PRIVATE PRAYER, OR PRAYER FOR ONESELF

PRIVATE PRAYER, OR PRAYER FOR ONESELF

Here, the greater our confidence in God, the more fully and minutely do we make known all our requests. The more I am sensible of my own inability, and am at the same time assured that He careth for me, the more do I submit everything to Him. And if this is truly done, there is a very marked effect from it. Naturally the more I feel my powerlessness the more distracted I should be about things; but when I make known all my requests to God a very marked effect ensues: and that is, the peace of God which passeth all understanding keeps my heart and mind through Christ Jesus (see Philippians 4: 7) Thus, as I have already stated, there is an unspeakable gain in drawing near to God, and consciously making Him the depositor of one’s cares - “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5: 7). I cast them on Him because He careth for me; and when there is a full sense in the heart of this and also of my own inability, I not only get rid of the cares but I rejoice in the access to Him with which I am favoured.

Every soil on my conscience, and every assertion of my own power, hinders me from this unqualified unburdening of my anxieties to God. When there is a soil, I hesitate to draw near; and when there has been an assertion of my own strength, I am necessarily less confiding in Him. It is, however, to be remembered that the cry of the needy one is ever heard, as we are taught in Psalm 107, that however far away from the Lord the believer may be, yet, when he truly cries to ^[p. 526] Him he is heard. The turning to God in the hour of distress is rewarded. Many a believer, though not pursuing the Lord’s pleasure, and quite outside the testimony of God at the time, has found help from Him when he prayed. Nay, things are sometimes given him because he has asked for them, as it were to encourage him to ask for more. But the believer out of communion with God, though he may be heard and succoured, does not get near enough to God to acquire that immense gain, the peace of God which passeth all understanding, keeping his heart and mind through Christ Jesus. If I have not peace with God I cannot have the peace of God; I cannot draw near to Him so as to be assimilated to His state; that is to say, to get His peace - a truly wonderful effect of being in His presence. As it is said, “Beholding ... the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3: 18).

There is also in private prayer the Spirit helping our infirmities, “for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8: 26, 27). In private prayer I am assured that the Spirit of God who dwells in me has such an interest in me, that He is interceding for me most earnestly, and God, who searcheth my heart, knoweth, not from my words, but from the Spirit’s intercession, what is really fit for me. It is an amazing thing that I am now, through grace, on such terms with the blessed God, that I can speak freely to Him; as it is said that the creature “is sanctified by the word of God and prayer”, or “freely addressing him” (1 Timothy 4: 5). God speaking to me, and I to Him - ‘one person speaking personally to another’ (see New Translation note). Now it is as we are in the Spirit that we learn what the Spirit desires for us, and it is then, as I judge, that we obtain the knowledge of God’s ^[p. 527] will about anything we have on our hearts before Him. It is then we find that we have faith for one thing, while we have it not for another. It is, as I might say, typified by the Urim and Thummim. I come to the Lord about everything, and as I truly make known my requests to Him I receive the peace of God, though I may not get direct answers to my request. But, besides this, I may know that a certain thing is according to His will. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us ... we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5: 14, 15). I cannot know the Lord’s mind about anything until I go to Him. As long as I am on my own or on man’s level I am influenced by natural feelings; it is only when I am shut in with Him, free from all human influences, that I become impressed with His mind; not from something said to me, but from the effect of association with Him. It is like the effect of the great supper, wisdom’s feast; I eat of her bread, and drink of her wine (see Proverbs 9: 1 - 5). When I am in the sanctuary of God I am nurtured into fellowship with His mind. All my own wisdom vanishes in presence of His, and I am so influenced and transformed that I see things according to His pleasure. Therefore, when praying about anything in particular, I not only come to Him, confiding in His love, but I confide in His wisdom. I have to do with a greater than Solomon.

One may pray in faith, in simple confidence that He will hear, as the apostles did when they returned to their own company (Acts 4: 24 - 30); or one may be corrected as to one’s desire, as Paul was after he had prayed three times for the removal of the thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12: 8, 9). In the former case they were in the full current of the Lord’s mind; but in the latter, the Lord’s mind was not in accordance with the apostle’s desire; but as soon as he heard His mind he was quite ^[p. 528] happy, and his own mind was in perfect concert with the Lord’s mind. I believe when there is real waiting on the Lord, one is influenced into simple conformity to His mind, without any effort. Moses learned in the mount what suited God, so that when he was called to take his place among Israel, turned to idolatry, he knew how to act for God. Just as the bewildered psalmist (Psalm 73) when he is in the sanctuary sees everything the reverse of what he saw when outside it. I need not add more on private prayer, except that it is in private that God is learned; and it is only in the measure that we know private prayer that we can enter on prayer for others, either in private or in public.