On Prayer
Too many praying persons seek to use prayer as a means to ends that are not wholly pure.
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man," wrote the inspired James, "availeth much." With this the whole Bible and Christian experience agree: Prayer is effective. When it is not answered something is wrong. The same apostle who affirmed the effective power of prayer admitted also that prayer is sometimes ineffective: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
To pray effectively we must want what God wants - that and only that is to pray in the will of God. And no petition made in the will of God was ever refused. "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). Furthermore, to pray effectively we must pray within the context of the world situation as God sees it.
If we are spiritual enough to hear His voice He will lead us to engage in the kind of praying that will be effective.
Two objects at which to aim our prayers. . . One is that the glory of God be seen again among men, and the other that the church be delivered from her present Babylonian captivity. . . Our hearts yearn to see again a shining forth of the glory of God. . . Our prayers should be aimed (at) the restoration of the spiritual life of the church.
Now, even if we concentrate upon these vitally important items it is still entirely possible to ask amiss and gain nothing but leanness and utter disappointment. Why?
The problem is self. Selfishness. It renders every prayer ineffective until it is identified and repudiated. . . My hidden desire for a share of the glory prevents God from hearing me. . . Too often we pray for right things but desire the answer for wrong reasons.
Nothing is so vital as prayer, yet a reputation for being a mighty prayer warrior is probably the most perilous of all reputations to have. No form of selfishness is so deeply and dangerously sinful as that which glories in being a man of prayer. It comes near to being self-worship; and that while in the very act of worshiping God.
What then shall we do? We must deny self, take up the cross and count ourselves expendable. We must cease to exercise the world's judgments and try to think God's thoughts after Him. We must reckon ourselves dead to gain and glory and allow ourselves to become inextricably involved with the cross of Christ and the high honor of God.
Prayer is still the greatest power on earth if it is practiced in the true fear of God. it is our solemn obligation to see that it is so practiced.
-Keys to The Deeper Life; A.W. Tozer
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man," wrote the inspired James, "availeth much." With this the whole Bible and Christian experience agree: Prayer is effective. When it is not answered something is wrong. The same apostle who affirmed the effective power of prayer admitted also that prayer is sometimes ineffective: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
To pray effectively we must want what God wants - that and only that is to pray in the will of God. And no petition made in the will of God was ever refused. "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). Furthermore, to pray effectively we must pray within the context of the world situation as God sees it.
If we are spiritual enough to hear His voice He will lead us to engage in the kind of praying that will be effective.
Two objects at which to aim our prayers. . . One is that the glory of God be seen again among men, and the other that the church be delivered from her present Babylonian captivity. . . Our hearts yearn to see again a shining forth of the glory of God. . . Our prayers should be aimed (at) the restoration of the spiritual life of the church.
Now, even if we concentrate upon these vitally important items it is still entirely possible to ask amiss and gain nothing but leanness and utter disappointment. Why?
The problem is self. Selfishness. It renders every prayer ineffective until it is identified and repudiated. . . My hidden desire for a share of the glory prevents God from hearing me. . . Too often we pray for right things but desire the answer for wrong reasons.
Nothing is so vital as prayer, yet a reputation for being a mighty prayer warrior is probably the most perilous of all reputations to have. No form of selfishness is so deeply and dangerously sinful as that which glories in being a man of prayer. It comes near to being self-worship; and that while in the very act of worshiping God.
What then shall we do? We must deny self, take up the cross and count ourselves expendable. We must cease to exercise the world's judgments and try to think God's thoughts after Him. We must reckon ourselves dead to gain and glory and allow ourselves to become inextricably involved with the cross of Christ and the high honor of God.
Prayer is still the greatest power on earth if it is practiced in the true fear of God. it is our solemn obligation to see that it is so practiced.
-Keys to The Deeper Life; A.W. Tozer
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