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THE KING’S BUSINESS
any ^claims upon God. The most faithful Christian on earth was once a sinner and all he deserved from God was His wrath. God in infinite mercy has redeemed us by the atoning death of His Son, but still we have no claim upon God; all we get is of grace, free, unmerited favor. If one is to receive answer to his prayer he must renounce any thought that he has any claim upon God, no matter how faithful his service may be, and humbly approach God on the ground of Christ’s acceptance in His sight and on the ground of Christ’s atoning work (Heb. 10:19, 20). Jesus Christ has given us the right, if we are united to Him by living faith and obedient love (John 14:12, IS), to pray in His name, and the prayer that is truly in His name will be answered (see Daily Devo tional studies in the New Testament for July 25). Another reason why the prayers, even of true followers of Christ, are not answered, is because they are not accord ing tp the will of God. “If we ask any thing according to His will, He i heareth us” (1 John 5 :14): and if we know that He hear us, we know we have the petitions we asked of Him (1 John 5:15). So when we pray we should first seek to know whether the thing we ask is according to the will of God. We may know the will of God by the explicit revelation of His will in the promises of His Word, or by the teaching of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:26, 27). Many who are doubtless true follow ers of Christ are very careless about what they ask for. They do not seek to clearly learn'the will of God before praying, and
of course the prayers of this character that they offer up may or may not be answered. We have no right to think that they will be answered. Again, the prayers of true followers of Christ sometimes are not answered because the prayer is not the prayer of faith (Jas. 1:5-7). We have no right to expect that any prayer of ours will be answered unless it is offered in faith (Mark 11:24). Some times in our carelessness in prayer we ask for things that we have no right to have faith about, for they are not according to the will of God. But sometimes we ask for things which it would be His will to give if we only had faith, but we have not faith, and therefore do not get what we ask. The way tp get faith is by the study of His Word (Rom. 10:17). Faith must have a warrant. We cannot believe that God will grant us a certain thing unless we have some warrant for believing it, and indeed we ought not to believe it unless we have some warrant. The sure warrant is the Word of God. When anything is definitely promised in the Word of God we may know that God will give it if we ask for it, if we meet the conditions of prevail ing prayer. Bible study, study of the prom ises of God, must go hand in hand with prevailing prayer. The Lord Jesus said/ “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye wijl, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7), but many in pleading this promise overlook the words, “my words abide in you." One must study the Word, and believe the Word, and obey the Word, if they are to get the things they ask of God.
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