Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.15 – April 1967

 

Learning To Pray

 

Sermon by Rev G. I. Williamson on Luke 11:1

Scripture Reading: Luke 11:1-13

Psalter Hymnal: 263; 252; 273; 199; 280

 

Beloved Congregation,

One of the things that impressed men most about the Lord Jesus Christ, was His constant habit of prayer.  How often the disciples, in their written accounts, refer to this matter!  We find Him praying early in the morning.  We find Him diligent in season and out of season, in prayer.  And especially, in the hour of trial, it is in prayer that the battle begins and ends!  He begins His suffering in the garden with prayer, and terminates it on the cross, praying, “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit.”

And, on the other hand, we mark the sharp contrast between Christ and His disciples.  They could not watch with Him for one hour.  They marvel when they so often find Him in prayer.  And He rebukes them for their negligence, and warns them that while the spirit is willing the flesh is weak.  Nothing shows the great difference between Jesus and His disciples so much as His faithfulness and their unfaithfulness in prayer.

Evidently they were acutely conscious of this also!  For Luke tells us that “it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray…!”  And contrary to common opinion, you will notice that the problem was not how to pray so much as just praying itself!  He did not say, “Lord, teach us how to pray!” he just said, “Lord, teach us to pray!” We consider first, then, the difficulty of prayer!

I.  THE DIFFICULTY OF PRAYER –

There can be no doubt about the difficulty of prayer, for we clearly learn from Jesus Himself that prayer is not easy!  Of course it is true that Jesus was God as well as man.  And even in His human nature He was altogether without sin.  It is obvious, therefore, that Jesus did not have that inward sinful reluctance to pray that we have!  But it would be a big mistake to imagine that prayer was therefore easy for Him.  How could this be when the Bible says that “He was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin?”  I do not say that we can explain it, but we do know that Satan was suffered to put every conceivable obstacle in the way of His being a man of prayer – distractions, weariness, interruptions and the rest.  And it was a constant struggle, as is so clear from the text of scripture which says, that he “offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears.”

You see, according to the scriptures, prayer is first of all the language of a child speaking to His heavenly Father.  And just as a little infant – born into the flesh – finds it a truly immense task to learn to speak with its parents – each new word being a great struggle to master – and the difficulties so great and so frustrating that it often brings an infant to tears – so it is with the child of God!  And we must never forget that Jesus too “learned… obedience by the things which he suffered.”  Prayer was not effortless for Him any more than it is for us!  Even at the end it cost him, as it were, great drops of blood as he prayed alone in the garden while his careless disciples slept.

But we must, indeed, add to this when we consider our own difficulties in prayer!  For in spite of the difficulties Jesus did have a perfectly pure heart!  His heart did ever incline to the Father in all things.  And difficult as prayer was even for him, it was yet true that he could not do without prayer!  He could not bear to live without constant and close communion with God.  And He knew this full well.  Our trouble is that we are sinful.  Our hearts are not without sin and therefore not without the deceitfulness that prevents prayer.  A good illustration of this is given by a present-day minister in these words:

“The minister was visiting one of the families of his church one evening, and they were talking about the great importance of prayer.  There was a bright young boy in that family, and, with a view to bringing him into the discussion the minister turned to him and asked: ‘Johnny, do you pray too?’  Immediately he answered: ‘Yes, I do.’  ‘That’s fine,’ said the minister, ‘and I suppose you pray about many different things, and always ask God to help you.’  Johnny was a bit more cautious this time, but still he said, ‘Yes!’  Then the minister became more specific and asked him: “Do you pray about your school work too?’  Johnny hesitated a moment, then looked him straight in the eye and said very firmly: ‘I get all A’s in school.'”

This simply illustrates one of the barriers to prayer in the sinful heart of man!  For one of the chief parts of prayer is thanksgiving – or rather, one of the chief parts of thanksgiving is prayer!  And yet when we are blessed of God we are so easily inclined to neglect prayer – just as we are inclined to pray much according to our own selfish desires.

Yet in this too, we often find that we soon grow weary of the task of prayer!  There are very few people who do not pray in time of need.  In the face of tragedy or great need we call unto the Lord.  But if the answer does not speedily come it is surprising how quickly we become ‘fatalistic’ in our attitude and cease to pray for that which at first seemed so important!  Jesus said that men “ought always to pray, and not faint.”  We are, to quote the Apostle, “to pray without ceasing.”  “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  But instead, we all too quickly give up, assuming that “it is not the will of God,” and that there is just no use to pray.  And so the scripture says we receive not because we ask not, and that we ask and receive not because we ask not aright.

II.  THE DANGERS OF PRAYER

Because of the difficulty of prayer, our Lord in teaching the disciples to pray first pointed out two of the common dangers to prayer which seem to be the same in every generation.  It is just because true prayer is so difficult that we find it so easy to fall victim to these dangers!

(1)  The first of these dangers is usually called pietism!  And it means the cultivation of piety by means of public display.  In Jesus day there were those whom he calls “hypocrites” who loved to pray standing in the synagogue and even on the corners of the streets that they might be seen of men.  Somehow this seemed to make it easier to pray.  Yes, it even made it pleasant to pray.  Apparently these people found this exercise to be a great stimulation.  They found that they could find good sounding phrases to say, and that they were able to pray at considerable length without the weariness that so easily beset them in private prayer.  And so they loved to do it.

But Jesus calls them hypocrites – which simply means that they were not in actual fact what they seemed (and wanted to seem) to be.  No, for the truth is that they were really praying only for effect.  They were not really seeking God, but only the approval of men.  They were not thinking about God, but rather about themselves, and how they would sound to others.  The fact that other people thought highly of them – esteemed them to be very pious – was their real concern.  And that is why Jesus said that they “already have their reward.”  They already have what they seek, namely, the praise and reverence of men.  But they are an abomination to God because they are really only using prayer – and therefore also using God – to win the praise of men.

A few years ago I saw a new version of this ancient evil.  It was, of all things, on a nation-wide television program featuring the well-known Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.  Of course a television program is expensive and cannot be used as a street-corner for prayer, in the literal sense of the word.  Yet Bishop Sheen managed to do it all the same.  He made a speech about the hours he spent on his knees in prayer!  He even promised to spend an hour on his knees in prayer for anyone who would write in sending a contribution to his favourite Catholic Charity.  It would be hard to think of a more clever perversion than this!  For this man made a public display of the supposedly secret chamber of prayer!  And He even used it for commercial purposes.  Evidently Pietism is still a very profitable business in our world today.

We also heard of another instance of this wickedness in the world of today.  It happened at a crucial moment in a great debate on Church Union.  A faithful minority had challenged the proposed plan of Union on the grounds that it was detrimental to the doctrines of the Bible.  The leaders of the Liberal faction were, of course, alarmed by the fact that they were about to be challenged by arguments from the mighty Word of God.  So what did they do?  They called for a season of prayer – to seek divine guidance – and then, some of their chosen men, with sonorous voices, rose up to pray at length in melodious and heavenly phrases, until many of the uncertain and wavering were so impressed that they were quite willing to follow the lead of such pious men without further argument.

There is one, and only one, way to avoid this danger.  Jesus said, “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”  Hypocrites can stand anything but this.  And we can be sure that those who like to pray much, for effect, in public, are not given to such prayer as this.  Just as we can be sure that those who know the secret place, are not apt to be prayer orators in the presence of men.  In fact, those who know the humble language of secret prayer will be able also to pray unto edification of the Church in the assembly of the faithful.

Of course, Jesus did not condemn public prayer.  He himself frequently led in public prayer.  He also taught His disciples to pray together.  And the Apostolic Church was, consequently, a Church much given to corporate prayer.  “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication,” we read.  They were together, met to pray, when the Holy Spirit came upon them.  They met together to pray for the release of Peter from prison.  And it was while they were in prayer that the Holy Spirit moved them to send out the first missionaries to the Gentile nations.  But we may be sure that they did not pray as the hypocrites.  For they had learned of Christ the danger of pietism; and they prayed, even in public, not in order to have the praise of men, but only the blessing of God.

(2)  The other great danger to prayer is the danger of paganism.  And the prayer of paganism is also very much a thing of this modern world.  “When ye pray,” said Jesus, “use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”  In other words, pagan prayer is based upon the false idea that prayer is a mechanical force which operates in a mechanical way upon God.  That is the way the heathen pray to their false gods.  It is the way that the 450 prophets of Baal prayed before Elijah on the heights of Mount Carmel.  But it is utterly abominable to the true and living God.

Have you ever heard a group of Roman Catholics recite the rosary?  If you have, you will surely know what the Lord means by “vain repetitions.”  The same thing is said in a dull monotonous voice over and over again.  There is no life in it no feeling no purpose, but to get it over with.  In comparison with this we can certainly say that some Pagans are at least more ingenious.  In India, for example, prayers are written on a prayer wheel, so that God can read them – and then they are arranged so that the passing waters of the stream will make them turn over and over again.  At least this is more efficient and persistent.  And if prayer is effective on the basis of “vain repetition” this is certainly a method that would be hard to beat.

But it may surprise you to know that even among Evangelical Protestants today there is a thoroughly pagan notion of prayer.  One of the most popular evangelists of our day will not conduct a campaign until all the denominations join together first to “saturate the throne of grace with prayer.”  If there is not a great multitude praying it is considered useless to plan a great evangelistic campaign.  Another variation of this has been used in which a new kind of prayer wheel is used to prepare for such a campaign.  Various people are asked to sign up to pray at different times of the day, so that all day and all night there are different persons praying the same prayer over and over before God.  And the marvel is that so few seem to see any connection between such practices and the words of Jesus Christ.  But did he not say that “they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking?”  And could anything be clearer than the fact that such modern perversions of prayer are nothing else?  These people seem to think that prayer operates the same way that modern advertising operates; in other words, like a ‘singing commercial’.  We hear ourselves.  And we are told that people will buy things in the same way by a sort of unconscious conditioning.  And the astounding thing is that people still seem to think that God can be influenced the same way.

The modern perversions of prayer reveal one thing.  They reveal a completely erroneous conception of God.  God can hear one man, and answer Him, as surely as he can hear a thousand men.  For “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  And God does not need to be informed or influenced, “for your father,” says Jesus, “knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”  There is therefore no reason for idle repetition.  Words in themselves have no power to inform or persuade God.  No, they are only the instruments by which we are to convey to him the aspirations, needs, and desires of the heart.  And if our hearts are not in our words, and if our thoughts of God are not right, it will make no difference how many words we use or how many people pray with us when we pray unto him.  As a matter of fact, the scripture itself says that the chief part of our prayers is not the words but the groanings which cannot be uttered “for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

But let us hasten to add, that there is a great difference between pagan prayer and persistent prayer.  We are not to use vain repetitions, but we are to pray without ceasing.  We are to pray like Hannah, with groanings of the spirit that cannot be silenced, until the answer comes from on high.  We are to pray like the man in Jesus parable who came to his neighbour at midnight to ask for three loaves of bread, who, because of his importunity (or persistence) at last received what he desired.  When we are in earnest our repetitions will not be “vain”.

III.  THE DISCIPLINE OF PRAYER

True prayer, then, in contrast to both pietism and paganism, is what we are taught in the words of Jesus Christ.  “After this manner therefore pray ye,” He said as He taught His disciples the well-known Lord’s Prayer.  It will be our purpose – during the next few Sundays – to present a series of meditations on this prayer taught by our Lord.  But just now we wish to consider this prayer as a whole in order that we might summarize the principles of true prayer.

(1)  And the first thing that we may notice as we consider this – the perfect prayer – is the utter simplicity of it.  There are no ‘high sounding’ phrases in it.  There are no poetic expressions, no ‘great swelling words of vanity.’  There is only the plainest expression of truth, in words that can have meaning only if they are spoken with sincerity of heart.

(2)  And marks also their brevity.  Six simple petitions – none of which contain more than ten words!  And the whole prayer can be uttered in a few seconds, without a single repetition.  What a testimony against all eloquence and oratory in prayer!  Are we not reminded of the words of Solomon, who said, “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.”  Truly a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.”  And the perfect prayer is brief!

(3)  Yet in spite of its brevity it is a comprehensive prayer.  Nothing is sacrificed because of the brief and simple form, for there is nothing forgotten, nothing lacking.  It begins with faith, and ends with praise.  It begins with God’s name and end’s with His praise.  And it contains every right aspiration and request.  Because it recognizes the greatness of God – because it conceives of God as the one from whom, and by whom, and for whom, all things exist – it concerns itself first and foremost with the honour and glory of His name – with the progress of His Kingdom and the supremacy of His will.  Because sinful man is nothing – because He is utterly unworthy of the least of God’s blessings – it makes humble petition for the least of his blessings first, saying, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  It asks for nothing but that which is needful, and pays particular attention to our spiritual needs forgiveness of sin and victory over temptation and evil.

(4)  And yet, for all that, it excels above all in the sentiment of confidence in the sure mercies of God.  In this prayer Christ teaches us to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may find help in time of need.  The prayer begins with confidence that God is our heavenly father and boldly asks accordingly, that which is agreeable to His will.  It ends with assurance because the kingdom and the power and the glory are His for ever and ever.

(5)  And so we must say that true prayer is first of all a matter of obedience to the Word of Jesus Christ.  It is not a matter of special mysterious power that God confers upon some of His children only.  For to every believer is given the Spirit of adoption by which we cry “Abba, Father.”  Nor is it – as some have said – “an art to be cultivated by practicing certain phrases and words.”  Rather is it a thing that is to be learned in the school of humble obedience to our Lord who said, “After this manner therefore pray ye…!”  We must learn the Lord’s Prayer, in other words – learn not only its words and phrases, but also its meaning: until it becomes such a part of us that all our prayers follow after the same perfect pattern.  Jesus did not say that we were always to pray the very words of this prayer, but He did say that we were always to pray after this manner.

And this simply brings us to our starting place again: for, as we said at the beginning of our meditation, there is no easy way to true prayer.  And every attempt to make it easy will lead either to the direction of pietism or paganism – vain repetitions or hypocritical display.  Paul the Apostle said, to the Christians in Rome, “I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.”  Evidently the Apostle did not find it easy to pray according to the will of the Lord.  It wasn’t easy to be faithful in prayer – yet obedient – simple – and yet sincere, – comprehensive – and yet brief.  Nor will it be easy for us.  But we may be sure that sincere obedience to the rule that Christ has given will be abundantly rewarded.  For we have the assurance that if we pray truly “after this manner” – we shall receive the blessing of the Lord.  As we read in Psalm 134:

O bless our God, with one accord,
ye faithful servants of the Lord,
Who in His house do stand by night,
and praise Him there with all your might.
Lift up your hands, in prayer draw nigh:
unto His sanctuary high,
Bless ye the Lord, kneel at His feet,
and worship him with reverence meet.
Jehovah bless thee from above,
from Zion in His boundless love,
Our God, who heaven and earth did frame,
blest be His great and holy name.

And Psalm 142:

The righteous then shall gather round
to share the blessing I have found
Their hearts made glad because they see
how richly God has dealt with me.

Amen.