To Mrs. B——
Presumption taken for faith — Doctrines abused — The assertion, “Believe that j’ou have it, and you have it,” not Scriptural — Importunate prayer unanswered — An unauthorized petitioner — The Pharisee — The seeker of sanctification — The lame and blind offered in sacrifice. The backslider’s prayer — Divine direction sought in vain — Meddhng viith secret things — Why some parents cannot believe — Unholy hands lifted up.
Mr Dear Sister in Jesus, — Again I address you in further answer to your inquiry in relation to the text, “What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” In my former communication on this theme, the Lord blessed me with gracious refreshings from his word, while endeavoring to set forth his faithfulness. But the subject is so pre-eminently important, and so extensive in bearing, that I cannot feel satisfied without presenting some additional remarks, in order to a fuller illustration of my views.
There are conditions which must be carefully met; otherwise it is impossible really to believe that we receive. On this account, many who are continually asking and receive not, are disposed to regard this most precious passage as difficult to be understood. I have even heard those who have quoted it, as illustrative of the way in which the answer to their petitions had been apprehended, found fault with as not being orthodox.
“Shall we give it up?” False Version. No Answer.
I am aware that there are those who have wrested this, as they do other scriptures, to their own destruction. But shall we give up a portion from our Father’s hand so replete with instruction in simplifying the way of faith? Shall we give it up, I ask, because it has been abused? As well might we give up the doctrine of free grace, or salvation by faith; for Universalists have abused the former, and Antinomians the latter.
I have occasionally heard, with grief, the remark, from persons whom I have regarded as entirely sincere, “Only believe you have it, and you have got it.” This has been said when there was apparently an entire unfitness in the individual addressed for the reception of such an exhortation. And then, the phraseology is not Scriptural, and is liable to a construction wholly unauthorized by the passage of which it claims to be a version.
But there are those who shrink from this text, imagining that their experience does not furnish corroborative testimony in favor of its truthfulness. They fix on some given point, relative to which frequent prayer has been made, and attempts to exercise faith long persisted in; but in fruitlessness of result they have turned despairingly away, conscious that the things desired had not been granted.
Such may, on examination, find that they started from a wrong point. The thing desired
Started wron. The Pharisee. Prayer for Purification.
may have been in accordance with the will of God, but the petitioner may not have possessed the qualifications which, according to the principles of God’s law, entitle him to a favorable hearing. As has been stated, a variety of points is here involved, a few of which only at present can be mentioned.
In the first place, if he has come for pardon, his spirit may be unhumbled. It is only to the humble and contrite that pardon has been promised. “He shall save the humble person;” “He saveth such as be of a contrite spirit;” “Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble;” “Because thou didst humble thyself,” &c. The unhumbled Pharisee went away, perhaps dehghting himself with the idea that his boastful service had been received as true homage. But did his believing it to be so make it really so? Had his service been accepted, then the faithful and true Witness had gone aside from his word; for by this he was assured that it was only “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
Another asks for the purification of his nature. “Can I doubt,” says he, “whether it be in accordance with the will of God, that I should be ’ sanctified throughout, body, soul, and spirit?’ No; * this is the will of God, even my sanctification.’ Surely I may now ask, and believe that I receive.” He
Prayer for Purity unanswered- Why.
asks, but does not receive. Why? Not because the petition is not in accordance with the will of God, but because there is an unwillingness in hinr to comply with the conditions upon which the blessing has been promised. He may be indulging in some practice which he has reason to believe inconsistent with the purification of his nature.
Sanctification implies a coming out from the world in such a sense as not to be governed by its opinions; a crucifixion; a cutting off a right hand; a plucking out a right eye. The petitioner, though consciously unwilling to submit to the painful process, still, with strong cries and tears, urges his plea, and in his expostulations says, “Lord, hast thou not said, ‘What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them?’” As well might they who came in the days of the prophet Malachi, with their polluted offerings, and covered the altar with tears, in their implorings for acceptance, have believed that Grod, contrary to the express declaration of his word, received the blind, lame, and sick, as acceptable sacrifice. Would their endeavors to believe that God did accept, have made it so? And yet who more desirous than they for the acceptance of their offerings?
The backslider in heart may come, asking for some less important good than his spiritual neces- “If ye abide in me.” Prayer for Wisdom.
sities demand. He asks, but does not receive, because he is unmindful of the condition, ‘’ If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done imto you.” He does not abide in Christ, and therefore has no right to expect the answer on these premises. He “asks and receives not, because he asks amiss, that he may consume it upon his lusts.”
A sincerely disposed disciple of the Lord Jesus, feeling his need of divine guidance, asks wisdom; he then proceeds to the prosecution of the matter in hand, with much the same fearfulness and uncertainty that would have marked his course had he not asked divine direction. Though he asked in obedience to the will of his heavenly Father, yet his mind was not settled in the persuasion that wisdom from above would be given, to guide the affair to a heaven-directed conclusion. He may, perhaps, indulge a faint hope that all may be divinely ordered; but is the condition, implied in the tender of dine direction, met? He has not asked “in faith, nothing wavering.’’^ “He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven of the wind and tossed; let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.”
Another asks, and receives not, because he asks
for that which it is not needful he should have.
Perhaps he asks for knowledge of things of which
God hath said, ‘’It is not for you to know.’*
Secret Things. Children prayed for and indulged.
“Secret things belong imto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children.” Notwithstanding these dissuasives, he continues to ask. He may believe that he receives; but does this belief make it so? You have heard of those of late who have acted on this assumption, and the disastrous result seems to intimate that Satan answered the petition.
Another says:” I have prayed long and earnestly, that my children may be induced to choose the path to eternal life. Negligence, in training them up in the way they should go, may have marked the course of the parent. At the very time the petition is offered, those children may be indulging in practices of wordly conformity, from which the parent well knows they will have to depart, in order to get into the way to heaven. The reason why such cannot believe they receive when they pray, is but too evident.
But I might enlarge quite beyond the bounds of another sheet. The subject is prolific; beyond my power to present in detail. Suffice it to say, that the reason why very many petitioners ask, and receive not, may be inferred from 1 Tim. ii, 8: they do not “lift up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” In the eye of Omniscience, purity of motive is wanting; such ask, and may not believe that they receive what things soever they desire when they pray.
One Father. Prayer for a Revival.
If opportunity should offer, it will give me pleasure to pursue this subject by way of telling you of some answers to prayer, received on precisely the principle laid down in the text, relative to which you have asked my views.
Yours, in love.