PRAYER AND FASTING
J. Macdonald
Matthew 17: 14–21; 19: 26; Mark 9: 23; 1 Peter 5: 5; Psalm 5: 1–4; 66: 16–20
(Quotations are from the Authorised Version)
I purpose tonight to present to you—for your prayerful and close consideration, as the Lord may graciously enable me—a few thoughts on the subject of prayer and fasting. Doubtless you have observed how frequently the expression ‘spiritual thinking’ has been used in my addressing you on former occasions. Well, you may enquire what is the force of this expression. The reply is—Thinking in the truth of God in the energy of the
Spirit of God. It is helpful to consider truths which are generally owned amongst us, for familiarity with the terms of the truth is often mistaken for the possession in our souls of the truth itself.
As I earnestly desire that spiritual helpfulness should mark these special meetings, I very simply ask you to sit in the presence of God under the effect of the fact taught in 1 Corinthians 2: 14—“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God”; and also under the influence of another statement, verse 10—“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit—for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God”.
The first scripture, received in the power of the Spirit, will save us from intellectualism, while the second will enable us to go on, having confidence in God that by His Spirit we are enabled both to know, and to maintain, His truth.
We proceed now to look at the incident, so full of meaning, contained in the passages which you have just read. We find here a condition of things with the disciples which apparently contradicts the truth of the Christian economy or Christianity—that there is sufficient power in God for effectually carrying out His will. No saint should allow the shadow of a doubt to rest on his spirit as to this fact. If, like the disciples, any one trifles with doubt in such a vital concern, he disables himself from coping with the daily difficulties of life.
Let us now briefly view the matter as it happened. A man brings his son who is a lunatic to the disciples to cure him, but they cannot do it. The difficulty therefore became material for failure instead of food for faith. Plainly they lacked the power needed for the occasion. Thus Satan stole from them this opportunity for honouring their Master. At this point one can enter into the feelings of the disciples; in a way the power was there, but they were not in exercise of faith to use it. They, however, did not understand the reason of their proved inability. “And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son—for he is lunatic, and sore vexed—for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him”.
What a stirring moment it was for disciples and onlookers when the father brought his son to the Lord. The blessed One who is never turned away from the cry of the needy hears this father cry—“Have mercy on my son”, and replies, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him—and the child was cured from that very hour”.
The Lord’s answer is loaded with deep and significant meaning for each of us, and one prays that the light of it may penetrate and permeate our spirits. It is striking to note a few things to which He did not ascribe their failure. He neither says, because you are poor, weak and despised things, nor, because you are ignorant. No, He pointed out to them in the spirit of convincing calmness, and with a searching certainty, the important fact that there lies deep down, yea, at the very bottom of their signal failure, unmixed unbelief.
Therefore we may think and speak as we please but there is nothing apart from faith and the Spirit. See what an important element faith is—it is light in the soul. Here, too, we see the
intense individuality of faith comes out, for there is not one of the disciples in faith at the time of the difficulty. We need to cultivate individual uprightness before God, so as to be truly exercised as to our own condition.
You notice in Matthew 19: 26, “With God all things are possible”, and in Mark 9: 23, “All things are possible to him that believeth”. You see how faith spreads itself out and embraces every single thing that God can accomplish. It is not that we are able to make a world, but rather that all that God requires of us we can do if we have faith. As Paul also says—“I can do all things through Christ, who gives me the power”. Thus it should also be with us.
The order in Matthew 17: 21 is beautiful in connection with the subject—prayer first, then fasting. Prayer is expressed dependence on God through Christ Jesus. There are many hindrances to this dependence, chiefly human pride, which may manifest itself in the form of personal pride, family price, positional pride, and ecclesiastical pride. If I am proud I am not dependent, so cannot draw near to God, for He “resisteth the proud”, 1 Peter 5: 5. There is no scripture that speaks of God giving grace to the proud. The great need at the present time is to be in that condition of soul that God can come in and answer our prayer, and that we may have confidence to tell Him the thing in such a way that it is as good as answered when we tell Him (see 1 John 5: 14, 15). May we see to it that we are clear as to the spirit of dependence in the living and true God.
In Psalm 5 there is prayer, and then the psalmist looks up. Prayer is simply telling God in such a way that we expect to get what we ask and cannot get it unless He gives it. He prayed and looked up. It is not believing prayer to pray to God and come away from Him wondering whether we shall receive the thing for which we asked. When our expectation is from Him we pray and wait. Praying and looking up is a striking connection.
In Psalm 66 we have another wonderful statement, which we do well to take to heart—“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear”. Do you see how prayer—real prayer—is connected with our state? We can only see that we are regarding iniquity as we are in communion. If we are not in communion we may regard iniquity and not be conscious of the fact. We have therefore to ask ourselves the question—Am I regarding iniquity in my heart?
If so, God will not hear. It is very simple.
When you are in a difficulty, do you go to God—direct to God with it? as the disciples of John the baptist, after burying his body, went and told Jesus—a distinct instance of how simply we should act. You may have difficulties in your business—tell God. You who are parents, and have trials in bringing up your children—tell God. Do not bring up your children as if God had no interest in them, for He is intensely interested in your work in bringing them up. He knows the wear and tear, the trials and aching of heart in connection with this work.
But we must tell Him. He told Israel all that He would do for them, but He says—“I will be enquired of”. Well, suppose a mother goes to God with every difficulty—that is real prayer.
Do you mothers do it?
Let me give an instance or two that have come under my notice. A mother once said to me—‘One of my boys has been misbehaving himself and will not confess; what shall I do?’ We just told God what it was, and the boy burst out and said, ‘I am sorry I did it’. That opened my eyes to the effect of the presence of God upon a boy, and the mother said—‘I never thought of doing it that way’. There is a great want of seeing that we can take everything to God. He loves candidness and dislikes duplicity of spirit. God dislikes reserve in the human heart. He knows everything, but you should address Him as if He knew nothing. You must speak to God as if you were going to help Him answer your prayer. If you do not pray in this way, you will not pray in simplicity.
Another mother was looking out of her window and saw that her boy was being unkindly treated by other boys. She saw the whole affair, but when her boy came in and told her about it she listened with as much interest as if she had known nothing about it previously. She said—‘I got great help by that. My boy did not add to my knowledge, but I enjoyed his history of the whole affair; it put me in another attitude when he told me all about it.’ God delights to see persons on the earth that cannot get on without Him.
We shall now look a little at fasting. Much has been written at different times on this subject, and the practice of it has been very diverse. We may find help in seeing that it is not simply abstaining from food; it includes this, but it implies much more. It helps us to understand the matter better to know that what was material in the Jewish system is moral in Christianity. I do not enter further into this matter here, but a scriptural instance will aid us to see clearly the line of the truth. In Luke 6: 12 the Lord went out into a mountain to pray, and He continued all night in prayer to God. The desire to speak to God superseded the desire for His own personal needs. The point is in the fact that He did not say that He would deny Himself, but what He prayed about
displaced everything else for the time. We know how readily we all run into legal lines in such matters; not so the blessed Lord. Certainly we all feel deeply humbled at this simple incident of the Lord’s continuing all night in prayer to God. May it affect us all helpfully.
And now take a case. Suppose two young persons are going on together with a view to marriage, but without any fixed time for the event. Many of the precious hours spent in each other’s company will in all probability be a cause of enfeeblement of affection for Christ. I do not say it need be, but mostly likely it will be so such fellowship often descends to mere nature. Hence it is often observed that little spiritual progress is made during this period. If young men and women were to find out that time is very precious they would not waste it so freely. They are of an age when a week’s time is very precious to them indeed. Many who look back and thus see the hours spent in self-gratification, feel now that a little fasting then would have been to much spiritual profit. If young men and women were often shut up in their closets with God and His word in communion with Him before marriage, it would after marriage result in a real helping of one another to glorify God. I would seek to impress upon you all the value of your present time, and to urge upon you not to waste it (See Ephesians 5: 16). You will find out when you come together into life—into the real stream—that all the sorrow is not over. It is the beginning of a new order of things that you have no idea of until you are in it, and you will need the grace and power of God within you, to carry you on suitably for Him in your new circumstances. If you waste two hours in a week there will be in a year 104 hours wasted yes, worse than wasted. Time is short; and if you see this fact in the light of the eternal word
you will see the deep need of fasting. You can apply it to anything. The divine principle in Christianity is not how much can I get for myself, but how little can I do with in passing along. Can we fast? Can we deny ourselves? The measure in which we deny ourselves is the measure of our confidence in God; in other words, our confidence in God is not a bit more than the measure in which we deny ourselves.
The cause of much uncertainty in our prayers is the non-compliance with God’s conditions.
Even if we do not ‘regard iniquity in our hearts’ we may regard ourselves, which is not fasting. May God deeply affect us all by His own precious word, for Christ’s sake.
(This address is likely to have been given around 1900)