Perils of Prayer

A great deal is said of the privilege and the advantages of prayer, while very little is said of the responsibility and the perils of prayer. Yet every privilege is sure to impose a correspondent responsibility; and every responsibility has its accompanying perils. He who would exercise the privilege of prayer, should know that that privilege, like every other, brings perils with its responsibility.

Christian believers are accustomed to quote with hearty satisfaction the Bible injunctions and encouragements to prayer, and to comfort themselves with the Bible record of delightful answers to prayer. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee;” “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive;” “Continue in prayer;” “Pray without ceasing;”

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“Come boldly unto the throne of grace;” “The prayer of faith shall save the sick;” — such texts as these are often in the mouths of those who love the Word of God; and the wonderful answers to prayer vouchsafed to Abraham, and to Moses, and to Elijah, and to Elisha, and to Hezekiah, and to Daniel, and to Cornelius, and to Paul, are taken to heart by them as they turn to God in prayer.

But believers are not so ready to note and heed the various Bible warnings on the subject of prayer. “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few;” “We know not what to pray for as we ought;” “Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” To such texts they ascribe less importance in considering the duties which grow out of the privilege of prayer. Nor are they so quick to appreciate the plain lesson of the ie iy ee oe

Perils of Prayer

inspired declaration concerning the praying Israelites, in the wilderness, who asked amiss, that they might consume it upon their lusts: “God... gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” Yet it is quite as important to recognize the perils of lustful and unwise prayers, as it is to realize the true privilege of right-minded and reverently trustful prayers.

King Hezekiah had a good record ina well-spent life, when God gave him notice that he was to finish his earthly course and enter into rest. But Hezekiah was not content with God’s ordering. He wanted to live on in his earthly rule, not for God’s sake but for his own. God granted his prayer, and gave him fifteen years more on earth; and how sad was the result!

His vainglorious display of his treasures to the messengers of the king of Babylon excited the cupidity of that king, and all Jerusalem and Judah suffered in consequence. It was after he rose up from his sick-bed that a son Manasseh was born to Prayer

him, who, as his successor, not only be- - came an idolater himself, but led his people into worse forms of evil-doing than the old Canaanites were guilty of.

If Hezekiah had prayed: for prolonged life in order to do some special service for God here, a blessing might have come with an answer to his prayer. But his prayer was a selfish one, and its answer brought consequences that were cause for mourning and sorrow. The Bible narrative illustrates the perils of unwise praying.

To turn from the Bible record to the record of our personal experiences, it will be found that there are few Christians who cannot recall some longing of their hearts, and some cry of their souls, which subsequently proved to be against their own highest welfare; who cannot, in fact, remember some prayer to God, offered by them in all earnestness, which would have proved their ruin had it been answered according to their desires. In the causes of gratitude which flood our souls when Perils of Prayer

we look back over the way in which God has led us to the present day, hardly anything stands out more prominently than God’s love in refusing to grant to us many of the prayers which we offered to him.

And just so long as God’s wisdom is superior to our wisdom, there is need of our relying on his love to deny us our petitions, when to grant them would prove our ruin, or would sorely harm us; and there is reason for our trembling in view of the perils which accompany the privilege and responsibilities of prayer.

“O sad state Of human wretchedness; so weak is man, So ignorant and blind, that did not God Sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask, We should be ruined at our own request.”

In the plan of God, faith-filled prayer is made a positive force in the universe. Many things are conditioned on such prayer:

“More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of;”’

and because this is so, it behooves him 141

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who prays, to have a care how he employs that force which

—‘‘ moves the Hand which moves the world.”

A man has no right to neglect prayer; for neglecting prayer he loses the gain which right prayer brings: but employing prayer, he has need to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in giving direction to his longings, and he has no less need to ask God not to grant any foolish or sinful prayer which his foolish and sinful heart sends up.

At the holiday season, or at birthday times, many a parent asks his children to say just what they would like for a present. A child who has such a choice proffered to him is likely to recognize a responsibility along with its privilege; and commonly he hesitates among many things before he fixes on any one.

There are children, indeed, who have already learned the fallibility of their judgments, and who understand that that which now seems to them most desira-Perils of Prayerble may before long seem all unworthy of their cravings, and because of their distrust of their own judgments they ask their parents to choose for them in such a case. Again, there are children who are prompt to ask for something which ought to be denied them, and if their parents refuse to harm them by granting their requests, they incline to complain of the refusal. And these ways of our children are much like the ways of God’s children — wise and foolish.

When we kneel in prayer, we have reason to consider well lest we pray amiss; lest our choice be of those things which are for our personal gratification, to consume upon our lusts, or according to our own poor judgment for those who are dear to us; and with all the confession of our present longings and desires there should be ever a sub-tone of entreaty to God not to give us our request if it would send leanness into our souls. Only in such a sense of the privileges and the perils of prayer is there true wisdom, and is there true faith

in meeting the responsibilities of prayer 5

“If when I kneel to pray, With eager lips I say: ‘Lord, give me all the things that I desire; Health, wealth, fame, friends, brave heart, religious fire,.: ae = The power to sway my fellow-men at will, See And strength for mighty works to banish ill;’ es In such a prayer as this,: The blessing I must miss.

“Or, if I only dare

To raise this fainting prayer: ‘Thou seest, Lord, that I am poor and weak, And cannot tell what things I ought to seek; I therefore do not ask at all, but still I trust thy bounty all my wants to fill;’

My lips shall thus grow dumb,

The blessing will not come.

“But if I lowly fall,

And thus in faith I call: ‘ Through Christ, O Lord, I pray thee give to me, Not what I would, but what seems best to thee, Of life, of health, of service, and of strength, Until to thy full joy I come at length;’

My prayer shall then avail,

The blessing will not fail.’’