What’s the Good of Prayer?
Lord, teach us to pray. – Luke 11:1It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said
that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question
it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is
nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a man is born from above,
the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve
that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is
nourished. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New
Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for our
selves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God
Himself.“Ask and ye shall receive.” We grouse before God, we are apologetic
or apathetic, but we ask very few things. Yet what a splendid
audacity a childlike child has! Our Lord says – “Except ye become as
little children.” Ask, and God will do. Give Jesus Christ a chance,
give Him elbow room, and no man will ever do this unless he is at his
wits’ end. When a man is at his wits’ end it is not a cowardly thing
to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with Reality. Be
yourself before God and present your problems, the things you know
you have come to your wits’ end over. As long as you are
self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.It is not so true that “prayer changes things” as that prayer changes
me and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on
the basis of Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at
things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but
of working wonders in a man’s disposition.