PRAYER
[p. 157] PRAYER
It is very helpful to see that this was the time of the last of the judges, and the last judge. That period of time very much typifies this present time. They had no king and were entirely under the rule of God up till now but after various failures, the last man came. His power is prayer, he comes by prayer. He was the one sent in answer to prayer (see 1 Samuel 1: 11). It is very evident that prayer is very little understood, for Eli thought that Hannah was drunken (verse 13). Her prayer was answered, and she called his name Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of Jehovah”. Samuel comes forward at the very time when the children of Israel were oppressed by their enemies the Philistines. Now the Philistines were not their natural enemies. These were the seven nations in the land, but the Philistines were not the natural inhabitants of the land. They originally came up from Egypt, and they settled in the best part of the land. Here we find they oppressed the children of Israel so that they were not able even to sharpen their tools. They were captives in their own house, worse than prisoners, for they were shut up in their own place. The only resource for them is prayer. There is nothing which gives a greater idea of dependence than praying. I have no confidence in self, and no dependence on self but in another, all help must come from elsewhere, that is prayer. Prayer looks off to another. We must look at the subject of prayer first. The greater sense we have of the grace of God, the more we pray. It is not the man that goes on and sees a lot of beautiful truth, and merely admires it all that is the prayerful man, but the one that gets the truth, and says, ‘Nothing but the power of God could do this for me’. This [p. 158] is the man that is found praying. “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee at a time when thou mayest be found”, Psalm 32: 6. The more a man is really enlightened in the things of God, and the greater sense of the treasure he has, the more he will pray. It is like a man carrying treasure to the bank, he will be continually seeing if it is safe. So we go on in dependence upon God. The greater the treasure, the more prayer.
Turn now to Luke 11: 1. The disciples did not know what it was to pray. Well, I ask you here tonight, do you know? Have you learnt to pray yet? No doubt you have said prayers and spoken to God, and have done that which people call praying, but have you learnt to pray yet? What is prayer? I am taught here what prayer is. This is the way you have the prayer. We get in this chapter 11 the first mark of the new company. They are listening to His word and praying. In the chapter before we see that Israel could not help anyone. There was the poor man among the thieves, robbed, and left half-dead. The priest comes that way and passes on. There is no help from him. Then comes the levite - none from him. They both passed by on the other side. The good Samaritan comes in now, and looks after him. Israel proved helpless, and then Christ comes in. In chapter 11, then, we have the first prayer of the new company in verse 5. “Who among you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, let me have three loaves”. There are four marks of prayer here. First I know a Friend who has what I want. The knowledge of this always makes a man pray. “Behold, he is praying” was said of Saul of Tarsus to Ananias. The first thing you get is a sense that you have a Friend. He has what I want, and what is more, I cannot do without it, and I have nowhere else to go that I can get it. The last is the most important of all. I have nowhere else to [p. 159] get it. (1) I have a Friend. (2) He has what I want. (3) I cannot do without it. (4) I have nowhere else to get it. The last is the most difficult of all. If I am in a strait about a thing, I pray. I ask God to help me, and I think, Well, if that does not succeed I have another string to my bow, I’ll have another try with someone else. This is not praying, not real prayer. I cannot do without it, and I will not go away until I get it. For instance, you pray that your children might be converted. You cannot go to anyone else for that, you must go to God, and He must do it. I have a Friend, He has what I want, I cannot do without it, and have nowhere else to get it. I am shut up to God now. It is a good thing when a christian has no back door to get out of. When Hezekiah was sick he prayed unto the Lord, and he got the answer before he got the cure. He had the word of God, and then he got the cure (Isaiah 38). That is the way we learn to pray, to have the sense of how God is moved by you. Some say that God knows all beforehand and has it all settled before you ask Him, but I do not see the thought in Scripture. He is waiting to be gracious. God is moved by prayer. Wonderful thought! If we knew Him better, we should be more confident in what we pray for. This just describes what prayer should be in general. Now turn to Philippians 4: 6. “Be careful about nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. This is individual prayer. It is not only to tell Him the great things, but the little things as well. Tell Him everything. I may tell a friend everything, but he gives me no relief; not so with God. I can tell all out, but no one will relieve me but God alone. If I am looking round and saying, If I don’t get it in this way I will get it in another, looking off for some kind friend to come in and help, that is not prayer, that is trusting in Providence. Providence will not [p. 160] do for a guide. In Acts 27 the south wind blew softly. They thought it was Providence, and so all right, but soon the great wind arose, and then it was all over. Tell it all out to God, and “the peace of God ... shall guard your hearts and your thoughts” (verse 7), He gives me His own state. He does not remove the difficulty, whatever it may be. The child is still sick. It is like a man looking to God about his sick cow; it is no better the first week, and the second it never was worse; but, says he, there is such a change come over me, there is such a change in me, I cannot explain it, I cannot understand it, it is past all understanding. We ask many things, and cry to God for many things, but the prayers are not always answered, and although they are not always answered there is a wonderful gain in coming into His presence. It is said that a sovereign of a neighbouring country always made a practice of allowing anyone to present their petitions and requests to himself. The person so presenting the petition, though one of the poorest in the land, had the feeling, the satisfaction, he gave that right into his own hand, and he knew it. He went away with that feeling, but he could not get the state of that sovereign. He could not give him that. Yet we have, “the peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus”. The weakest and feeblest believer has the privilege of coming and presenting, and also of giving out in the grandest style possible. This is all individual prayer (Philippians 4: 6, 7).
Now we turn to 1 John 5: 14. “This is the boldness which we have towards him, that if we ask him anything according to his will he hears us”. I do not think we sufficiently look for it. If you have had a prayer meeting for a sick person, you would know something of what it is to have faith in the Lord that He would hear and answer it. I remember some years ago some five or six of us came together to pray to the [p. 161] Lord for a sick brother. The first week he was no better, the week after that he was worse than ever. A brother came along and said, What a nice sort of state that meeting must be in! You are all praying for that brother, and now he is worse than ever. I said, I think I have a little faith about it. One brother prayed that he might be raised up to preach again. Three or four weeks after that he was preaching. If we do His will He hears us. We are not enough in the habit of praying for one another. If we pray for another much, we get the impress of what that brother is to the Lord. And again you not only help that person, but you help yourself, you gain in coming into His presence. What characterises prayer in the assembly is ‘we know’ and ‘have confidence in Him’. There is one thing more we must look at in this connection - 1 John 3: 20 - 22. This is in reference to verse 17 - “Whoso may have the world’s substance”, etc. The first christian virtue is that which is commonly called charity. If I am not doing that which is spoken of in verse 17, how can I do greater? So love is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13. If I am not doing that how can I do greater? If you do not act according to the love of God, how can you look for that love to act for you? Supposing you say, I have done all that can be done, like the woman in Luke 21 who “cast in all the living which she had”. Well, God says, I am delighted with that. If our hearts condemn us not, then we have confidence. If our heart condemn us, then we are not walking in love. Every believer has the privilege of carrying out verse 17. If not doing it, he is not walking in love, and how dwelleth the love of God in him? Take for instance the man in the gospels - Matthew 18: 32, “I forgave thee all that debt ... shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-bondman, as I also had compassion on thee”. So much was done to you, and you did it not to another. Turn back for a little to [p. 162] 1 Samuel 7. The first thing to know in this distressful time is separation. To be separate from all false worship. “Put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreths”. There must be separation. You may separate from the systems around if you like, but that is not all. They did “put away ... and served Jehovah only” (verse 4). And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray Jehovah for you” (verse 5). I will pray. Now they were separate and there was confidence. Samuel says, “I will pray”. Prayer is always the preface to blessing. Blessing is ushered in by prayer. Here is the revival at the very lowest point of all. The last time, and the last of the judges, and now the revival comes out (verse 6). “They ... drew water, and poured it out before Jehovah, and fasted on that day”. They not only said, by the action of pouring out the water, ‘See how small and insufficient we are in ourselves’, but they prayed and fasted. They had no other resource but God. There is no other resource for me. Fasting does not mean merely abstinence from food, but from all kinds of human means. Prayer is the expression of dependence on God, and fasting that there is no resource for me in anything here or of man. They said, “We have sinned”. Now comes the test; as our friend for whom we prayed got worse after the prayer meeting, so our faith was tested. There is no faith without its being tested. Abraham was told to look up to the sky and count the stars, and that his seed should be like the stars. He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. He believed and he got the son. Forty years afterwards his faith is tested. Now give up your son. Do you believe still? Yes. Paul quotes the first part as to the stars, so should his seed be; but James quotes the last part and says, “The scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”, chapter 2: 23. Faith is tested. Give him up, though all comes through him. Yes. When [p. 163] Israel prayed, the Philistines heard of it, and then came trouble. They say, What is all this assembling together for? What does it mean? When Israel cried unto God they seemed in worse trouble than before. So it was with Moses and Israel. They said, We are worse off now than we were before you came to us. Now we are more cruelly oppressed than ever, for we have to make bricks without straw (verse 8), they said to Samuel, “Cease not to cry to Jehovah our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines”. This is the way, no back door and no way of escape. I know God is my Friend. He has what I want, I cannot do without it and can go nowhere else to get it, and am not looking anywhere else for it. This is real prayer. In verse 9 Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it up for a burnt-offering wholly unto the Lord - all the sweet savour of Christ to God. I am thus in Christ’s acceptance before God in all the sweet savour of the burnt-offering. I pray for that which is pleasing to God and according to His mind. “If we ask him anything according to his will he hears us”, 1 John 5: 14. In the assembly I pray for that which is pleasing to Him and for His interests. In private I go to Him for myself more (Philippians 4: 6, 7). The Lord heard them; what a wonderful thing to be able to say as I walk about in this world amongst men, God hears me, and I know that He has heard me. God hears you! says one. What did you do for it? I only cry for it. I cried to Him and He heard me. What a wonderful thing! The last characteristic of the heavenly company is given in Matthew 18: 1 - 3. It is that of a little child. What does the little child do? It only cries. There are two marks here - first, I cry; second, I give up everything. The two marks are thus dependence and surrender. The highest traits of the new family on earth are these two.
The Lord thundered, He answered their prayer in a [p. 164] way they did not expect. He thundered upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. Thus He often comes in and answers prayer. He has often answered you in a way you did not expect. Pray, and then watch, is the way. We should not be watching for the answer, but be like the watchman who sits up all night on the look-out to see what God will do. Did they think that God would thunder on the Philistines and answer their cry in that way? No, indeed. Did Peter expect that God would send an angel to open the prison doors for him? No, he did not expect it. Did Paul and Silas expect the earthquake to loose their chains? No. The more faith you have, the more He will test your faith and surprise you in the way He works. He thundered, there was nothing to be seen by the Philistines. Then Israel pursued, and smote them, and set up the stone, Eben-ezer saying, “Hitherto Jehovah has helped us”. That stone was the Lord Jesus Christ! We need not set up the stone now, for we have one.
The Lord keep us in His presence, that nothing may surprise us, and that we may continually say, “Hitherto Jehovah has helped us”. - Eben-ezer.