by Charles Blanchard
Changing Those Who Pray Come persons who do not believe that God answers prayer by be stowing things asked, teach us that the va l ue o f p r a y e r is that it changes our attitude. They look upon it like the exercises of a gym nasium, which are not intended to be fruitful except in the lives of those who take them. it with submission. I ask for it with fixed contemplation of the being and attributes of God. I adore Him. What must be the spiritual effect of time spent in this manner? Be yond doubt it clarifies the mind, it unburdens the heart, it stimulates all the energies, it puts one in con dition for effective service.
they owe a great debt for a tremen dous salvation. David said that when he kept silence his bones waxed old through his sorrow all the day long (Psa. 32:3). And then he goes on to de clare that he made confession of his sin and came into condition for service again. Just so he says in Psalm 51: “ Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation . . . Then will I teach transgressors thy ways” (w . 12, 13). That is, when the joy of salvation returned, he could go to work for God and it is also true that he could go to work for him self. It is difficult for most men to confess their sins. Francis Murphy, the great tem perance advocate, said: “ The three most difficult words in the English language to pronounce are ‘I was wrong’.” These words are not only difficult — they are fundamentally important. If men will not acknowledge their sins, God cannot grant their requests. Many years ago I heard a min ister say: “ If there is a piece of lead weighing a pound at the bottom of a pitcher you may pump the Atlan tic Ocean into that pitcher, but you cannot fill it until you take the lead out.” Just so he said there are sins in the lives of men. They lie in the memory a dark and heavy dead thing. The hearts of such per sons can never be filled with joy and peace, they can never be fit to do their own work or to do God’s work until the “ lead” is removed by an honest confession. It is won derful and it works. Men who will confess their sins can make advances, and men who will not confess their sins can make no solid advances. The meditation on the character and attributes of God naturally leads us to think of our own shortcomings, misgivings, failures. If we can only be frank
Going from such a season as this one naturally takes hold of his busi ness in a more effective manner than was possible when his mind was fixed on lesser things. There is no duty in human life which can be performed so well when one is dwelling upon the petty, upon the imperfect, as when he is meditating the character and work of God. It is therefore true that prayer is a spiritual gymnastic. It is far more than this, but this it certainly is, and this is one way in which God answers our prayers. Confession N o t h i n g cripples like uncon fessed sin. There are 10,000 men walking the streets of any great city today, burdened and unfit for going on, simply because they have ne glected or refused to confess their faults, their sins. The reason why men who have been far gone in sin are so filled with gladness when they are saved, is because as a rule they very frankly and fully confess their shortcomings. Men who have lived an outwardly decent life are often times held back from this kind of confession. Men whose characters and reputations have been de stroyed, who have become ragged and filthy because of their sinful lives, are saved from the tempta tion to cover up their sins. Their evil doings are obvious. They lie on the very surface. The world knows them for what they have been and when Jesus changes them they do not attempt to hide the fact that
Others look upon praying as the farmer does upon his plowing, sow ing and reaping. He plows and sows and reaps not for exercise, not to put his body in condition, but to get wheat or oats or rye. The busi nessman who goes to the gymna sium takes his exercises not for the sake of making articles to sell or for the sake of selling articles, but for the purpose of keeping his body in condition so that he may do the work of life with comfort and effi ciency. God has so constituted the hu man race that they naturally reject unmixed error. It is safe to say that there never has been a prevailing faith of any kind which does not contain some elements of truth and so here, as elsewhere, the above is a partial statement of the facts in the case. It does change men to pray and the change which is wrought in them is one of the ways in which God answer s the i r prayers. Adoration The old divines divided prayer into adoration, confession, submis sion, petition and thanksgiving. Every one of these states of mind is an essential element of real prayer, and each one of them naturally tends to the securing of all sorts of good by the one who prays. Sup pose, for example, that I am in need of money and I ask God to give me money. I really pray for it. I ask for it in the name of Jesus. I ask for it with thanksgiving. I ask for
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