 7, "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 very fact that we know so little of prevailing prayer is the indication that we are often strangers to that holy intimacy with the Lord which He desires we should enjoy, but which we can only enter into as we are walking before Him in the path of self-judgment and the Spirit's power. May reader and writer thus learn of Him how to pray ! H. A. I.