1914 104 "They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth tor trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." Such is God's disposition towards His children; We can and ought to feel perfectly sure of it. Prayer is the expression of dependence; it is also the expression of confidence. There must be faith in it, and faith is confidence. When we have God's word that He will hear and answer, who among His people would dare to doubt it? Therefore, are we exhorted to "pray without ceasing."
This means, Pray at all times, under all circumstances. Pray when you are afflicted. Pray when you are sick. Pray when you are in need. Pray when in distress. Pray when persecuted. Pray for those of your family. Pray for your friends, yea, and for your enemies also. Pray for kings and rulers, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour." Pray for all men. Pray for the saints and for the conversion of sinners. Pray for the church of God. Pray for the work and testimony of the Lord. Pray ever and anon.
Beware of slothfulness on the one hand, and, on the other hand, of an activity which would leave you no time, or too little time, for prayer. Remember that a testimony without prayer is like a flower without fragrance, or a fruit without savour. The flower may be rich in colour or the fruit large in size, but this is of very little consequence with God. "Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature … for [the LORD seeth] not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."
In more instances than one you can see the stupendous power of prayer — stupendous because God-given. It can even turn the mighty God from His purpose when He means to deal in judgment. Think of that! Consider Moses' pleading with Jehovah after the golden calf had been set up and worshipped by Israel. The Lord, righteously indignant, says to His servant, "Thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves… I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation." But Moses would not let the Lord alone, would not let God make of him a great nation at so great a cost to stiff-necked Israel. So he answers, "Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou swarest by Thine own self, and saidst, I will multiply your seed, as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people." In Jeremiah 26:1, 13, we see how readily the Lord turns from wrath to mercy and pardon, and there is nothing like pleading and intercession to cause this wonderful change in Him. And if He is so ready to pardon, how much more to bless when besought to do so
At the close of the period of the judges, the last of these was pre-eminently a man of prayer. Himself the child of many prayers, Samuel bore the stamp of his origin all his life through. This is beautiful, and reminds us of 2 Tim. 1:5. He was one of the few who lived in the spirit of the words, "Pray without ceasing." He was in the midst of a people who had become a stranger to prayer. Alas for such a people! He would be alone to bear the whole burden, as Moses and Aaron were in their day. Hence it is that he is named along with them in Ps. 99:6, "Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name." They were all three the great intercessors in favour of gainsaying Israel. Hear Samuel's words to the people after they had rejected him their judge and God their King, and put themselves under the leadership of Saul, "Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside, for then you should go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. The LORD will not forsake His people for His great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you His people. Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and right way" (1 Sam. 12:20-23). It follows from these words that Samuel's ministry was composed of two parts, viz., prayer and teaching — prayer first, teaching next; prayer the foundation, then the building up.
But there are two ways in which prayer may be put into service: — prayer for and prayer with. Samuel could only pray for, because the spirit of prayer was not in the people. They said, "Pray for thy servant," whereas they ought to have said, "Pray with thy servants." This was greatly to be deplored, but could not, however, hinder praying for them. Let us seek and yearn for united prayer, remembering the special promise, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done unto them of My Father which is in heaven." But if united prayer is denied to us on account of the state of God's people, let us, even single-handed, pray for them all the more earnestly. Let us act upon Samuel's word, "The LORD will not forsake His people for His great name's sake, because it hath pleased the LORD to make you His people." Himself acted. on the assurance that sovereign goodness would be faithful to itself. His praying faith was the lever with which he lifted up that which was ready to crumble to pieces. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." In the face of growing evil and of the persistency of God's people to walk in their own way, you may say, I have prayed much; it is useless; there is no change for the better.' I answer, 'Go on praying, pray without ceasing, and may your last breath carry your last prayer to God. You will see then that our God has not been dull of hearing.' You may see it before; but if not, it will be to you an immense comfort to have had on your heart the good of God's people in fellowship with God Himself. For, remember, He loves His people, not for their qualities or for their faithfulness, but for His great name's sake.
Ezra was a man of prayer. How noble and heart-pricking is his attitude in chapter 9:5 of his Book! and what a supplication! Confession, thorough and unreserved, there was in it, for in a day of ruin, when the state of God's people is considered, there cannot be true prayer without true confession. And true confession is not saying, 'They have sinned,' but, 'We have sinned.' "Behold, we are before Thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before Thee because of this."
Nehemiah, another man of prayer, following up Ezra's confession, brings it still closer to our own conscience, when he says, "Let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before Thee now, night and day, for the children of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee; both I and my father's house have sinned." But he not only prayed when he had sin to confess — the sin of his people, which he made his own. He prayed as well for the work of the Lord, the work of rebuilding the walls of the beloved city, when he had to confront the conspirators who had determined to bring their labour to nought, "Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them."
Daniel the righteous is another man of the same character and mind — the first two at the head of the returned captives; he, in Babylon, where he was to end his days. "Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." He too prayed without ceasing, prayed with thanksgiving in the face of death itself, intercourse with his God being to him dearer than life. His companions in captivity, dejected as they were, might sit down and weep, and hang their harps upon the willows bordering the rivers of Babylon, he would go on praying and giving thanks.
If we pass on to the New Testament, we meet at once our blessed Lord Jesus, the great Pattern and Exemplar of all that is good. He who could say, "Before Abraham was I AM," — He who "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," in due time was born of a woman, a real man, but a holy, stainless, sinless man, God and man in one Person. And because absolutely perfect as man, He could measure as none other could, the extent of ruin that the first man, through sin, had brought into this world, which, created by Him, knew Him not; and the sight of this ruin led Him not only to suffer, but to pray, yea, to live in prayer, as Luke 6:12, and Luke 21:37, show.
There were divine sensibilities in His human perfections. Could He be indifferent to the blind unbelief of men, to the revolt of His earthly people, of which He had to say, "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children?" or indifferent to the sufferings of all that in which there is life here below, to death's power, to the groans and the travail of the whole creation? He saw all, felt all, prayed concerning all. Secret prayers, it is true, but prayers into which we may have a little insight when we hear His groans and see His tears. For He groaned in His spirit and was troubled when He saw Mary weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which were with her. And He wept by Lazarus' grave, wept over Jerusalem, wept in Gethsemane, where three of His disciples heard the words of His unfathomable prayer, that prayer which the Holy Spirit alludes to in Heb. 5:7, "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and He was heard in that He feared." He was saved from death in that He came forth out of it by resurrection, with all the trophies of His redemption work at the cross.
Let us now consider, in the Epistles of Paul, the efficacy which the great apostle attached to prayer. He prays and begs to be prayed for.
In Romans 1:9 he says, "God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers." In Romans 12 he writes, "Continuing instant in prayer." In Romans 15, "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."
In 2 Cor. 1:11, he says, "Ye also helping together by prayer for us." In Eph. 1. 1:6, "I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers"; and in Eph. 6:18, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel."
To his dear Philippians he writes, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy." And we know the marvellous prescription he gave them against the cares and worry of the daily life, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
With the Colossians he is no less instant on prayer, "We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you." Again, "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you." And again, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving, withal praying also for us." Speaking of Epaphras, one like-minded with him, he says, "Always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God."
In 1 Thess, he writes, "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers," and "night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith."
To Timothy he writes, "I exhort therefore that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; for this is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
Finally, in Philemon we read, "I thank my God, making mention of thee in my prayers," and again, "I trust that through your prayers I shall be given to you."
Remembering Moses' words to Joshua, "Would God that all the LORD'S people were prophets," we say with earnest desire, Would God that all the Lord's people were men of prayer! P.C.