The Prayer Life

Rev. Clevis O. Laverty

I do not remember the author but someone in a poem has spoken these thoughts, the lines go something like this:

Within my earthly temple, there's a crowd,
There's one of us that is humble, one that's proud;
There's one who's broken hearted for his sins,
There's one who unrepentant sits and grins;
There's one who loves his neighbor as himself,
There's one who cares for naught but fame and self.
From such perplexing cares I would be free,
If I could determine which is me."

A man's biggest problem is himself. If a person is to achieve inner peace which Jesus knew and bequeathed, he must settle an inner conflict which is waged within the borders of his own person.

Nearly 2000 years ago, the Son of God came upon this earth, and He knew as the most poverty stricken can know the struggles and hardships of daily living. It is an inspiration to know that Jesus knew the hardships and vicissitudes of human life and found inner peace. He told us that there are two masters seeking our allegiance: God and mammon. Which are you going to choose?

Martin Luther could have lived out a safe and secure life as a clergyman in the Roman church except that he had an inner conflict that had to be settled. He chose to find God when he nailed his famous proclamation to the church door in opposition to the papal sale of indulgences.

In a lighter vein, I was reading an article about the Wall Street Crash of 1929 written by Eddie Cantor. He tells of people jumping out of windows and otherwise destroying themselves because they had lost their material wealth. They had chose mammon as their master, and he failed them. Cantor himself had lost his own fortune, and with a feeling that the bottom had dropped out of everything, he had gone to a hotel to rest. When he registered the clerk asked him if he wanted a room for sleeping or jumping. Cantor said that he laughed for the first time since the trouble had started. Here he had discovered that the man-made wealth was gone, but that his God-given sense of humor remained. He had left what he needed and wanted most. The inner conflict died.

How would you like to have anything that you wanted? That you had but to desire something, and it became yours? Stop and think what that would mean. It would be important and quite a responsibility, wouldn't it? What would you ask for? What would you seek? Upon what doors would you knock?

Impossible? It is definitely not impossible. Quite the contrary, one can have that which he wants most if he wants it enough and long enough. If he feels that he will die if he does not eventually get it.

At this moment, I think it would be interesting if a screen were placed up here and each of our individual wants and desires were automatically projected upon it as they came to mind. I mean the predominant desires. The ones that we feel without which we could not live. I wonder what strange things would appear. I wonder ho many times an overcoming desire for God would flash upon the screen. Would our predominating desires be to serve God or mammon?

Let's face it. How much do you want God? Is He worth living for and dying for? Is He necessary for your happiness? Do you feel that you cannot live without Him?

He is here among us, closer than your breath and nearer than your hands, ready to be possessed through prayer. If we can possess God who is the ultimate possession, what is there we cannot have? Can we set limits to what Christ can do when the actual experience of Him who was here makes us learn more and more how foolish it is to set any limits to what Christ can do? If you have faith, you can move mountains.

There is an answer, and it is not a profound secret that you must listen carefully to while I reveal it. It is in the scriptures for all to see and heed. Here is the prayer life. First a request, then a pursuit, and then an assault.

In the scripture, we are given the formula and also a word of caution about using it. In the seventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus says:

Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. for what man of you, if his son asks him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a serpent. If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Let us look at the request. "Ask, and it shall be given you." God is accessible. Nothing can block one who seeks God in prayer. He is never out to lunch, nor will we find a sign on his door saying that he has gone on vacation. He is not like the opportunity that knocks but once. He is always available. In this wise, it is up to us. We must go to Him in prayer and ask. No intermediary can do it for us. Here the priest or preacher is not necessary. He cannot do it for you. Nor is it necessary to follow any particular form or to know pious words and phrases.

However, you must of course ask for the right things. Now you're going to say that I have tied some strings on what started out as a simple matter of just putting your order in. Well, you cannot expect God to grant those requests that would harm another, or deprive another of what he has. You cannot ask for success in a venture where you will be asking God to take sides.

Judgment, good judgment is necessary. If you ask for something which might curse you or your family, God should not give it to you. So in our prayer life, let us be very careful for what we ask. The rich fool in the scriptures asked for larger barns and greater crops, and God let him have them, but somehow it was not exactly what he wanted. He spoke as though earthly wealth could supply the needs of an immortal soul. Ask and it shall be given you, but make sure you ask for what you want.

James Vance illustrates this nicely with:

Ask and it shall be given.
Ask—ask.
And if you ask a stone,
Expect not bread;
And if the stone glitter like a caught star,
And shine on a warm soft breast,
And you have tossed your soul away
To see it in that nest,
Yet it is still a stone—not bread.

The second step in the prayer life is pursuit. “Seek and you shall find.” It is not just a matter of asking god for what you want and then sit back and wait for it. Persistent prayer is more than asking. It is a pursuit. ...getting your teeth into the idea and hanging on. One may be so persistent that he pesters God. If the door is closed, he pushes it in and demands a hearing. This is no task for namby pambys. If you want bad enough, you have to go after it. After asking for it, you demand it. God will not punish you for this effrontery. Indeed He has given permission for this pursuit, nay invited it when He said, “Seek and you shall find.”

Here again, however, we have to make sure we are seeking the right thing. Assume you do get what you seek. Do you need it? Will it be a curse or a blessing? Will it lead you to Sodom or Zion? Whatever it is, when you get it, you will have to live with it. Brings to mind the story they tell of the soldier of twenty years ago. He was not particularly happy with army life and asked to be released from his enlistment. He was turned down. Things went on for a spell and he appeared more and more unhappy. Then he was observed to be walking around picking up pieces of paper. Anywhere there was a piece of paper, he would pick it up, look at it, and say “That's not it.” This went on for a while until finally the authorities decided that he was mentally incompetent and called him before the board. They presented him with a discharge. He picked up the discharge paper, looked at it, and said, “That's it.” But, was it? Sure he wanted out of the army, and he wanted it so bad he got out legally. But was it a curse or a blessing? Everywhere he went, every job he applied for, he had his army discharge for mental incompetence to live with.

Think. Would what you think you're looking for lead you to the hills of God or the Valley of Death.

Seek and ye shall find.
Seek—seek.
And if you go into the crowded street
Look not to find the hills;
And if the shops sit gaily on the way
And laughter fills the air,
Still—still you have lost the hills.

Then there is the final step in the prayer life, the assault. That has a terrible sound. It implies action with violence, but God invites this too. He says: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and men of violence take it by force.” He appears to be challenging us to storm heaven. He would have us knock down the door and come in. It would please Him to know that we wanted to come in so urgently. He would have us carry the heights by sheer force of will and all the power of prayer at our command. “Knock, and it shall by opened unto you.”

Now, may I inject a word of caution, a plea to your own better judgment? Be sure it is the door of God's house at which you knock. Remember, there are two masters tugging at you: God and mammon. You recall the story of Midas, who wanted his very touch to turn things to gold, and then was starving because his food turned to gold—God or mammon: which will it be?

Make sure you have made the proper request, pursued the true course, and assaulted the correct door. Suppose God should give to you what you so violently demanded? what effect will it have on you?

But rest assured that you can have it. You remember the father who was concerned over the welfare of his son. He had asked the disciples to heal his son of his affliction, and they had been unable to do so. Finally, he went to Jesus, greatly disappointed, and told him the story. Jesus threw the responsibility of getting our prayers answered right back on us when he said that all things are possible to him that believes.

Knock and the door shall open.
Knock—knock.
Two doors there are, beware!
Think well before you knock,
Your tapping finger will unlock
Your heaven or hell.

Prayer: Forbid it, Lord, that the roots our roots become too firmly attached to this earth, that we should fall in love with things. Help us to understand that the pilgrimage of this life is but an introduction, a preface, a training school for what is to come. Then shall we see all of life in its true perspective. Then shall we not fall in love with the things of time, but come to love the things that endure. Then shall we be saved from the tyranny of possessions which we have no leisure to enjoy, of property whose care becomes a burden. Give us, we pray, the courage to simplify our lives. So may we be mature in our faith, childlike but never childish, humble but never cringing, understanding but never conceited. So help us O God to live and exist. Amen.