IN PRAYER *, Andrew Murray
ly there, to have Christ’s Word abiding in us. Let us live day by day with the anointing which teach- eth all things. Let us yield our selves unreservedly to the Holy Spirit as He teaches us to abide in Christ, to dwell in the Father’s pres ence, and we shall soon understand how the Father’s love longs that the child should know His will, and should, in the confidence that that will includes all that His power and love have promised to do, know too that He hears the petitions which we ask of Him. “This is the bold ness which we have . . . that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.” "Lord, Teach Us To Pray" Blessed Master, with my whole heart I thank Thee for this blessed lesson, that the path to a life full of answers to prayer is through the will of God. Lord, teach me to know this blessed will by living it, loving it and always doing it. So shall I learn to offer prayers according to that will and to find in their har mony with God’s blessed will my boldness in prayer and my confi dence in accepting the answer. Father, it is Thy will that Thy child should enjoy Thy presence and blessing. It is Thy will that everything in the life of Thy child should be in accordance with Thy will and that the Holy Spirit should work this in him. It is Thy will that Thy child should live in the daily experience of distinct answers to prayer so as to enjoy living and di rect fellowship with Thyself. It is Thy will that Thy name should be glorified in and through Thy chil dren and that it will be in those who trust Thee. O my Father, let this Thy will be my confidence is all 1 ask. Blessed Saviour, teach me to be lieve in the glory of this will. That will is the eternal love which with divine power works out its purpose in each human will that yields itself to it. Lord, teach me this. Thou const make me see how every promise and every command of the Word is indeed the will of God and that its fulfillment is secured to me by God Himself. Let thus the will of God become to me the sure rock on which my prayer and my assur once of an answer ever rest. Amen
hindrances to believing prayer
ceive not, because ye ask amiss.” In not granting an answer, the Father tells us that there is some thing wrong' in our praying. He wants to teach us to find it out and confess it and so to educate us to true believing and prevailing prayer. He can only attain His object when He brings us to see that we are to blame for the withholding of the answer; our aim or our faith or our life is not what it should be. But this purpose of God is frustrated as long as we are content to say: “ It is perhaps because my prayer is not according to His will that He does not hear me.” O let us no longer throw the blame of our unanswered Your Prayer Requests Each morning at eight the editorial staff of T h e K in g ’ s B usiness magazine gathers for prayer. Over the years God has answered the heartcry of thousands. Should you have a request we would count it a privilege to take it to the throne of grace. Your request will be held in the strictest confidence. Address: The Editors, T h e K in g ’ s B usiness , 55 8 So. Hope St., Los Angeles 17. Phone: MAdison 5-1641. prayers on the secret will of God but on our own praying amiss. Let that word, “ Ye receive not, because ye ask amiss,” be as the lantern of the Lord, searching heart and life to prove that we are indeed such as those to whom Christ gave His promises of certain answers. Let us believe that we can know if our prayer be according to God’s will. Let us yield our heart to have the Word of the Father dwell rich
It is this union of the teaching of the Word and Spirit that many do not understand, and so there is a twofold difficulty in knowing what God’s will may he. Some seek the will of God in an inner feeling or conviction and would have the Spir it lead them without the Word. Oth ers seek it in the Word without the living leading of the Holy Spirit. The two must be united and when they are, then most surely can we know the will of God and learn to pray according to it. In the heart the Word and Spirit must meet: it is only by indwelling that we can experience their teaching. The Word must dwell, must abide in us: heart and life must day by day be under its influence. Not from with out, hut from within, comes the quickening of the Word by the Spirit. It is only he who yields himself entirely in his whole life to the supremacy of the Word and the will of God who can expect in spe cial cases to discern what that Word and will permit him boldly to ask. And even as with the Word, just so with the Spirit: if I would have the leading of the Spirit in prayer to assure me what God’s will is, my whole life must be yielded to that leading; so only can mind and heart become spiritual and capable of knowing God’s holy will. It is he who through Word and Spirit lives in the will of God by doing it who will know to pray according to that will in the confidence that He hears us. Would that Christians might see what incalculable harm they do themselves by the thought that be cause possibly their prayer is not according to God’s will, they must be content without an answer. God’s Word tells us that the great reason of unanswered prayer is that we do not pray aright: “Ye ask and re
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The King's Business/December 1957
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