Questions and Answers #17
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
September 19, 2007
This
evening I would like to take our text from Romans
9:16 "It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy". And
again from
JOHN 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Now, when Paul said in,
ROMANS 6: 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. He
is saying the only way you can possibly be free is that you never were under
sin to begin with. You never did do it as brother Branham said, and that is
what justification is all about. In fact the words of Paul actually say in the
Greek in Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin., and the Greek word dikaioo {dik-ah-yo'-o} means to “justify”
in other words you are, freed to be righteous, declared,
pronounced to be just ,or
righteous, as he ought to be, or was meant to be..
Now, tonight I would like to speak on prayer, because
prayer is totally misunderstood by the majority of Christians today.
In 1 John 5:14. we read "If we ask anything according to his
will he heareth us"
Men today believe and teach that prayer changes things. Now that statement is
ok if it is looked upon in the proper light. But what men do with that
statement that in effect perverts that statement is that they believe that
prayer will actually alter the state of affairs as God ordained them to be.
Thus in effect your praying will change God's Mind.. And thus not only changing
God's Mind, but in effect changing God's Purpose and plans. Thoughts like this
are either blasphemy or a complete lack of knowledge concerning God and the
Godhood of God.
The need for prayer is not for God to change His Will,
but for us to change our will. The Scriptures teach us: "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the
grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low,
and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the
beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit
the throne of glory" (1 Sam. 2:6-8).
Too many People believe that when we say, "prayer
changes things", we actually mean that God changes things when men
pray." Almost everywhere we go today we see sign or bumper stickers that say: "Prayer
Changes Things". As to what these words mean it can be
heard from the radio religion today, — "we are to persuade God to change
his purpose."
They challenge the people to pray for
They quote from the II
CHRONICLES 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then
will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
But those words were spoken by God for another people
and not this people, and not for this land, at least not for this land after the
prophet of God has come and his message has been rejected. Those words can not
produce fruit today, because first of
all, the people will not humble themselves, and secondly
they will not pray correctly, because He promised, 1
John 5:14. "If we ask anything according to his
will he heareth us" And
His Word is His Will.
Thirdly, they will not seek his Face because they do
not know Him, nor do they understand the
Godhood of God. And finally, they
will not turn from their wicked ways.
And what are the ways which God calls wicked? In the first place, they have turned down
God's answer for them in this hour. God sent to them a Prophet and they have
turned down His message, which came with a "Thus Saith the Lord",
attached to it, which means they have turned down God Himself. And God has come
down and they have turned from His Shout. And will they come back to Him? I
think not. For Paul quoted God when He said,
ACTS 13:41 Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work
a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a
man declare it unto you.
The ways which God calls wicked and which they will
not turn from is their course of life.
That's what the Word "ways" means. It is the Hebrew Word, Derek and
it speaks of the course of life and their moral character. And as we know this
is an hour where the people are bombarded with homosexual propaganda
continually through the illicit and immoral media which bombards the minds of
the people so often on a daily and hourly basis that after a while the people
have grown indifferent towards it, and instead of immoral acts flaming the
fires of righteous indignation in you, it only seems to fan the flames of
indifference. You just don't seem to care. You don't want to be bothered. And
that is what happened in the first church age. They became indifferent. And
Alpha must be repeated in Omega.
77-1
Where is the righteousness among God's people today to
take a stand against wrong, whether it be among your family, your child, your
mother, your father, or a church member, or business associate. Will the people
take a stand for God? I hardly see it any more. Yet a President will commit
perjury, adultery, sodomy, and even right in the White House during working
hours and the American people are not outraged, and simply don't care. We have
a Vice President, and members of the
senate or House who have committed felonies concerning graft and kickbacks, and
should be serving time in prison, and when they are challenged, they reply,
"there is no governing authority." No governing authority?
No constitution? No laws of the land? And what about the American people? They
continue to vote for them because they are willingly ignorant. They know better
but vote them in anyhow. And that is iniquity to do so. Iniquity is to no to do
right and you won’t do it. I ask you, "Are we at the end-time?" Are
these a people whom God will hear their prayer?
No, God will not hear the prayer of the unrepentant
sinner. But what of you and I? How do we balance our understanding of a
sovereign God Whose mind and will and purpose and plans that can not be
changed, with our need for prayer. If we can not change God's purpose and plan
is there a need to pray? And the answer is YES!
When the Apostles asked Jesus how to pray, he never
gave them a prayer to recite. He simply told them there are certain elements
which are needed for your prayer to have any success. He began by saying,
LUKE 11:1
¶ And it came to pass, that, as he was praying
in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord,
teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them,
When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Now, if we take this scripture together with the
witness by Matthew, we do not have Jesus telling them what words to say, as this verse would seem
to suggest, but let's look at Matthew and see what Jesus is suggesting to them
as he teaches them about prayer and how to pray.
MATTHEW 6:9
¶ After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in
earth, as [it is] in heaven. Therefore, Jesus is not putting the Words in to their
mouth and suggesting a prayer, but He is teaching them how to pray. He says,
after this manner, or in this manner, or in this way…. Then we notice the way
He approaches prayer to God.
1. You've got to recognize the One to whom you are
addressing your prayer. He is the Sovereign God, the Creator of the universe,
and yet He is your Father. Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Notice, Hallowed be thy
name. The word hallowed means to venerate, lift up, worthy of
worship.
First and foremost, Jesus tells us that prayer has
been appointed that we should honor God first. God requires we should recognize
that he alone is God, He alone is our object of
Worship, and that there is no other
beside Him. In presenting our
prayer to God we would do well to remember the 10 commandments and especially
the first commandment.
EXODUS 20:2 I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought
thee out of the
EXODUS 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the
LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God: God requires
that we shall proclaim his universal dominion: in petitioning God for rain,
Elijah confessed God's control over the elements.
In praying to God to deliver a sinner from the wrath
to come, we acknowledge John 2:9 "salvation is
of the Lord"; In coming to the Lord, we should declare his
ruler-ship and sovereignty over the entire world.
REVELATION 4:11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou
hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Again; God requires that we shall worship him, and
prayer, real prayer, is an act of worship. Prayer is an act of worship in as
much as it is the prostrating of the soul before him;
in as much as it is a calling upon his great and holy
name;
in as much as it is the owning of his goodness, his
power, his immutability, his grace,
and in as much as it is the recognition of his
sovereignty, proclaimed by our submission to his will. Even when Jesus spoke of
the temple, he never called it the House of Sacrifice, but, the House of
Prayer.
Again; prayer rebounds to God's glory, for in prayer
we acknowledge. our dependency upon him. When we humbly entreat His Divine
Presence, we cast ourselves upon his mercy, and bow down in acknowledgement
of His Great Power. In seeking blessings
from God we believe that he is the Author and Fountain of every good and
perfect gift.
JAMES 1:17 Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 18 Of his own will begat he us with the word
of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
That prayer brings glory to God is further seen from
the fact that prayer calls faith into exercise, and nothing from us is so
honoring and pleasing to him as the confidence of our hearts. For we must first
believe that He is, HEBREWS 11:6 But
without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God
must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.
And through Faith we must confess that He is more than
able to meet our needs. II TIMOTHY 1:12 nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day.
The next thing Jesus laid out in the pattern for
prayer, after acknowledging the supremacy of God in Holiness I what we hear
next in verse 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done
in earth, as [it is] in heaven. In other words, Thy Will and Thy
Will alone will reign supreme. Therefore, Lord Help my will to align with your
will. He never said, my will be done, but Jesus said "Thy will"
speaking to the Father.
In EPHESIANS 3:11
we find that God's Purpose is eternal… According to the eternal purpose which he
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
And in EPHESIANS 1:11 In whom
also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Therefore if we are predestinated according to the
eternal purpose of Him who works all things together for his Glory, and for our
good, then it would only make sense to us that we would want things to work out
in our lives what he has planned for us to begin with, knowing and trusting
that all these things will somehow work together for our good.
ROMANS 8:28
And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to [his] purpose. 29
¶ For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren. 30
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he
called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
31 ¶
What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be]
against us?
Now, that we have come to the place where we recognize
His interest in our needs, we can continue with the pattern which Jesus set
before us, as He said LUKE 11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread..Now, comes
forth our needs. Now, remember, Jesus told us whe teaching us how to pray that
the Father knew our needs even before we would ask.
MATTHEW 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions,
as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much
speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like
unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye
ask him. 9 ¶ After this manner
therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 11
Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And
forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
LUKE 11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive
every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver
us from evil. Notice how the Lord
Jesus set the pattern for prayer to not
only ask for the physical need but also for the spiritual blessing of
forgiveness as well. Forgive us first of
our sins and then help us to forgive those who are indebted to us. Forgive them
as you forgive us. I think here is where
we miss the boat so often. We ask forgiveness for our own sins but we are so
lacking when it comes to asking the Lord to Forgive those who have injured us
in any way. Sometimes I think we have
become so hardened to the plight of others, and don't realize that Jesus has
set forth a pattern here for us to come to God with the opportunity to be
intercessors for others. He has given us the opportunity to be mediators and
intercessors, and I think we have blown the opportunity so far.
Prayer is appointed by God for our spiritual blessing,
as a means for our growth in grace. When seeking to learn the design of prayer,
this should ever occupy us before we regard prayer as a means for obtaining the
supply of our need. Prayer is designed by God for our humbling. Prayer, real
prayer, is a coming into the presence of God, and a sense of his awful majesty
produces a realization of our nothingness and unworthiness.
Again; prayer is designed by God for the exercise of
our faith. Faith is begotten in the Word as we see in Rom. 10:17, but it is exercised in prayer as we
see in JAMES 5:15 And the prayer of
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and
pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. ".
Again; prayer calls our love into action. Concerning
the hypocrite the question is asked, "Will he
delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God?"
(Job 27:10). But they that love the Lord
cannot be long away from him, for they delight in unburdening themselves to
him. Not only does prayer call love into action, but through the direct answers
to our prayers, our love to God is increased —David said, "I love the
Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications" (Psa. 116:1). Again; prayer is assigned by God to
teach us the value of the blessings we have sought from him, and it causes us
to rejoice the more when he has bestowed upon us that for which we entreat him.
Thirdly, prayer is appointed by God for our seeking
from him the things which we are in need of. But the unbeliever will say,
"If God has foreordained, before the
foundation of the world, everything which happens in time, what is the use of
prayer?
If it is true that "of him and through him and to him are all
things" (Rom. 11:36), then why pray?
The unbeliever will ask, What
is the use of me coming to God and telling him what he already knows? wherein
is the use of me spreading before him my need, seeing he is already acquainted
with it? What is the use of praying for anything when everything
has been ordained beforehand by God?
Prayer is not for the purpose of informing God, as if
he were ignorant, (for Jesus made very clear while teaching the Apostle to pray
in Matt. 6:8, He said, "for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before
ye ask Him", Therefore our praying is to acknowledge. That we
know that He does know what we are in need of.
Because Jesus goes on to tell us how the worth of
prayer in a little parable.
LUKE 11:5And he said unto them, Which of you shall
have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend,
lend me three loaves; 6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and
I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from within shall answer and say,
Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I
cannot rise and give thee. 8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give
him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and
give him as many as he needeth. 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you
that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if [he ask] a fish, will he for
a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a
scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask him?
Prayer is not appointed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge. of what
we need, but it is designed as a confession to him of our sense of the
need. In this, as in everything, God's thoughts are not as ours. God requires
that his gifts should be sought for. He designs to be honored by our asking,
just as he is to be thanked by us after he has bestowed his blessing.
However, the question still returns on us, If God be
the predestinator of everything that comes to pass, and the regulator of all
events, then is not prayer a vain exercise? But our answer comes from the fact
that God commands us to pray — He said, "Pray
without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17).
And again, "men ought always to pray" (Luke 18:1). And again, "the prayer of faith shall save the sick", and, "the
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:15,16); The Lord Jesus Christ — our older
brother and the perfect example in all things — was mainly a Man of Prayer.
Then, it is evident, that prayer is neither meaningless nor valueless. But
still this does not remove the difficulty nor answer the question with which we
started out. What then is the relationship between God's sovereignty and
Christian prayer?
First of all, we would say with emphasis, that our
prayer should never be intended to change God's purpose, or create new ones
just for us. God has decreed that certain events shall come to pass, but he has
also decreed that these events shall come to pass through the means he has
appointed for their accomplishment. God has elected certain ones to be saved,
but he has also decreed that these ones shall be saved through the preaching of
the Gospel. The Gospel, then, is one of the appointed means for the working out
of the eternal purpose of the Lord; and prayer is another. God has decreed the
means as well as the end, and among the means is prayer. Even the prayers of
his people are included in his eternal decrees. Therefore, instead of prayer
being in vain, it is among the means through which God exercises his purposes.
"If all things happened by mere chance, then prayer could be of no moral
use; but since our prayers are directed and regulated by the direction of
Divine wisdom, prayer has a place in the order of events" It was not God responding to my prayer for
the laptops but my prayer was directed by the purpose of God, and therefore, by
tapping into His Divine Will, our prayers become part of the Divine working of
His will. A Sort of tapping into the Eternal Wellspring of God's Purpose and
plan.
Prayer then becomes part of the execution of the very
things that God declared and therefore are not meaningless. This is clearly
taught in the Scriptures.
Elijah knew that God was about to give rain, but that
did not prevent him from at once praying to God for it. (James 5:17,18).
Daniel "understood" by the writings of the
prophets that the captivity was to last but seventy years, yet when these
seventy years were almost ended, we are told that he "set his face unto
the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth
and ashes" (Dan. 9:2,3).
God told the prophet Jeremiah "For I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of
evil, to give you an expected end"; but instead of adding, there is,
therefore, no need for you to supplicate me for these things, he said,
"Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will
hearken unto you" (Jer. 29:12).
In Ezek. 36:1-38
we read of the explicit, positive, and unconditional promises which God has
made concerning the future restoration of Israel, yet in Ezek. 36:37 of this same chapter we are told,
"Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this
be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them"! So
God knows before hand what we will pray for.
Here then is the design of prayer: not that God's will
may be altered, but that it may be accomplished in his own good time and way.
It is because God has promised certain things, that we can ask for them with
the full assurance of faith. It is God's purpose that his will shall be brought
about by his own appointed means and that he may do his people good upon his
own terms, and that is, by the "means" and "terms" of
entreaty and supplication. Did not the Son of God know for certain that after
his death and resurrection he would be exalted by the Father? Sure He did. Yet
we find him asking for this very thing: "O
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was" (John
17:5)! Did not he know that none of his people could perish? Yet he
petitioned the Father to "keep" them (John
17:11)!
Finally; it should be said that God's will is
immutable, and cannot be altered by our crying. When the mind of God is not
toward a people to do them good, it cannot be turned to them by the most fervent
and persistent prayers of those who have the greatest interest in him — "Then said the Lord unto me, `Though Moses and Samuel stood
before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my
sight, and let them go forth'" (Jer.
15:1). The prayers of Moses to enter the promised land is also
another example of this same thing.
Our views respecting prayer need to be revised and
brought into harmony with the teaching of Scripture on the subject. The
prevailing idea seems to be, that I come to God and ask him for something that
I want, and that I expect him to give me that which I have asked. But this is a
most dishonoring and degrading conception. The popular belief reduces God to a
servant, our servant: doing our bidding, performing our pleasure, granting our
desires.
No; prayer rather, is a coming to God, telling him my
need, committing my way unto the Lord, and leaving him to deal with it as seems
best to him. This makes my will subject to his will, instead of, seeking to
bring his will into subjection to mine.
No prayer is pleasing to God unless the spirit motivating it is,
"not my will, but Thine be done". "When God bestows blessings on
a praying people, it is not for the sake of their prayers, as if he was
inclined and turned by them; but it is for his own sake.
God answers our prayers for His own sovereign will and
pleasure. Should someone ask you, What purpose is prayer? We should answer,
`Prayer is the way and means God has appointed, for the communication of the
blessing of his goodness to his people.' For though he has purposed, provided,
and promised them, yet he will be sought first, in order to give them, and
therefore it is a duty and privilege To ask. When we are blessed with a spirit
of prayer, it is good because it is then that God intends to bestow the good
things asked, which should be asked always with submission to the will of God,
saying, `Not my will but thine be done'"
Perhaps. the one thing that bothers Christians more
than anything else is unanswered prayer. we ask God for something: so far as we
are able to judge, we have asked in faith believing we will receive that for
which we have asked the Lord: and we know we have asked earnestly and
repeatedly, but the answer does not seem to come. The result is, in many cases,
our faith in the efficacy of prayer seems to weaken, until hope gives way to
despair and the closet is altogether neglected.
But every real prayer of faith that has ever been
offered to God has been answered? He promised. Real prayer is a coming to God,
telling him our need, committing our way unto the Lord, and then leaving him to
deal with the case as seems best to him. This allows God to answer the prayer
in whatever way he sees fit, and often, his answer may be the very opposite of
what would be most acceptable to our own mind; yet, if we have really left our
need in his hands, it will be his answer, nevertheless. Let us look at two
examples.
In John 11:1-44
Lazarus was sick unto death. The Lord "loved" him, but he was absent
from
In 2 Cor. 12:1-21.
The apostle Paul had been given an unheard of privilege. He had been
transported into
Does someone object that it is our privilege to do
more than spread our need before God? Are we reminded that God has, as it were,
given us a blank check and invited us to fill it in? Is it said that the
promises of God are all inclusive, and that we may ask God for what we will? If
so, we must call attention to the fact that it is necessary to compare
scripture with scripture if we are to learn the full mind of God on any
subject, and as this is done we discover God has qualified the promises given
to praying souls by saying, "If we ask
anything according to his will he heareth us" (1 John 5:14).
Real prayer is communion with God, so that there will
be common thoughts between his mind and ours. What is needed is for him to fill
our hearts with his thoughts, and then his desires will become our desires
flowing back to him. Here then is the meeting place between God's sovereignty
and Christian prayer: If we ask anything according
to his will he heareth us, and if we do not so ask, he does not hear
us; as saith the apostle James, "Ye ask, and
receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye might consume it upon your
lusts" or desires (James 4:3).
But did not the Lord Jesus tell his disciples, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the
Father in my name, he will give it you" (John 16:23)? He did; but this promise does not
give praying souls carte blanche. These words of our Lord are in perfect accord
with those of the apostle John — "If we ask
anything according to his will he heareth us." What is it
to ask "in the name of Christ"? Surely it is very much more than a
prayer formula, the mere concluding of our supplications with the words
"in the name of Christ." To apply to God for anything in the name of
Christ, it must needs be in keeping with what Christ is! To ask God in the name
of Christ is as though Christ himself were the suppliant. We can only ask God
for what Christ would ask. To ask in the name of Christ, is therefore, to set
aside our own wills, accepting God's! And to ask outside of God's Word is to
ask what God can not give. He is the
Word.
Now, what is our definition of prayer? Prayer is
not so much an act as it is an attitude — an attitude of dependency, dependency
upon God. Prayer is a confession of our weakness, our helplessness. Prayer
is the acknowledgment of our need and the spreading of it before God. We do not
say that this is all there is in prayer, it is not: but it is the primary
element in prayer. Prayer is both an attitude and an act, a human act, and yet
there is the divine element in it too. Prayer is fundamentally an attitude of
dependency upon God. Therefore, prayer is the very opposite of dictating to
God. Because prayer is an attitude of dependency, the one who really prays is
submissive, submissive to the divine will; and submission to the divine will
means, that we are content for the Lord to supply our need according to the
dictates of his own sovereign pleasure. And hence it is that we say, every
prayer that is offered to God in this spirit is sure of meeting with an answer
or response from him.
Prayer is not the requesting of God to alter his
purpose or for him to form a new one. Prayer is the taking of an attitude of
dependency upon God, the spreading of our need before him, then asking for
those things which are in accordance with his will, and therefore there is
nothing whatever inconsistent between divine sovereignty and Christian prayer.
In Jer 10:23 we
are told "It is not in man that walketh to
direct his steps. (also Prov. 16:9); and yet in many of his prayers, man
presumes to direct the Lord as to his way, and as to what he ought to do: even
implying that if only he had the direction of the affairs of the world and of
the church, he would soon have things very different from what they are. We
can't deny this. Anyone with any spiritual discernment at all could not fail to
detect this spirit in many of our modern prayer meetings where the flesh holds
sway. How slow we all are to learn the lesson that the haughty creature needs
to be brought down to his knees and humbled into the dust. And this is where
the very act of prayer is intended to put us. But man (in his usual perversity)
turns the footstool into a throne, from whence he would fain direct the
Almighty as to what he ought to do giving the onlooker the impression that if God
had half the compassion that those who pray have, all would quickly be put
right! Such is the arrogance of the old nature even in a child of God. Our main purpose in prayer then is for
submitting our wills to God's. But it must also be added, that prayer is much
more than a pious exercise, and far otherwise than a mechanical performance.
Prayer is, indeed, a divinely appointed means whereby we may obtain from God
the things we ask, providing we ask for those things which are in accord with
his will.