A Christian friend once told the writer that he did not consider it necessary to pray for his personal needs, because God already knew them. My reply was that his theory would be abandoned as soon as he had a need so deep and imperative that a cry unto God would be the natural and instinctive expression of his soul. He was still young in the faith, and later learned the lesson of the value of prayer for every need.

God knows the circumstances of every soul, yet He instructs us to pray for ourselves and for others. Why is this so? What is the necessity of my praying to the all-wise God? Will my pleading move the Almighty to do what He would not otherwise do?

Men are constantly receiving God's blessings and are ignorant or oblivious of from whom they come. Their understanding is unfruitful. Their hearts are unmoved, and God receives no glory.

God removes His blessings and men are troubled. He sends drought, or storm, or war, or pestilence, and men cry for deliverance, and God hears them. Psalm 107 is a grand exposition of the ways of God with men, and gives us the divine philosophy of prayer.

"For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, Which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths:

Their soul melteth away because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, And He bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, So that the waves thereof are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; So He bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise Jehovah for His loving-kindness,

And for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people, And praise Him in the seat of the elders."

The philosophy here is as follows:

(1) God creates a great need.
(2) Men cry to the Lord in their trouble.
(3) God brings them out of their distresses.
(4) Then they are glad.
(5) They praise the Lord for His goodness, and exalt Him among the people.

It is sometimes necessary that men should be brought to fearful straits, to be in the grip of awful circumstances against which they are powerless. Then they cry to God, and learn the goodness of the Almighty.

How quaint and how searching is the closing verse of this great psalm! "Whoso is wise will give heed to these things; and they will consider the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah."

So then, one of the great objects of prayer is that we might know God and understand His loving-kindness.

A NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLE

In Matthew 24:20 our Lord tells His disciples to pray that their flight from Jerusalem be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath-day. Surely God could easily arrange that the image of the Beast (without such prayer) should be set up on some day other than the sabbath, and thus Jewish believers could flee immediately and escape death. Also, God could easily arrange for the flight to be in the summer-time so that the poor mothers and children will be spared suffering due to cold, in their terrified flight from the persecutors.

Why then does Christ instruct them to pray that their flight be not in the winter nor on the sabbath-day? The answer is not hard to find. It is to make them conscious of the danger; to express their need to God in prayer; to receive the mercy at His hands, and to praise Him for His goodness.

Prayer moves the Hand that moves the worlds. God desires a known relationship with men. He seeks the intelligent fellowship and the confiding trust of His people. He wants their love and worship. Jesus said:"Ask, and it shall be given unto you:seek, and ye shall find:knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Luke 11:9). This is a crescendo of insistent supplication for the intervention of God on our behalf.

The Lord encourages importunity in prayer to a point we would think presumptuous, in the parable of the widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). James says that we have not because we ask not (Jas. 4:2).

Seeing then that God has been pleased to make prayer a vital act in His plans for blessing, let us avail ourselves of His gracious invitation to come to Him with every need for ourselves, and also to intercede for others. Let us come to our Heavenly Father with confidence in His power and grace. Let us ask largely, not sparing ourselves the heart-exercise that this involves. Then we shall receive the mercies we have craved from Him. We shall be rich with the riches that He delights to give, and, best of all, we shall have the wonderful fellowship and exalted privilege of being workers together with God (2 Cor. 6:1). A. S. Loizeaux