Expecting Answers to Prayer
God is the same yesterday and to-day and forever. The Bible record abounds with illustrations of specific answers to explicit prayers by those who called upon God in their need, and who, in his service, were answered according to their needs and their trust.
The same God who gave answer to the prayers of Abraham and Jacob and Moses and Gideon and David and Elijah and Peter and Paul and Cornelius, according to the Bible record, is as ready to give answer, according to his promises, in our day asintheirs. A host of living witnesses can bear testimony to God’s unvarying fidelity in this sphere of his universal sway.
All this is strictly within the operation of natural laws, as God sees and controls
natural laws, although in finite man it re- 1
Ulustrative Answers to Prayer
quires the eye of faith to perceive that the natural is subordinate continually to the supernatural. The trustful child of God can realize that, according to God’s ordering, faith-filled prayer is as truly one of the providential forces in nature as is electricity; and that, in conformity with the letter and spirit of God’s promises with reference to such prayer, the greater force may as truly operate, on occasions, for the advantage of a particular child of God, as does the lesser force when that child sends a personal message and receives a specific answer over the wires of the telegraph or of the long-distance telephone.
One who believes that the “laws of nature,” by their very mention, presuppose the existence and control of an intelligent Lawgiver, cannot conceive of that Lawgiver as unable or unwilling to have his laws operate in particular providences, as well as in general, for the help of those who come to him in accordance with his
specific directions. Reasonable men must 2 believe that God can control and direct his laws at least as well as man can control and direct laws which he makes. Therefore it is that so many of God’s children come to their Father in faith-filled prayer, expecting to receive specific answers to their prayers, and are not disappointed.
Faith rests not on prayer, but on God. (| Prayer is merely one of the means of communicating with God; yet prayer is not the only means, Faith is more than reason, but faith is ever reasonable. As Dr. Mark Hopkins expressed it: “Faith takes God at his word, and surely that is reasonable. It is the most reasonable thing in the world to believe that God will do as he has promised.” Such reasonable faith is the basis of all proper prayer.
God’s specific promises of answer to faith-filled prayer, as given by Jesus Christ to his disciples, are none of them unconditional and absolute. All of them have
well-defined limitations within their very 3
Ulustrative Answers to Prayet
form and letter, which limitations are as important as the main promise itself. Yet, strange though this be, the limitations affixed to Christ’s specific promises of answer to prayer are often ignored by his professed followers when they would seek or claim an answer to prayer; and because of this ignoring they wonder or doubt as to the uncertainty that seems to attach to the promise.’
The personal testimony borne in the following pages to God’s fidelity to his promises in particular instances is offered, not to prove to doubters that God is ever as good as his word, but to confirm the faith of those who believe, and who are glad to have their imperfect trust confirmed.
1See Prayer: Its Nature and Scope, by same Author, for a treatment of ‘“Prayer a Providential Force in God’s Plan,” “What to Pray for,and Why,” ‘“Limitations of
the Right of Prayer,’’ ‘‘ Praying in Faith better than Faith in Prayer,” ‘* Mistaking Presumption for Faith,’’ etc.
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Boyhood Lessons of Trust in God