11 Sermon Illustrations on Faith in Prayer

A lady lay in bed suffering violent head pains. While thus suffering she said to a friend who was watching by her side, "If only I could get ten minutes' sleep, I should feel better." The friend said nothing but offered up a silent prayer to God to grant the ten minutes' sleep. True, the petition was feeble, and the faith feeble, but the Lord, who is very tender, did not despise either the feebleness of the faith or the smallness of the subject of the request. The patient presently slept and described her sleep as most delicious. Specific prayer availeth much. We must narrow down our prayers if we want God to give us that which we need. Our children feel free to come to us and ask us for even the most insignificant things. The only hope of their getting that which they want is by asking, and asking specifically.

In one of the towns in England there is a beautiful little chapel, and a very touching story is told in connection with it. It was built by an infidel. He had a praying wife, but he would not listen to her, would not allow her pastor even to take dinner with them; would not look at the Bible, would not allow religion even to be talked of. She made up her mind, seeing she could not influence him by her voice, that every day she would pray to God at twelve o'clock for his salvation. She said nothing to him; but every day at that hour she told the Lord about her husband. At the end of twelve months there was no change in him. But she did not give up. Six months more went past. Her faith began to waver, and she said, "Will I have to give him up at last? Perhaps when I am dead He will answer my prayers." When she had got to that point, it seemed just as if God had got her where he wanted her. The man came home to dinner one day. His wife was in the dining-room waiting for him, but he didn't come in. She waited some time, and finally looked for him, all through the house. At last she thought of going into the little room where she had prayed so often. There he was, praying at the same bed with agony, where she had prayed for so many months, asking forgiveness for his sins. And, this is a lesson to you wives who have infidel husbands. The Lord saw that woman's faith and answered her prayers.

While the prayer of faith," said an eloquent Welsh preacher, "is sure to succeed, our prayers, alas! too often resemble the mischievous tricks of children in a town, who knock at their neighbors' houses, and then run away. We often knock at mercy's door, and then run away, instead of waiting for an entrance and an answer. Thus we act as if we were afraid of having our prayers answered."

Pray for unwavering faith,—a strong (as Jabez Bunting, when lying, said), an obstinate faith in God. Seek much faith as not only lays hold of him, but holds him, and won't let him go; that has the grasp of a drowning man. Seek a faith greater than Joshua's, when, laying his hand on the sun, he held it back from going on; a faith in Jacob's, who, strange as it seems, held God from going away, as, endowed with superhuman energy, he wrestled the night through with an angel, and, the stronger of the two, revealed, replying to the prayer, "Let me go, the day breaketh;" "I will not let thee go unless thou bless me." Dr. Guthrie.

A negro slave in Virginia, whose name we will call Jack, was remarkable for his good sense, knowledge of the leading truths of the gospel, and especially for his freedom from all gloomy fears in regard to his future eternal happiness. A professing Christian, a white man, who was of a very different temperament, once said to him, "Jack, you seem to be always comfortable in the hope of the gospel. I wish you would tell me how you manage it, to keep steadily in this blessed frame of mind." "Why, massa," replied Jack, "I just fall flat on the promise, and pray right up." We recommend Jack's method to all desponding Christians, as containing, in substance, all that can be properly said on 330-322

PRAYER the subject. Take ground on the promises of God, and plead them in the prayer of faith—pray “right up.”

# 321. Praying with Submission.

At a boarding school in the vicinity of London, a Miss —, one of the scholars, was remarked for repeating her lessons well; a school-fellow rather idly inclined, said to her one day, "How is it that you always say your lessons so perfectly?" She replied, "I always pray that I may say my lessons well." "Do you?" said the other; "well, then, I will pray too:" but, alas! the next morning she could not even repeat a word of her usual task. Very much confounded, she ran to her friend, and reproached her as deceitful: "I prayed," said she, "but I could not say a single word of my lesson." "Perhaps," rejoined the other, "you took no pains to learn it!" "Learn it! learn it!" answered the first, "I did not learn it at all. I thought I had no occasion to learn it, when I prayed that I might say it."