Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

By all means persevere in prayer for the object you name. God may see it good to keep you waiting. The exercise is very healthful for the soul. There is a very encouraging word in Philippians 4, “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” And what then? Does Paul say, “You shall immediately receive what you ask for?” No, but “The peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” This is a most precious word. It presents a character of prayer so blessedly simple. We are encouraged by it to come to God about everything, no matter how small, without raising a question as to whether we have faith. We are to “make known our requests to God,” though surely He knows them before. He loves to have us coming to Him about all our little matters and resting in the happy assurance that He will do what is right and give us what is good. Whether He gives or withholds, His peace shall guard our hearts and minds.

With regard to your difficulty in the matter of prayer, many are tried in the same way. It may be that you ask for things which would not be really good for you or it may be the Lord sees it right to exercise your heart by keeping you in the attitude of continued waiting upon Him. We have often been struck with the teaching of 1 John 3:21-22 and verses 14-15. If we are in communion with God we shall ask for those things that are pleasing in His sight, we shall ask in faith and we shall assuredly get an answer. See also John 15:7, “If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done to you.” This is very practical. May God Himself be your teacher.

It is regretfully possible that a Christian may find himself not in the spirit of prayer. When such is the case, he ought to judge himself and cry to God to lead him into a right state of soul. There is no value in form without power, but God is the abiding source of all power and freshness. And, blessed be His name, “He has given us the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Hence, when you find yourself not in a spirit of prayer, do not have recourse to a form but to the living God.

Our Lord does not forbid frequent repetition but “vain repetition.” He Himself, blessed be His name, in His agony in the garden, prayed the same thing three times over. This is sufficient to prove that there may be repetition which is very far indeed from being “vain.” An individual in the privacy of his closet, or a number of Christians in public assembly, may earnestly, fervently, perseveringly and importunately urge and re-urge a certain matter which presses heavily on the heart, without being open to the charge of “vain repetition.”

In Romans 8:26-27 we are taught that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. He it is who is the Author of every true and right desire in our hearts. He teaches us to pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus. It is only by the Spirit that we can pray as we ought. As to the question of praying to the Holy Spirit, we do not think it intelligent. True, the Holy Spirit is God and is to be viewed in His own distinct Personality, but still the New Testament teaches us that He prays in us to the Father by the Son. A person praying to the Holy Spirit can hardly see with clearness the Spirit’s indwelling.

In Acts 7:59 we have Stephen addressing prayer to the Lord Jesus. We cannot see how anyone could object to our doing the same. We must beware of being hyper-critical.

An intelligent worshiper will always address God in the character and by the name in which He is pleased to reveal Himself. His name to us is “Father.” True, the One who is our Father was and is “the God of Jacob,” “the Almighty God … Jehovah,” but to us He is Father. Precious title! May we ever live in the sunlight of His countenance! We would all readily say that it is not a question of bodily attitude in prayer, but rather of the state of the heart — the true attitude of the soul. At the same time we must confess we like to see people kneel down when they can. We say, “when they can” because in many cases, it is utterly impossible when people are so packed together as to be hardly able to move. There is no attitude which so aptly expresses prostration of soul as kneeling. It looks lazy and irreverent to see people always sitting while praying. But we must not judge one another in this matter. Many things have to be taken into account. The Lord looks upon the heart. May He ever find our hearts in the right attitude before Him! This is the grand point.