The
natural homage due to God from His creatures (man) is prayer. God being Himself all blessed, and the sole Source and Giver of blessedness, can receive no recompense from any of His creatures but only in the form of homage. Therefore prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ Jesus, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. Its several parts include: adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition, intercession and pleading. Thus prayer is the vital breath of Christianity in the soul.
God alone is the proper object of Christian worship. (Matt. 4:10) The general reason for this is that He alone possesses the attributes which are implied in the offer of Christian worship. To be able to hear all the prayers of His creature, God is undoubtedly Omniscience, otherwise all our prayers will not reach His ears. The prayer conveyed to Him, utterly confound and overwhelm finite understanding, in any attempt to distinguish, comprehend and judge the contents. This therefore confirms the fact that God – the Being to whom we resort in prayer, is an all-wise and all-knowing God that is able to know infallibly what is best for us, and how to procure it for us.
Secondly, this God must be infinitely good, otherwise man would have no sufficient ‘warrant’ to make our request to Him, and His benevolence would be over-taxed by such constant and innumerable requests.
Thirdly, He must be* confirmed Almighty, to be adequate refuge and dependence for the souls of men finite creatures, in all exigencies. Some urgent wants and dangers might arise, which only omnipotence can meet.
These divine exclusive qualities make God the only divine Being worthy of man’s worship, thus rejecting and dening all such petitions or appeals to saints and angels as idolatrous for us sinners. The door of prayer is only opened by the “Covenant of Grace” because God the Father stands economically as the representative of the whole Trinity, on the part of the Godhead, as Christ the Son stands as sinners’ representative in that transaction. Hence prayer is us addressed to the Father through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. “For by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” – Eph. 2:8. – “Grace” here “is what God may be free to do, and indeed what He does, accordingly, for the lost, after Christ has died on behalf of them” And it is by entrusting ourselves to God (faith) that we are saved, not that faith is the means of our salvation, but simply the channel.
The duty of prayer reposes immediately on God’s command, who “wills that men pray everywhere” (1 Tim. 2:8) But this is a precept which most eminently commends itself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God for the duty of prayer. That this is true, is obviously suggested by the strength of the instinct of devotion in every rational breast. The immediate prompting of the sense of want or sin, in the creature, is to make him say:
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I”. (Ps. 61:2).
And, wherever there is religion – true or false – there is prayer. Even the speculative atheist, when pressed by danger has been known to belie his pretended creed, by calling in anguish upon God, whom he had denied. This natural instinct of prayer depends for its ground, on God’s perfections and man’s dependence and wants. And so long as these two facts remain what they are, man must remain a praying creature, therefore to tell a believer not to pray, is to command him to cease to be a man.
Prayer is the natural homage due from the creature to his heavenly Father. It is the homage to God’s beneficent power, appropriate to a creature dependent, yet intelligent and active. Man ought to thank God for all good bestowed on him – it is the natural homage due from receiver to giver. Man ought to confess all his sins and guilt – it is the natural homage due from sinfulness to sovereign holiness. Man ought to strive to avoid God’s anger – it is the appropriate homage due from conscious quilt to power and righteousness. Man ought to praise God’s perfections. Thus only can the moral intelligence God has created, pay to Him its tribute of intellectual service.
Prayer is not intended to produce a change in God, but in man, and does not draw God to us, but draws man up to God, and thus establishes the connection. Man being an essentially active creature, therefore, the exercise of all those right affections which constitute gracious character necessitates their expression. To refuse or stifle expression to an affection chokes it; to give it its appropriate expression, fosters and strengthens it. This makes prayer a natural and necessary means for all gracious growth. Faith is a mother grace to all others, but prayer is the natural and necessary expression of faith; it is its language, its vital breath. In spiritual desire, it consists in the life of Christianity. Desire is implied in faith itself, for a man does not trust for what he does not want, and, it-is more manifest in hope, for hope is but desire, encouraged by the prospect of obtaining what is desired.
Repentance includes a desire for deliverance from sin and attainment of holiness. Love of God includes a desire for communion with Him, and for His favour. So that it would not be very inaccurate to say that practical Christianity consists in the exercise of holy desires. Prayer cultivates man’s sense of dependence on God, and His sovereignty.
By confessing our sins, the sense of sin is deepened; by rendering thanks, gratitude is enlivened. By adoring the divine perfections, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory. From all this it is apparent that prayer is the Christians vital breath. If God had not required it, the Christian would be compelled to offer it by his own irrepressible prompting. And, if he were taught to believe that it was not only useless, but wrong, he would doubtless offer it in his heart in spite of himself, even though he would be obliged to accompany it with a petition that God should forgive the offering.
Prayer is a means of grace, because God has appointed it as the instrument of man’s receiving His spiritual influences while it is undeniably true that prayer is a condition of the efficacy of other means. It is itself and alone a means of grace. And it is a means of grace that has large value, for it affords the privilege of close communion with God, especially when one is alone with Him in supplications. While on the one hand, there arises a deep sense of need, of helplessness, and unworthiness, there comes also an assurance of the divine fullness and love, which enlarges our petitions and brings confidence of answers to our prayers. It is enough for the Christian to know that all his growth in grace is dependent on God, and, that God has ordained: “he that asketh receiveth”. This is the high and essential ground on which the duty of prayer rests, ground laid in the very natures of God and of man, and in the relations between the two.
There are certain elements of power in prayer which have a clear and spiritual ground; frequency of mind (James 5:16). In such a prayer, the mind is intensely active. The object of the prayer is grasped in all the vigor of thought and feeling. Another element of power lies in the help of the Holy Spirit. There is in Scripture clear promises of His help, and statements which mean the same things (Zech. 12:10); and, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Eph. 6:18). This means literally “praying in every season” or “praying on every occasion” Apostle Paul puts it some what differently but more succinctly in 1 Thess. 5:17 “pray without ceasing Prayer is not another weapon; rather it is the spirit, the manner in which the whole armour is to be worn, and, the battle fought. It is a perpetual state of mind, a continuous attitude of communion with God (see Luke 18:1; Phil 4:6; Heb. 4:6). “All prayer and supplication” is added to prayer.
Gratitude and intercession are two most important elements in prayer. Even though we have the best of intentions, our prayers often reveal our poor judgment, hidden prejudices, and sheer ignorance of what is best for us. There are many who cannot look back and thank God that the Holy Spirit revised their prayers, as it were; noted the intention, and presented them to God in such a form that He could answer them. How often has time revealed to us the utter foolishness of our prayers, and how grateful we are that we never received some things we asked for!
Perseverance in prayer is not for the purpose of sheer persistence to make God change His mind in some such fashion as a begging child finally extracts what he wants from unwilling parents. Perseverance in prayer however is clearly on the part of the suppliant, a state of mind that gives God an opportunity to do things He would not safely do for him otherwise (see Luke 18:1-8).
(To be continued)
