What to Pray For, and Why
God has disclosed himself in the Bible as the Father of the children of men, and men are invited to love him, to trust him, and to call upon him, as true children would love and trust and call upon an earthly father. This relation of father and child, therefore, suggests and defines the relation of God and men; and the scope and the nature of prayer are indicated in their reach and in their limitations by this simple and intelligible figure.
Whatever an earthly child might ask of an earthly father, a spiritual child of God may ask of his heavenly Father; and in the spirit that is proper in an earthly child approaching his earthly father, a spiritual child of God may properly approach his heavenly Father. It is right for a child to be reverent, to be trustful, to be loving, Prayer
as he comes to his father. It is right for a child to tell his father freely of his needs, of his wants, and of his wishes. It is right for a child to feel that his father knows better than he does whether his requests should be granted or denied; and he should accept cheerfully and with gratitude his father’s decision in every case. This is as true in the case of a child of God coming to his heavenly Father, as of a child of man coming to his earthly father.
But it is said that God is omniscient as well as loving, and that because he knows every want of every child of his, as a human father cannot know every want of his child, it were needless, or presumptuous, for a child of God to make specific request of God for a personal gift to himself as though it would not be given except for that request. How can we feel justified in coming with a special request to God for personal ministry to us, individually, as though we were forgotten or overlooked
of God; or as though he could be expected 20
Wihbat to Pray for, and Wiby
to change his plans, or modify his laws, in
our behalf? It is sufficient for us on this - point to know that God asks us, as his children, to make known our personal wants to him, and to ask of him those things which, as his loving children, we desire from him; and that he distinctly assures us that he will be influenced and affected in his ministry to us by our calls upon him,
“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee,” is the invitation and the promise of the Old Testament, many times repeated. In the New Testament the Son of God and the Son of man, while explicitly saying to his disciples, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him,” at the same time gives to them a pattern of prayer, including special petitions for both spiritual and material gifts which God knows they require, yet which he seems to condition on their request for them. Again and again Jesus Christ says, in substance, to his disciples, “All things Brayer
whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive;” or, “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.” These promises, with all their wide scope, are limited by their very phrasing to God’s children as God’s children, and to those things which a child of God can ask of God in faith; but within those limitations they are explicit and positive.
There are Christians whose philosophy of prayer would limit its advantages to its subjective influence on, or in, the one who prays, and who think that it cannot result in any change of God’s action toward the petitioner, although it does result in an improved state of thought and feeling on the part of one thus seeking communion with God. But this view is at variance with the plain teachings of the Bible, and with the explicit declarations of God himself. God says he will be influenced by prayer. He says that the prayer of faith
shall result in special objective advantages 22
Wibat to Pray for, and Why
to the one who prays, and to those who are prayed for in faith. A child of God ought to expect answers to prayer, and he fails in his plain duty if he does not rest on God’s promise to this extent.
When the Syrophcenician woman prayed to Jesus for the recovery of her demon-possessed daughter, and he seemed not ready to grant her request, she continued persistently in prayer, not in order to bring her mind into mere submission to his will, but in order to bring him to grant recovery to her tormented child. It was an objective, not a subjective, result that she was after; and Jesus commended her spirit in this, and granted her request. This is also the way of God with reference to prayer, as taught us in the Old Testament and in the New.
Other Christians would make a distinction between spiritual gifts and material gifts which is not made in the Bible, and which is not in accordance with God’s fatherly dealings with his children. It is said, by some, that it is right to pray for: spiritual gifts and graces, but that it is not
right to pray for food, or for clothing, or for health, or for personal safety in time of danger. But all these things are important in their way to a child of God; and a: child of God has a right to make known a his wants in any and every sphere, in loving — trust and in submissiveness to his heavenly Father’s will.: z
Jesus Christ rebuked this distinction between things spiritual and things material, |. when he asked the Jewish scribes, who stood watching him as the man sick of the palsy was brought into his presence for his healing: “Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Arise, and walk?” and then he both forgave the sins of the palsied one, and restored him to physical health. In those days, men were readier to believe that bodily strength could be given by Jesus Christ, than that he had power to bestow spiritual wholeness. Nowadays, Christians seem readier Wbat to Pray for, and Wiby
to believe that prayers in the name of Christ for spiritual gifts will be answered, than that prayers in behalf of the body and its necessities will meet with an answer from God. Both errors are alike displeasing to God.
Many of the miracles of our Saviour were wrought in behalf of the bodily needs of those who prayed to him. In his pattern prayer, he frames a petition for a daily supply of things needful to the body of the one who prays. In foretelling the dark days which should come to his disciples in the destruction of Jerusalem, he enjoined them to include time and weather in their prayers with reference to it. “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a sabbath,” he said; and who supposes that Jesus meant in this that such prayer could make no difference in the result?
As to God’s way with his children in this matter, Jesus said: “What man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask hira for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for Brayer
a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
We have reason to infer that the thrice-repeated prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane was for special physical strength, lest his worn body should fail him in the struggle that was yet before him, and he should die of exhaustion before coming to the cross; for we are told in the letter to the Hebrews that his prayer was heard in that thing which was a cause of fear to him. And the record is, that an angel was sent to minister to him; and he had new strength from that hour to the end. Physical strength was a necessity to Jesus while here in the flesh, as it is also a necessity to every child of God who still has a work to do in the flesh; and prayer for physical strength for the doing of one’s appointed work is right and fitting, on the part of each and every child of God. bat to Bray tor, and Wg Of course a child of God is to consider his body only in its proper place, in and Fy
for the service of God. He is to ask only in
for that supply to his body which shall 5 enable him to serve God more efficiently, and where and as God pleases; and he is Z to ask in submissiveness to God’s will,
assured that God’s answer will be according to God’s wisdom and love, whether it be in compliance with the petition, or in denial of it.
When Paul prayed three times over for the removal of the stake in his flesh, he was assured that God would do better by him than to grant that request; he would give him added strength to bear up under it; and thenceforward Paul was ready to rejoice in his physical infirmity as a means of spiritual power. This should be the way of every child of God in his praying for blessings from God in the physical realm.
All prayer should be without anxiety or fearfulness. Jesus cautioned his disciples J
Prayer
not to be worried over their material wants; but he did not tell them to refrain from asking for a daily supply according to their daily needs, in this realm. When his disciples cried out to him for help in their hour of danger on the sea, Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith, not as shown in their call upon him for protection, but as indicated in their expressed doubt of his readiness to give them rescue and safety.
Jesus, while here in the flesh, showed by his works that he had power over material things, over disease, over death, over the forces of nature, and over spiritual forces. He fed the hungry, he healed the sick, he prolonged life, he raised the dead, he calmed the winds and waves, he cast out demons, he forgave sins. Before he went away he said to his disciples: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye ‘shall ask in Wibat to Pray for, and Wbyp
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask me anything in my name, that will I do.” Is it not strange that, in the face of the example and the declaration of our Lord at this point, any one of his disciples should venture to say that a follower of his is not authorized to ask in Christ’s name for food, or health, or safety to the body, or for the calming of a storm, as well as for spiritual blessings?
A prayer of a true child of God, offered in faith, will be for such things only as the child supposes he needs and has a right to ask for, in order to his filling his place and doing his work in life to better advantage. And every sua prayer will of necessity be conditioned on God’s knowledge that the thing asked for is best for the petitioner. Thus offered, every such prayer, whether it be for things in the realm of matter or of spirit, will be approved of God, and will be answered accordingly. God’s word is pledged to this. is nacthoitaed ae — for.
of Gor asks for in faith,
necied rests with God.