What is the key to effective prayer?

It is not always more praying that is wanted, but more prayer. Praying may be vociferous, it may be long, logical, or oft-repeated, and effect nothing. Prayer may come to little more than the lying down in the hollow of God’s hand, in the sense — I had nearly said agony — of utter helplessness and powerlessness; but the quiet confidence flows over the soul that God is, that God knows His ways, that God will fulfil the uttermost thought of His heart of love. But prayer, the soul’s holy reverent contact with its God, its grasp of His promises, its confidence in His character, its free access to Him with the pressing need, the urgent request — this is the frame almost invariably connected with deep and widespread blessing.

The Christian should have a large heart. He has more than himself to think of and pray for. He has the ear and the arm of the living God; and he is to use them for the help and blessing of his household, his surroundings, and belongings, the church, and the workmen of God, the gospel, the poor and needy, the whole family of affliction, and all mankind. Many are the directions and promises in God's word connected with prayer, which we cannot here enumerate; but the principal attributes of all acceptable prayer are confidence, fervour, and perseverance; always remembering that it must be in accordance with the word, and by the Spirit of God. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. … And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. … Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. … All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Ephesians 6:18; 1 John 5:14-15; Matthew 21:22; John 14:13-14. "There is a power which man can wield, When mortal aid is vain; That eye, that arm, that love to reach, That listening ear to gain. That power is prayer, which soars on high, Through Jesus to the throne, And moves the hand which moves the world To bring deliverance down."

We, however, need watchfulness with our praying, for the devil may so deceive us by his subtlety, that the very best favours may become a snare to us, and, indeed, the higher the favour the more subtle the snare. It is easy for us, so foolish are we, to rest satisfied with the act of praying, to secretly congratulate ourselves upon a devotional exercise, and to think we have accomplished something because we have spent a certain time upon our knees or uttered certain words before God. It is true that the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much, but such a prayer is THE PRAYER OF FAITH, and faith must have an object; it is not introspective, but looks outward to God, and while feeling the helplessness and nothingness of self, it glories in the all-sufficiency and power of the God to whom prayer is made. This is right, and if we so pray we shall be subjectively affected by it, for prayer puts us into the presence of God, and we shall as a result bear some trace, morally, of the glory of that presence. But to be satisfied with the means instead of the end, to rest in the mere exercise of prayer instead of in the God to whom the prayer is directed, will result in a self-satisfied state of mind, and in the exaltation of the flesh religiously, and nothing can bring about the paralysis of all true spirituality more completely than this.

In the gospel of Matthew another aspect of prayer is presented - "All things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matt. 21:22; see also Mark 11:24.) James too speaks of the necessity of faith in asking, and adds that a waverer must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Now faith can only spring from confidence in God about the thing sought, and this confidence in God will only follow upon the conviction that what is prayed for is according to God's will; and, it may be added, the assurance that we have the mind of God can only be produced by the Holy Spirit, and by the Holy Spirit, speaking generally, through the written Word. Once having this assurance, we await with the certainty of expectation the answer, according to that word of the apostle John: "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." (1 John 5:14-15.) This passage is important as showing that faith finds its sure foundation in the knowledge of God's will - a will that is unfolded to us in the Scriptures.

The apostle John warns us of a common hindrance to prayer. He says, "Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." (1 John 3:21-22.) Self-judgment and confession, if there has been failure or sin, are therefore pre-requisites to effectual prayer, even as the psalmist says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." This will again link itself with the statement of James - "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." The righteous man being, we judge, one who is practically such; one who, in the language of John, "keeps God's commandments." For walking in obedience is not only the path of holiness, but it is also the source through the Holy Spirit of intelligence in God's mind, and thus of confidence in prayer. The very example of Elijah that James adduces is an illustration in point. In the history Elijah announces by a word of the Lord that there should be no rain upon the earth for "these years;" and again, after that period, that there should be rain. And now we learn from James that both the one and the other were answers to his prayers.

Thus, humbled in His presence, every false hope gone, the remnant search and try their ways, and the end of the Lord is reached. In brokenness of spirit they cry, "Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled: Thou hast not pardoned. Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: Thou hast slain, Thou hast not pitied. Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through" (v.41-44). There is an important lesson here. It is useless to pray while persisting in sin. The man who does not seek to walk with God has no right to expect anything from Him. "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart." "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (Ps.37: 4; John 15: 7). This is the key to answered prayer. Obedience gives confidence. It is impossible to ask in faith when clinging to something that is grieving the Holy Spirit and dishonouring the Lord Jesus Christ. If prayer is not answered, if the heavens seem as brass, it is a solemn indication of a wrong state of soul, and should lead to self-judgment and the forsaking of every evil way.

We may learn in all this what are the conditions of effectual prayer. Confession of sin, not only to God but to one another; practical righteousness in all our ways; fervency of spirit and petition. Fervent prayer is not that which is uttered in loud stentorian tones, but that which springs from a warm and glowing heart.

Two things are necessary if our prayers are to be heard and answered: faith towards God and forgiveness towards all others. The Lord Himself has joined them together in these memorable words, and we must not put asunder what He has joined together. Other Scriptures teach us the same thing, 1 Timothy 2:8 for instance, though there a third necessity is brought in — "holy hands", personal holiness, "without wrath", no hard feelings towards others, and "without doubting" faith in God. Herein may be the secret of many unanswered prayers. Two brothers kneel in the same prayer meeting; their being there indicates that they have some faith in God, but they have hard and unforgiving thoughts towards each other; their prayers are vain and empty words.

202 I find two great principles of prayer here, the latter specially relative to the Holy Spirit. First, that whose efficacy is described as lying in importunity. This is not spoken of the Father; in Him liberality is spoken of, and sure kindness, from the very relationship. Here it is "Because of his shamelessness" (anaideian). It may be a friend that seeks it, but it is rendered to the importunity. Here God acts supremely, and according to His own thoughts, in a supremacy which maintains righteousness while it brings forth glory according to His purpose, a glory in which His fulness shall be displayed, as His love indeed accomplished - but as to which, if I may so speak, He expects to and must be glorified, in which faith must be exercised acting on the holy and amazing consciousness of His power, and bearing in its bosom the reproaches of the mighty, and the dealings of God with evil. We read of Christ Himself; He "Was heard because of his piety," and at that time "Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly." I do not say this is the only case, but it is ever a meeting of the demands of the Lord in faith. It is connected with the hindrances evil puts in the way of God's blessing, and the holy and jealous God, righteously jealous of His own character, must deal with the evil in dealing with the supplication. "It became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Thus, if there be evil in the Church, and the introduction of the working of the wicked one and I pray for blessing, I cannot have the blessing but in bearing in spirit (for efficaciously Christ has done it, and therefore I can so pray) but bearing in spirit the evil so that, the Lord's character in grace being fully honoured, He can give the blessing and restore from the power of the evil. I do not believe there was a case the Lord wrought in which His Spirit did not undergo the sorrow of the evil, so as to draw forth the complacency of His Father in union with whom He put forth the power of the cure. In intercession the Church and the saint has share in this work of Christ. It is not atonement but (which is true also in atonement) a full moral honour done to God. Hence, too, "Labouring earnestly in prayer for you all." In a word, the spirit and heart must go through the full results of the moral character of God as exercising supremacy in holiness on the case, that the blessing may flow forth on the soul. Hence it is there are cases unto death which cannot be prayed for, because they are such that, though not exercising the judgment, the Church is forced by the evil to take part, as it were, with God against the evil, unable to separate it from the evil doer as a failure and weakness, and thus is silenced. It is not its part to judge, and cannot intercede. There is some difference between the Church and the individual, because the Church is looked at as possessing and even administering the charity of God, whereas the individual acts in individual faith, and so bears the burden. Cases of sin in the whole body may arise, which are however analogous. The difference was like the sin of the whole congregation, and an individual when the congregation was at peace. This importunity first then, and primarily, secures the vindication of the holy supremacy of God; but dependence in respect of our weakness and nothingness, and His supremacy, are taught too - subjection and humbleness. Besides, faith is exercised, and intimacy with God wrought in the soul thereby, intimacy connected with dependence. Often, as we have seen, it is connected with God's moral government of others, and Satan's claim thereby, whence the suffering in intercession noticed above; and see Daniel.

Here, then, we have pressed upon our attention the important moral condition of perseverance. "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." This is intimately connected with the definiteness and importunity to which we have already referred. We want a certain thing; we cannot do without it. We importunately, unitedly, believingly, and perseveringly wait on our God until He graciously send an answer, as He most assuredly will, if the moral basis and the moral conditions be duly maintained.

But we must persevere. We must not faint, and give up, though the answer does not come as speedily as we might expect. It may please God to exercise our souls by keeping us waiting on Him for days, months, or perhaps years. The exercise is good. It is morally healthful; it tends to make us real; it brings us down to the roots of things. Look, for example, at Daniel. He was kept for "three full weeks" waiting on God, in profound exercise of soul. "In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three full weeks were fulfilled."

The story discloses to us another of the secrets of effectual fervent prayer. We must not only pray but "watch and pray." As the apostle exhorts us, "Persevere in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving" (Col. 4:2). Again we read, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance" (Eph. 6:18). In Elijah's prayer we see this watching, for he said to his servant, "Go up now look toward the sea." And he went up and looked and said, "There is nothing." He watched, but at first he saw nothing. He heard the sound that summoned him to prayer, and he prayed, and he watched, but at first he sees nothing. How often it is thus with God's people today. They pray and watch thereunto, but for a time God sees fit to keep them waiting. God has lessons to teach us, and so for a while He may keep us waiting at His door. We watch to see God's hand at work, and lo, we see nothing. Is it not to teach us that nothing of God is seen because something of self fills our vision? We must learn our own nothingness before we see God at work. We think God will hear us because of the urgency of the case, the fervency of our prayers, the justness of our cause. But God keeps us waiting until we are conscious that, though before men we may indeed have a just cause, before God we are unworthy supplicants, having nothing to claim, but only God's grace to plead. Moreover, God will teach us that prayer is not some secret charm that we can use at any moment and forthwith obtain our requests, but that the power of prayer lies in the One to whom we pray.