Prayer

Q. What do the holiest of men do upon the observation that they are unable to live perfectly?

A. Their desire and delight are for it. They say, “O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes” (Psalm 119:5). Their imperfection therefore remains in order that they continually plead to increase daily in perfection.

Q. Since the Lord has decreed all things and we cannot change that decree, is it necessary that one prays?

A. Yes, it is necessary. However, one must never pray that the Lord would change His decree. God has decreed it, but He has also established a remedy in order to obtain the decreed matter. “I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them” (Ezekiel 36:37).

Q. Is it necessary that men pray, since the Lord knows our needs better than we do? He understands our thoughts afar off and knows us, even before one word is upon our Ups. Is it then not superfluous that men pray?

A. No, the Lord wants us also to know our needs, and He will take it ill if we do not know them. The Savior said, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! (Luke 19:42). In the Revelation of John, it is said, “And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). It is as with a father who knows the needs of his child, but he wants his child to know them also, and he will not provide them until the child asks. At times the Lord will act as if He knows not their needs, as He did with His people in Egypt. He saw all their hard bondage, and when they cried to Him, He came to deliver them from it. The Lord said, “I have heard their cry.”

The Lord commands that men shall call upon Him. “And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15). “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). It is the command of God, and our needs require it. Each day we have many needs, and we have no one else except the Lord who can fulfill them. “The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). The Lord will not give except to those who ask Him, and asking Him is easy enough when a sinner still receives in spite of the sinfulness of his prayer.

Q. What is prayer?

A. It is a religious act. It is a lifting up of the heart unto God, a dialogue between God and the soul, in which the soul carries all her needs to God in the name of Christ, with the hope of being heard. It is her desire to tell and make known to the Lord her needs, to speak of them and plead for them. The Lord says, “I am delighted by it; I am gladdened by it. Let Me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” We are to plead our needs and say, “Lord, Thou wilt cause me to rejoice if Thou doest it. Wilt Thou remove my cross? I am unable to bear it. Take away the sight of my guilt, that temptation, and that conflict!” Thus they carry all their needs before the Lord, whether they be temporal or spiritual.

Q. How should a praying person be disposed before he begins to pray?

A. First, he should be very humble. They will see how great God is and how insignificant they are. Abraham said, “Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27). The publican did not dare to lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). With this one must observe that God dwells in the high and holy place, but also with those that are of a contrite and humble spirit (Isaiah 57:15). “For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). Isaiah said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).

Secondly, one must seek to remove all vain and worldly thoughts. At one time the Lord Jesus drove all the people out of the temple who sold doves, and He overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, saying, “My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Luke 19:46). This one also ought to do, seeking to remove all the thoughts of our daily calling. Therefore shut the door of your inner chamber behind you in order to separate yourself from all activities. Abraham said to his servants, “Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you” (Genesis 22:5).

Thirdly, in doing so, one must not be sluggish, not lifting up weak hands or bending feeble knees, not loitering about when the time comes for prayer. Others are glad when they are hindered; and yet others are unbelieving and say, “If I call, I will not be heard anyway.” Rather, one must say, “Come, praise the Lord, O my soul, and call upon His Name. My heart is prepared, and I shall arise.”

Why do you look up against this work? One ought to do so with delight.

Fourthly, before going to prayer, one ought to be saying with a sigh, “Teach me to pray,” as did the disciples of Christ. “Come to my help; grant me pleasant thoughts and a good frame.”

In brief: first, before one prays, he is to humbly observe how great God is, and then say, “Who am I?” Secondly, he is to seek to banish all distracting thoughts. Thirdly, he is to pray with desire. Fourthly, he is to say, “Teach me to pray.”

Q. How must one be in and under prayer?

A. One must be very attentive — attentive in respect to God, in respect to himself, and in respect to the matters brought forth. He must be attentive in respect to God, how merciful, how omniscient, how near at hand, how good, how full of grace He is, ready to do all that we desire of Him. Here is applicable: “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God” (Ecclesiastes 5:2). One must be attentive to the matters brought forth, whether they be temporal or spiritual.

We must be attentive in respect to our condition, whether it be upright; attention in respect to ourselves, who we have been, prior to and in our conversion, and who we are now, even as if God and we were alone in the world and in our inner chambers.

Secondly, in prayer one must be diligent and fervent in spirit, urgently soliciting, because our prayer is as incense, and if something comes to hinder us, then we are to seek to press on, so that tears would also accompany our prayer, and we would show by our humble expressions and tears that we are in earnest.

Thirdly, one is to pray in spirit and in truth, so that our conscience testifies that what we desire, we desire in truth, and we say, “I know that Thou looketh for truth within.” The unconverted sinner will pray for conversion and sanctification, but he does not mean it. One must lay his heart before God as a blank and show that, if what we desire is given, it will be pleasing to us.

Fourthly, one must pray in faith, not thinking, “God does not hear me,” but one must believe that our person and the matters which we plead are pleasing to God, and believe that He is mighty and willing to give them at His time.

Fifthly, one must pray in Christ's name.

Q. How else must one that prays be disposed?

A. Sixthly, one must be constant in prayer. “Continuing instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12); “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). One must not cease, but continue on until he receives the desired matter, and say boldly, as Jacob did, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me” (Genesis 32:26).

— from Monday Catechism —

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