In the school of prayer with Andrew Murray
PRAY THE LORD
T he Lord frequently taught His disciples that they must pray, and how, but seldom what to pray. This he left to their sense of need and the leading of the Spirit. But in Matt. 9:37, 38 He expressly enjoins them to remember that in view of the plenteous harvest and the need of reapers, they must cry to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers. Just as in the parable of the friend at midnight, He would have them understand that prayer is not to be selfish; so here it is the power through which blessing can come to others. The Father is Lord of the harvest; when we pray for the Holy Spirit, we must pray for Him to prepare and send forth la borers for the work. Strange, is it not, that He should ask His disciples to pray for this? And could He not pray Himself? And would not one prayer of His avail more than a thousand of theirs? And God, the Lord of the harvest, did He not see the need? And would He, in His own good time, send forth laborers without their prayer? Such questions lead us up to the deepest mysteries of prayer and its power in the king dom of God. The answer to such questions will convince us that prayer is indeed a power on which the ingathering of the harvest and the coming of the kingdom do in very truth depend. Prayer is no form or show. The Lord Jesus was Himself the truth; everything He spoke was the deep est truth. It was when (Matt. 9:36) He saw the multitudes, and was moved with compassion on them, because they were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd that He called on the disciples to pray for laborers to be sent among them. He did so because He really be lieved that their prayer was needed and would help. The veil which so hides the invisible world from us was wonderfully transparent to the
holy human soul of Jesus. He had looked long and deep and far into the hidden connection of cause and effect in the spirit world. He had marked in God’s Word how, when God called men like Abraham and Moses, Joshua and Samuel and Daniel, and given them authority over men in His name, He had at the same time given them authority and right to call in the powers of heaven to their aid as they needed them. He knew that as to these men of old and to Himself for a time, here upon earth, the work of God had been entrusted, so it was now about to pass over into the hands of His disciples. He knew that when this work should be given in charge to them, it would not be a mere matter of form or show but that on them, and their being faithful or unfaithful, the success of the work would actually depend. As a single individual within the limitations of a human body and a human life, Jesus feels how little a short visit can accomplish among these wan dering sheep He sees around Him, and He longs for help to have them properly cared for. And so he tells His disciples now to begin and pray and when they have taken oyer the work from Him on earth to make this one of the chief petitions in their prayer: That the Lord of the harvest Himself would send forth laborers into His harvest. The God who entrusted them with the work and made it to so large extent de pendent on them, gives them au thority to apply to Him for laborers to help and makes the supply de pendent on their prayer. How little Christians really feel and mourn the need of laborers in the fields of the world so white to the harvest. And how little they be lieve that our labor-supply depends on prayer, that prayer will really provide “ as many as he needeth.” Not that the dearth of labor is not known or discussed. Not that efforts
are not sometimes put forth to sup ply the want. But how little the burden of the sheep wandering without a Shepherd is really borne in the faith that the Lord of the harvest will, in answer to prayer, send forth the laborers, and in the solemn conviction that without this prayer fields ready for reaping will be left to perish. And yet it is so. So wonderful is the surrender of His work into the hands of His Church, so dependent has the Lord made Himself on them as His body through whom alone His work can be done, so real is the power which the Lord gives Has people in heaven and earth that the number of labor ers and the measure of the harvest does actually depend upon their prayer. Solemn thought! O why is it that we do not obey the injunction of the Master more heartily and cry more earnestly for laborers? There are two reasons for this. The one is: We miss the compassion of Jesus which gave rise to this request for prayer. When believers learn that to love their neighbors as themselves, that to live entirely for God’s glory be fore their fellow-men is the Father’s first commandment to His redeemed ones, they will accept perishing ones as the cha r g e en t ru s t ed them by their Lord. And accepting them not only as a field of labor, but as the objects of loving care and interest, it will not be long be fore compassion towards the hope lessly perishing will touch then- heart and the cry ascend with an earnestness till then unknown : Lord! send laborers. The other rea son for the neglect of the command, the want of faith, will then make itself felt but will be overcome as our pity pleads for help. We believe too little in the power of prayer to bring about definite results. We do not live close enough to God and are not enough entirely given up to His service and kingdom to be ca-
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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