WHAT IS PRAYER?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19970, 11 December 1926, Page 21

WHAT IS PRAYER?

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller. If by some strange turn of the wheel of fate, every known religion in the world were .suddenly to be swept into the void, man would not be left a derelict on the heaving wastes of the ocean of time. He would still be able to apprehend God, tor he would still bo able to pray. Prayer is independent of any form of religion. Religion may give it content and meaning, but it not create it. Prayer is the longing of the soul, and its articulation can be heard down the avenues of time, from the muttering of the primitive savage, as he prostrates himself before the rising sun, to the sonorous liturgy o* modern ritualism. Man prays instinctively. It is interesting to note that Jesus had no philosophy of prayer. Ho never argued about prayer. He prayed; and when you examine closely the recorded prayers ot Jesus you find'that He answers our question “What is Prayer?” in a way that is nothing short of a revelation. He makes it clear that the value and meaning of prayer depend primarily upon THE KIND OF GOD TO WHOM YOU PRAY. It is the character of your God that makes your prayer real or unreal. When a man has leapt to that finality ot revelation—namely, that the Cosmic God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, then that man’s prayer will be real and simple and humble and exultant, u hen God is conceived as an arbitrary, impersonal power, then prayer becomes meaningless. When men realise the fatherliness of God and know that the tiist attribute of fatherliness is to respond, then prayer ceases to be an exercise and becomes , A COMMUNION. And it is this communion, or fellowship, that Jesus reveals with beautiful clearness in His own prayers. There is no magic about prayer. It is an attitude of mind rather than an act. It is npt asking God for things, it is a co-mingling of mind and spirit. Unfortunately so many people look upon prayer as simply a, demand note served upon the Almighty. Far be it from me to suggest that personal requests are not an integral part of prayer or that God does not answer them. But I feel strongly that personal requests are the lowest form of prayer. Some of the finest Christians 1 know (saints in the slums) seldom asked anything for themselves. Their lives shone \yith the radiance of self-forgetfulness. To them God was not a disxienser of gifts, but a beloved friend with whom they had intimate fellowship. When we pray as Jesus prayed, our dominant desire should be to know God’s will for us, not that w e should attempt to impose our will upon Him ; that God should have His way with us, not that we should dictate ito Him. In short, real prayer is being “In tune with the Infinite.” lam not forgetting that it is expressly stated that if we ask we shall receive, but surely it is evident that our asking should be governed by “If it i Thy Will ! It is the forgetting on the part of all of us of this implicit condition that produces the disheartening experience ot UNANSWERED PRAYER. God sees the whole of the picture: we see only a corner of it. God is longsighted; we are short-sighted. We find it difficult to understand that God may “will” a definite refusal of the cry of our hearts because He knows that to accede to it may be to our hurt. Looking back on my own life in trie light of accumulated experience I can see now, though T certainly couldn’t see it at the time that God’s refusals were ultimately definite answers. When 1 search the Old Book I am surprised to find that it is full of unanswered prayers. Go through inn list of great souls from Moses to Paul and notes how often God answered them with a negative and you will find you are one of a great company. Ponder that list and you will find that had God given them their requests, they would never have become the great leaders of the human race. That leads me to say that God answers prayer in ONE OF TWO WAYS. He either answers by granting the reauest or else He answers fay strengthening the one making the request. For example Paul requested the removal of the “thorn.” God answered by strengthening Paul to bear the “thorn.” It is surely a greater thing to answer the man than to answer the petition. Reverently, be it said, the same principle is seen at work in the request of Jesus that the “Cup” might be taken from Him. It wasn’t. But He went forth to die with the consciousness that God would enable Him to “drink the cup. If we would be big enough and realise that no true prayer is ever unanswered, because God may be fitting us to carry our own burden, we would find that nothing really could defeat us. It is to know, and to do, the will of -God that should be our aim in prayer. Anything less than that brings its own reward—or lack ot it. We should not emulate the prodigal when he says “give me” but we should follow in bis footsteps when he says “make me.” Given this Jesus-idea of prayer, as fellowship and dominant desire to do the will of God, our prayers would become a real and permanent joy. A file without prayer is like a garden without flowers or a house without windows. “More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of, wherefore Let thy voice _ . , . , Rise like a fountain tor ms night and For* what are men better than sheep and That 1 .nourish a blind life within the ■ It, knowing God, they lift not hands of Both for themselves and those who call them friend? . For so the whole round earth is every Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.” ______^ = _ == —