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Notes on prayer culled from the late Andrew Murray’s book
Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his field” (Mt 9.37-38). The Lord frequently taught his disciples that they must pray, and how, but seldom what to pray. This he left to their sense of need and to the leading of the Spirit. But here we have one thing Jesus expressly enjoins them to remember: in view of the abundant harvest, and the need for reapers, they must cry out to the Lord of the harvest to provide laborers. The Father is the Lord of the harvest; when we pray for the Holy Spirit, we must pray that he prepare and send out laborers for the work.
How little Christians seem really to feel and mourn the need of laborers in the harvest field of the world that is so white, so ready for reaping. And how little we seem to believe that our labor-supply depends on prayer, that prayer will really provide “as many as he needs.” It's not that the dearth of laborers is unknown or not discussed. It's not that efforts are not sometimes put forth to supply the need. But too often the burden of lost sheep wandering apart from the Shepherd is never really carried to God in prayer in faith believing that the Lord will in answer send forth laborers, and in the solemn conviction that without this prayer, fields ready for reaping will be left to perish. But that is the reality.
So dependent has the Lord made himself on the prayers of his people that the number of laborers and the measure of the harvest according to Jesus' word depend upon our prayers. The proportion of the workers, the proportion of the saved in our region—Vermont depends on the proportion of our prayers!
“Lord, send us workers! Lord, raise up laborers for your Green Mountain harvest!”
Yesterday we saw that Jesus instructed his disciples in Mt 9.37, 38 to ask God to raise up workers for his harvest. So, why is it that we do not obey Jesus' command to pray more earnestly for laborers in God's harvest fields? There are two main reasons. One is that we miss the compassion of Jesus, which gave rise to this request for prayer. When believers learn that to love their neighbors as themselves, that to live entirely for God's glory in their fellow-men and women, is the Father's first commandment to his redeemed ones, they will accept that those who are perishing are specially entrusted to us by God for intercession. These won't be seen only as a task, but as the objects of loving care and interest.
The other reason for the neglect of the command is poverty of faith. But this can be overcome as our sense of urgency and compassion plead for help. We believe too little in the power of prayer to bring about definite results. We do not live close enough to God, and are not enough entirely given up to his service and kingdom to be capable of the confidence that he will give it in answer to our prayer. O let us pray then for a life so one with Jesus Christ, that his compassion may stream into us, and his Spirit will then be able to assure us that our prayer prevails.
Prayer for workers is the key to evangelism and accomplishment here in Vermont and around the nation and planet.
Won't you join me to pray for reapers?
As Jesus left the city of Jericho en route to Jerusalem, a blind man heard that he was passing by and began calling out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The cry reached the ear of the Lord; he knew what he wanted, and was ready to grant it. But before he did, Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10.51). He wanted to hear from this man's lips, not only the general petition for mercy, but the distinct expression of what his desire was. Until he speaks it out, he is not healed.
To many who pray today, the Lord puts the same question. Until they are specific they cannot get the aid they seek. Our prayers must not simply be a vague appeal to his mercy, an indefinite cry for blessing, but the distinct expression of need. The point is not that his loving heart is slow to understand our cry or is not ready to hear. He desires us to be specific for our own sakes. Such definite prayer teaches us to know our own needs better. It demands time, and thought, and self-scrutiny to find out what really is our greatest need. His question searches us and puts us to the test as to whether our desires are honest and real, so that we are ready to persevere with them. It forces us to judge whether our desires are according to God's Word, and whether or not we really believe that we shall receive what we ask.
Far too often our prayer is vague and pointless. Some cry for mercy, but never take the trouble to discern what mercy must do for them. Others ask, perhaps, to be delivered from sin, but do not begin by bringing any sin by name from which the deliverance may be claimed. Still others pray for God's blessing on those around them, for the outpouring of God's Spirit on their land or the world, yet have no special field where they wait and expect to see the answer.
To all such as these the Lord says: “And what is it now that you really want and expect me to do?” Prayer should be definite in order for answers to be recognized. Aim at nothing in particular and that is all you will receive.
“Rabbi, I want to see!” And see he did.
In Matthew 6 Jesus warns disciples against prayers that babble on and on, supposing by their verbosity to earn a hearing. Today we often hear of prayer of great earnestness and fervor, in which a multitude of petitions are poured forth, but to which the Savior would undoubtedly answer, “What do you want me to do for you?”
If I am in a foreign land, in the interests of the business which my father owns, there are two sorts of letter I can write home. There will be family letters giving expression to all the detail which affection prompts. And there will be business letters, containing orders for what I need. These can of course be mixed. The answers will correspond to the letters. To each sentence of the letters containing family news I do not expect a special answer. But for each order I send I am confident of an answer as to whether the desired article has been forwarded. In our dealings with God the business element must not be wanting. With our expression of need and sin, of love and faith and consecration, there must be the pointed statement of what we ask and expect to receive; it is in the answer that the Father loves to give us the token of his approval and acceptance.
At the same time we must take note of the difference between a wish and a genuine request. Alas! how many prayers are wishes, sent up for a short time and then forgotten, or sent up year after year as matter of duty, while we rest content with the prayer without the answer. God intends that as his sons and daughters, entrusted with his business here on earth we pray believing and lay hold of the fulfillment of Jesus' promise, “Ask whatever you will, and it will be done for you.”
If God's business is our business, and his intentions form the petitions of our lips, can he deny himself? Not at all!
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mk 11.24 NIV). What a promise! So large, so divine that our little hearts cannot take it in, and so quickly seek to limit it to what we think safe or probable; instead of allowing it, in its quickening power and energy, just as he gave it, to enter in, and to enlarge our hearts to the measure of what his love and power are really ready to do for us. Faith is very far from being a mere conviction of the truth of God's word, or just a conclusion drawn from certain premises. It is the ear which has heard God say what he will do, the eye which has seen him doing it, and therefore, where there is true faith, it is impossible but that the answer must come. If we only see to it that we do the one thing that he asks of us as we pray: “Believe that you have received it; then he will see to it that he will do the thing he has promised—"It will be yours.”
“Whatever you ask in prayer.” At this first word our human wisdom at once begins to doubt and ask: “This surely cannot be literally true? Can it?” But if not, why did the Master say it, using the very strongest expression he could find, “Whatever you ask.” Nor is this the only time he spoke this way: “If you believe, all things are possible to him that believes”. Again, “If you have faith, nothing will be impossible for you.” Faith is so wholly the work of God's Spirit through his word in the prepared heart of the believing disciple, that it is impossible that the fulfillment should not come; faith is the pledge and forerunner of the coming answer.
The tendency of human reason is to interpose here, and with certain qualifying phrases we mumble, “if expedient," “If according to God's will," to break the force of a statement which seems dangerous. O let us beware of dealing so loosely with Jesus' words. His promise is most literally true. The “whatever” is unconditional: the only condition is what is implied in the believing. Believing is the exercise of a soul surrendered and given up to the influence of the Word and the Spirit. Once we do believe nothing shall be impossible.
Ouch!
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mk 11.22-24 NIV). As a result of yesterday's Primer, some might be pushed to ask, “How can I ever attain the faith that knows it receives all that it asks?”
That is the question our Lord answers today. Before he gave the promise to answer, he spoke a word in which he points out where the faith in the answer to prayer finds its origin and draws its strength. “Have faith in God”: This word precedes the other which is “Have faith in the promise of an answer to prayer.” The power to believe a promise depends entirely and only on faith in the Promise Maker. Trust in the person begets trust in his word. It is only where we live and associate with God in personal, loving intimacy, where God is all to us, where our whole being is continually opened up and exposed to the mighty influences that are at work where his holy presence is revealed, that the capacity will be developed for believing that he gives what we ask.
This connection between faith in God and faith in his promise will become clear to us if we think what faith really is. It is often compared to the hand or the mouth, by which we take and appropriate what is offered to us. But it is of importance that we should understand that faith is also the ear by which I hear what is promised, the eye by which I see what is offered to me. On this the power to take depends. The value of the promise depends on the Promise Maker: it is on my knowledge of what the Promise Maker is that faith in the promise depends.
Do you see? Intimacy with God is the source of believing faith that finds answers to prayer.
Before Jesus gives the promise that believing prayer will be effective he commands, “Have faith in God.” That means let your eye be open to the living God, and gaze on him, seeing him who is invisible. It is through the eye that I yield myself to the influence of what is before me; I just allow it to enter, to exert its influence, to leave its impression on my mind. So believing God is just looking to God and what he is, allowing him to reveal his presence, giving him time and yielding the whole being to take in the full impression of what he is as God, the soul opened up to receive and rejoice in the overshadowing of his love. Yes, faith is the eye to which God shows what he is and does: through faith the light of his presence and the workings of his mighty power stream into the soul.
Faith is also the ear through which the voice of God is always heard and conversation with him kept up. It is through the Holy Spirit that the Father speaks to us. This the child of God needs to lead and guide him; the secret voice from heaven must teach him. The words of God will not only be the words of the Bible, but, proceeding from the mouth of God they will be spirit and truth, life and power. As the words I hear enter the mind and dwell and work there, so through faith God enters the heart, and dwells and works there.
Faith is fellowship; I give myself up to the influence of the Friend who makes me a promise, and become linked to him by it. The prayer of faith is rooted in the life of faith. Faith in the promise is the fruit of faith in the Promise Maker.
This is not complicated, but it requires deeper personal exposure and intimacy with God than most of us allow. How well do I really know God?