II. Prayer and the Promises
You need not utterly despair even of those who for the present
"turn again and rend you." For if all your arguments and persuasives fail,
there is yet another remedy left, and one that is frequently found effectual,
when no other method avails. This is prayer. Therefore, whatsoever you desire
or want, either for others or for your own soul, "Ask, and it shall be given
you." -- JOHN
WESLEY
WITHOUT the promise prayer is eccentric and baseless. Without prayer, the
promise is dim, voiceless, shadowy, and impersonal. The promise makes prayer
dauntless and irresistible. The Apostle Peter declares that God has given to us
"exceeding great and precious promises." "Precious" and "exceeding great"
promises they are, and for this very cause we are to "add to our faith," and
supply virtue. It is the addition which makes the promises current and
beneficial to us. It is prayer which makes the promises weighty, precious and
practical. The Apostle Paul did not hesitate to declare that God's grace so
richly promised was made operative and efficient by prayer. "Ye also helping
together by prayer for us."
The promises of God are "exceeding great and
precious," words which clearly indicate their great value and their broad
reach, as grounds upon which to base our expectations in praying. Howsoever
exceeding great and precious they are, their realization, the possibility and
condition of that realization, are based on prayer. How glorious are these
promises to the believing saints and to the whole Church! How the brightness
and bloom, the fruitage and cloudless midday glory of the future beam on us
through the promises of God! Yet these promises never brought hope to bloom or
fruit to a prayerless heart. Neither could these promises, were they a
thousandfold increased in number and preciousness, bring millennium glory to a
prayerless Church. Prayer makes the promise rich, fruitful and a conscious
reality.
Prayer as a spiritual energy, and illustrated in
its enlarged and mighty working, makes way for and brings into practical
realization the promises of God.
God's promises cover all things which pertain to
life and godliness, which relate to body and soul, which have to do with time
and eternity. These promises bless the present and stretch out in their
benefactions to the illimitable and eternal future. Prayer holds these promises
in keeping and in fruition. Promises are God's golden fruit to be plucked by
the hand of prayer. Promises are God's incorruptible seed, to be sown and
tilled by prayer.
Prayer and the promises are interdependent. The
promise inspires and energizes prayer, but prayer locates the promise, and
gives it realization and location. The promise is like the blessed rain falling
in full showers, but prayer, like the pipes, which transmit, preserve and
direct the rain, localizes and precipitates these promises, until they become
local and personal, and bless, refresh and fertilize. Prayer takes hold of the
promise and conducts it to its marvellous ends, removes the obstacles, and
makes a highway for the promise to its glorious fulfillment.
While God's promises are "exceeding great and
precious," they are specific, clear and personal. How pointed and plain God's
promise to Abraham:
"And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham
out of heaven the second time,
"And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the
Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son;
"That in blessing I will bless thee, and in
multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand
which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his
enemies;
"And in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."
But Rebekah through whom the promise is to flow
is childless. Her barren womb forms an invincible obstacle to the fulfillment
of God's promise. But in the course of time children are born to her.
Isaac becomes a man of prayer through whom the
promise is to be realized, and so we read:
"And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife,
because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated for him, and Rebekah his
wife conceived."
Isaac's praying opened the way for the fulfilment
of God's promise, and carried it on to its marvellous fulfillment, and made the
promise effectual in bringing forth marvellous results.
God spoke to Jacob and made definite promises to
him:
"Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy
kindred, and I will be with thee."
Jacob promptly moves out on the promise, but Esau
confronts him with his awakened vengeance and his murderous intention, more
dreadful because of the long years, unappeased and waiting. Jacob throws
himself directly on God's promise by a night of prayer, first in quietude and
calmness, and then when the stillness, the loneliness and the darkness of the
night are upon him, he makes the all-night wrestling prayer.
"With thee I mean
all night to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day."
God's being is involved, His promise is at stake,
and much is involved in the issue. Esau's temper, his conduct and his character
are involved. It is a notable occasion. Much depends upon it. Jacob pursues his
case and presses his plea with great struggles and hard wrestling. It is the
highest form of importunity. But the victory is gained at last. His name and
nature are changed and he becomes a new and different man. Jacob himself is
saved first of all. He is blessed in his life and soul. But more still is
accomplished. Esau undergoes a radical change of mind. He who came forth with
hate and revenge in his heart against his own brother, seeking Jacob's
destruction, is strangely and wonderfully affected, and he is changed and his
whole attitude toward his brother becomes radically different. And when the two
brothers meet, love takes the place of fear and hate, and they vie with each
other in showing true brotherly affection.
The promise of God is fulfilled. But it took that
all night of importunate praying to do the deed. It took that fearful night of
wrestling on Jacob's part to make the promise sure and cause it to bear fruit.
Prayer wrought the marvellous deed. So prayer of the same kind will produce
like results in this day. It was God's promise and Jacob's praying which
crowned and crowded the results so wondrously.
"Go show thyself to Ahab and I will send rain on
the earth," was God's command and promise to His servant Elijah after the sore
famine had cursed the land. Many glorious results marked that day of heroic
faith and dauntless courage on Elijah's part. The sublime issue with Israel had
been successful, the fire had fallen, Israel had been reclaimed, the prophets
of Baal had been killed, but there was no rain. The one thing, the only thing,
which God had promised, had not been given. The day was declining, and the
awestruck crowds were faint, and yet held by an invisible hand.
Elijah turns from Israel to God and from Baal to
the one source of help for a final issue and a final victory. But seven times
is the restless eagerness of the prophet stayed. Not till the seventh repeated
time is his vigilance rewarded and the promise pressed to its final
fulfillment. Elijah's fiery, relentless praying bore to its triumphant results
the promise of God, and rain descended in full showers.
"Thy promise, Lord,
is ever sure,
And
they that in Thy house would dwell
That happy station
to secure,
Must
still in holiness excel."
Our prayers are too little and feeble to execute
the purposes or to claim the promises of God with appropriating power.
Marvellous purposes need marvellous praying to execute them. Miracle-making
promises need miracle-making praying to realize them. Only Divine praying can
operate Divine promises or carry out Divine purposes. How great, how sublime,
and how exalted are the promises God makes to His people! How eternal are the
purposes of God! Why are we so impoverished in experience and so low in life
when God's promises are so "exceeding great and precious"? Why do the eternal
purposes of God move so tardily? Why are they so poorly executed? Our failure
to appropriate the Divine promises and rest our faith on them, and to pray
believingly is the solution. "We have not because we ask not." "We ask and
receive not because we ask amiss."
Prayer is based on the purpose and promise of
God. Prayer is submission to God. Prayer has no sigh of disloyalty against
God's will. It may cry out against the bitterness and the dread weight of an
hour of unutterable anguish: "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me."
But it is surcharged with the sweetest and promptest submission. "Yet not my
will, but thine be done."
But prayer in its usual uniform and deep current
is conscious conformity to God's will, based upon the direct promise of God's
Word, and under the illumination and application of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is
surer than that the Word of God is the sure foundation of prayer. We pray just
as we believe God's Word. Prayer is based directly and specifically upon God's
revealed promises in Christ Jesus. It has no other ground upon which to base
its plea. All else is shadowy, sandy, fickle. Not our feelings, not our merits,
not our works, but God's promise is the basis of faith and the solid ground of
prayer.
"Now I have found
the ground wherein
Sure
my soul's anchor may remain;
The wounds of Jesus
-- for my sin,
Before
the world's foundation slain."
The converse of this proposition is also true.
God's promises are dependent and conditioned upon prayer to appropriate them
and make them a conscious realization. The promises are inwrought in us,
appropriated by us, and held in the arms of faith by prayer. Let it be noted
that prayer gives the promises their efficiency, localizes and appropriates
them, and utilizes them. Prayer puts the promises to practical and present
uses. Prayer puts the promises as the seed in the fructifying soil. Promises,
like the rain, are general. Prayer embodies, precipitates, and locates them for
personal use. Prayer goes by faith into the great fruit orchard of God's
exceeding great and precious promises, and with hand and heart picks the ripest
and richest fruit. The promises, like electricity, may sparkle and dazzle and
yet be impotent for good till these dynamic, life-giving currents are chained
by prayer, and are made the mighty forces which move and bless.