Book-06-Lord, Teach Us To Pray.

Lord, Teach Us To Pray.

Luk 11:1. THE children of our heavenly Father must learn to speak his language. It will be our purpose in this discourse to study this important duty. To whom should we pray? We have heard men pray to the Holy Spirit. Is this right? When the disciples came to Jesus with the request that he teach them how to pray, he said: “After this manner pray ye.” He then gave them the model prayer. This was to be their pattern or copy, and they were to make their prayers to correspond with the copy. The prayer is to be addressed to our Father—to God. We must ap­proach the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus. Sometimes we are convinced that people pray to the audience rather than to God. It can be detected in the tone of their voices, and we are disgusted rather than edified.

One reason why some will not pray in public is because they are afraid those to whom they pray will criticize. On one occasion a man who believed in “free grace” had in his audience a man who was a strong believer in “Calvinism.” He did not want to say anything that would offend him, and he tried to make a prayer that was a cross between the two doctrines, and he stammered and hesi­tated and then exclaimed: “What is the matter with me? I cannot pray.” The man in the audience said, in reply:* ^< Stop praying to me and pray to God.” I was one time conducting a meeting for a man who was eloquent in prayer, and he im­pressed you with the thought that he knew it. He prayed three times in one of the meetings. His language was per­fect, and he threw bouquets to God and then seemed to wait for applause. You could feel that there was a lack of sin­cerity, and that his prayers were directed at the audience, and I was reminded of the reporter in Boston who said, in speak­ing of a man’s prayer: “He prayed the most eloquent prayer that was ever pray­ed to a Boston audience.” I told him after the services that I felt he was cer­tainly gifted in prayer, but suggested that he tell God all of these things in private and not in public, for I thought God would understand him better than we did.

How Should We Pray?—Paul says: “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. ’ ’ What does he mean by praying with the under­standing? We are told that “Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and He prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” Let us read Deu 28:15-24. Here we find that God had promised that, if the children of Israel turned from him and went after other gods and became disobedient, he would shut up the heavens and withhold the rain. Israel had become guilty and deserved to be punished. Do you not think that Elijah knew these promises and that he presented them to his God in his prayers? This is praying according to the Word and according to the under­standing also. Then, when the people turned and he prayed for the- rain, we be­lieve that he remembered the promises contained in the Word as mentioned in 1 Kings’ 8:35: “When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them: then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an in­heritance.” We know that we are asking according to his will when we ask ac­cording to his promises. The old proph­et could tell God that the people had now complied with his word, and he could ask that God send the rain, and he did it.

How Long Should Our Prayers Be?— This depends. If in private, you may pray all night; but in public they should be short. We knew a man who made long prayers. We wondered when we heard him if he did not try to make up for lost time. He would begin in a certain way and go over Virginia, the United States, then over the waters into the foreign lands and come back home by way of South America, closing with these sig­nificant words: “Now, Lord, since we are not heard for our much speaking, and since thou knowest what we have need of before we ask thee, give unto us the things thou knowest we need. Amen.” He re­minded us of the man who had one prayer, and it was a long one he prayed each night in his home. The children knew it by heart, and could repeat every word of it. One night a Jew peddler stopped for the night with him. When the time came for worship he read the lesson and all got down on their knees. The peddler got tired and changed from one knee to the other, hoping to rest them a little. After he had grown weary he whispered to one of the boys near him and asked: “Is he ’most done?” The boy asked: “Has he said ‘Jew’ yet? He is just half done when he gets to the Jews.” This is not praying; it is simply saying over words in God’s name. We should have a definite desire when we go to our Father in prayer. We should go to him as a child goes to its earthly father. Do not change the voice; do not make a speech; do not try to give God information; do not be like the preacher who tried to rebuke the young man for misbehaving during the services when he said: “Lord, there are a lot of things going on here to-night that thou art not aware of.” Have you not heard men in prayer when you felt that they were trying to give God in­formation? If Peter had prayed at great length when he was sinking into the lake, it is morally certain that he would have been under the water and dead before he could have finished the prayer. He wanted help and he asked for it in a sensible manner. He went straight to the point: “Lord, save me or I per­ish.”

Praying with Open Eyes.—Jesus told his disciples to “watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” Many times we pray with our eyes closed to the pit-falls in life’s pathway, and we walk right into them. It is just as necessary to watch as it is to pray. You have heard of the story of “Raccoon” John Smith and the wine. In his day it was an act of hospitality to place the wine on the table where all could get it—everybody (preach­ers included); and I have always won­dered why the members of the church could do things the preacher could not do. If it were ever right for the member to drink wine, it was alright for the preacher too. When Smith and a minister of an­other church stopped at a country tavern to spend the night, the tavern-keeper put the decanter on the table and they filled their glasses full of wine. Smith turned up his glass and swallowed the wine. The preacher rebuked him by saying: “Broth­er Smith, I am surprised that you would drink your wine without first returning thanks. It is from God we receive every good and perfect gift. I am going to thank God before I drink.” He shut his eyes and began to thank God. Smith reached over and got his glass and drank his wine. When the preacher opened his eyes lie saw that his wine was gone and he said: “You got my wine." Smith re­plied: “Brother, you must watch as well as pray, I thanked God, but did it with my eyes open; you did it with your eyes closed and you lost your wine.^,,

Putting Action into Our Prayers.— Man must answer his own prayers. He must do his part and trust God to do the rest. “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” When you pray for your daily bread, do not expect God to rain down a mess of biscuits for break­fast, but remember that he will give them to you when you have earned them in the sweat of your face. If you want the earth to laugh biscuits, tickle it with the plow. An evangelist was conducting a meet­ing in one of our cities. A woman came to him and requested him to speak to her husband about becoming a Christian. He asked: “Have you ever spoken to him on the subject’?” She said she had not. He then told her he would not speak to him until after she had spoken. When she came to church that night her husband was with her. She was happy and went to the minister and said: “I went home and prayed that God would give me the courage to speak to my husband. I watched for him, and when I saw him coming through the gate I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck and be­gan to cry. He asked me what was the matter, and I told him that he was lost and I wanted him to promise me he would become a Christian, and he told me he had often wondered why I had not spoken to him on the subject, and that he would be glad to accept Christ.” This woman was learning how to answer her prayers.

Individual Prayer.—“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner cham­ber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Do you see that mother who was left with a number of fatherless chil­dren? Many times she prayed to her God in secret for wisdom and help in training her children. Her children are now filling responsible positions, and she is enjoying openly the reward of indi­vidual and private prayer. We bad, in a congregation where we labored, a man who was a machinist and who refused to work on Sunday. He was discharged. He began to sell groceries, and his busi­ness grew until he became one of the lead­ing merchants of the city. Many times did he tell me that he was in partnership with God, and that his success was a re­ward for earnest prayer.

United Prayer.—Here is the promise: “Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven.” The church had its birth in a prayer- meeting. “And when they were come in, they went up into the upper chamber, where they were abiding; both Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all continued steadfastly in prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Je­sus, and with the brethren.¹’ Thomas be­came a doubter because he was not with them when Jesus came. This was before Jesus went back to the Father. It was during the postgraduate period when he was instructing his disciples in the spir­itual things of the kingdom. Jesus has promised to meet with us when we have gathered together in prayer. He never disappoints. When you remain away from the prayer-meeting you have missed seeing Jesus. Paul exhorted the saints to meet for prayer. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me” (Rom 15:30).

Family Prayer.—The family altar has been taken away, and we have allowed the things of the world to crowd God out of our thoughts and out of our homes. Joshua said: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The men of old erected their altar and worshiped God in the home. Job practiced family religion. Read Job 1:5. Cornelius prayed to God with his house or family. The father that neglects this will lose in spirituality and miss getting the bless­ing. When holding a meeting for one of the churches in the valley of Virginia, I urged the importance of the family altar. I came back to the community five miles from this church to conduct another meet­ing. A man who had been an elder in the church for many years came to me and said: ⁶ ‘ I want you to preach that ser­mon on family prayer. I have been an elder in the church for years and never knew the importance of it. After hear­ing you, wife and I erected the altar, and soon our daughter would take her turn and we have been blessed, and I just want others to know that it brings joy and strength. I want others to get the bless­ing.” When holding a meeting in Washing­ton City, a good woman came to me after the sermon and said: “I want you to go home with us.” I did, and she gave her experience. I shall relate it as she gave it. “When you were at our home in Ten­nessee, you know old Scott [this was her husband] would not even return thanks at the table. I told him some time ago that we were not going to live this way. We must have an altar in our home. Scott said he just couldn’t pray in public. Well, one night I got the Bible and asked him to read and pray, and he refused, then I said, ‘I will,’ and I read a chapter; then I told Scott to get down on his knees and I prayed. The next night when I took the Bible he said, ‘Let me have it,’ and he read and prayed. We have our worship, and I want you to come and be with us.” I could see that they had grown in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. They had been feeding their souls on the hidden manna.

There lived a family on the opposite side of the street from our home. They trusted in God. The man lost his posi­tion and was almost in destitution. One day I saw he was selling goods and that he had quite a stock. He told me this: “Bro. Book, one night when it seemed so dark and I was discouraged, my little daughter saw my grief and came to me and said, ‘Papa, let me ask God for help, and she asked God to give her papa something to do, and this is in answer to that prayer. Many years ago I assisted a young man who was in hard luck. I had lost sight of him. After that prayer a letter came, and it was from this man, and he told how he had wanted to show his appreciation for what I had done for him, and he sent the check and asked me to take it and purchase goods and to go into business. I am here in answer to the prayer of my child." This family had honored God in the home and he was now rewarding them openly.