Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 11:24
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them,] and ye shall have [them.]
24. What things soever ye desire, when ye pray ] Because Prayer is the very language of Faith, He passes on to speak concerning Prayer.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mar 11:24
What things soever ye desire when ye pray.
Combined action of prayer and faith
The apostles, when the Lord was taken away from them, would have to commend His doctrine to the world by miracles. To this end it was needful that their faith in God, as the Bestower of all power to do such things, should be raised. For the real doer of every miracle or sign was God, and God only. When the apostles healed suddenly any sick person, or cast out any evil spirit, it was by the combined exercise of prayer and faith. They secretly or openly called upon God, and they implicitly believed that He would accompany their word with His power. Now, being men totally ignorant of science, and so unable to form a conception of the kind or amount of power put forth in the performance of any miracle, they would naturally look upon it as a matter of size, or weight, or extension. They would, as a matter of course, look upon the removal of the Mount of Olives as a far greater thing, demanding far greater power, than the sudden drying up of the life juices of a single fig tree; but it may not really be greater by any means. On the contrary, the sudden touching and arresting the springs of life in the living thing may require far more knowledge of the greatest secret of all-the secret of life, and far more real power in applying that knowledge, than the removal of the most stupendous mass of dead matter. Now the apostles, though they could not understand this, must yet act as if it were so. They must not judge by the sight of their eyes of the difficulty or easiness of anything which they felt moved by the Spirit to perform. They must think of nothing but the almighty power of God, and His pledge to accompany their prayers or words with that power. (M. F. Sadler, M. A.)
The miracle of faith
True prayer is sure power.
I. Look at the text to see the essential qualities necessary to any great success in prayer. There must be-
1. Definite things prayed for. No rambling, or drawing the bow at a venture. Use no mock modesty with God. Be simple and direct in your pleadings. Speak plainly, and make a straight aim at the object of your supplications.
2. Earnest desire. Plead as for your life. There was a beautiful illustration of true prayer addressed to man in the conduct of two noble ladies, whose husbands were condemned to die and were about to be executed, when they came before George I and supplicated for their pardon. The king rudely and cruelly repulsed them. But they pleaded again and again; and could not be got to rise from their knees; and they had actually to be dragged out of court, for they refused to leave till their petition was granted. That is the way we must pray to God. We must have such a desire for the thing we want that we will not rise until we have it,-but in submission to His Divine will, nevertheless.
3. Faith. No questioning whether God can or will grant the prayer. The prayers of Gods people are but Gods promises breathed out of living hearts; and those promises are the decrees only put into another form and fashion. When you can plead His promise, then your will is His will.
4. A realizing expectation. We should be able to count over the mercies before we have got them, believing that they are on the road.
II. Look about you and judge by the tenor of the text.
1. Public meetings for prayer. How often, at these meetings, does this advice of an old preacher need to be remembered: The Lord will not hear thee because of the arithmetic of thy prayers; He does not count their numbers: nor because of their rhetoric; He does not care for the eloquent language in which they are couched: nor for their geometry; He does not compute them by their length or their breadth: nor yet will He regard thee because of the music of thy prayers; He cares not for sweet voices and harmonious periods. Neither will He look at thee because of the logic of thy prayers-because they are well arranged and excellently comparted. But He will hear thee, and He will measure the amount of the blessing He will give thee, according to the divinity of thy prayers. If thou canst plead the person of Christ, and if the Holy Ghost inspire thee with zeal and earnestness, the blessings thou askest will surely come to thee.
2. Your private intercessions. There is no place that some of us need to he so ashamed to look at as our closet door. Shame on our hurried devotions, our lip services, our distrust. See to it that an amendment be made, and God make you more mighty and more successful in your prayers than heretofore.
III. Look above and you will see enough to make you-
1. Weep. God has given us a mighty weapon, and we have let it rust. If the universe were as still as we are where should we be? God gives light to the sun, and he shines with it. To the winds He gives force, and they blow. To the air He gives life, and it moves, and men breathe thereof. But to His people He has given a gift that is better far than force, or life, or light, and yet they neglect and despise it! Constantine, when he saw that on the coins of the other emperors their images were in an erect position, triumphing, ordered that his image should be struck kneeling, for, said he, This is the way in which I have triumphed. The reason why we have been so often defeated, and why our banners trail in the dust, is because we have not prayed.
2. Rejoice. For, though you have sinned against God, He loves you still. You may not as yet have gone to the fountain, but it still flows as freely as ever.
3. Amend your prayers from this time forth. Look on prayer no longer as a romantic fiction or an arduous duty, but as a true power and a real pleasure. When philosophers discover some latent power they delight to put it in action. Test the bounty of the Eternal. Take to Him all your petitions and wants, and see if He does not honour you. Try whether, if you believe Him, He will not fulfil His promise, and richly bless you with the anointing oil of His Spirit, by which you will be strong in prayer. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Lessons on prayer
I. God hears prayers of any magnitude; much wrong might have been prevented or cured, much good done, if only we had prayed.
II. Success for prayer depends on goodness; without the soul health of trust and love we cannot pray.
III. Let our unanswered prayers be a mirror in which we see our faults. (R. Glover.)
If our doubts do not prevail so far as to make us leave off praying, our prayers will prevail so far as to make us leave off doubting. (H. Hickman.)
Prayer a key
Prayer is a key which, being turned by the hand of faith, unlocks Gods treasures. (Anon.)
The sum and substance of every prayer should be the will of God
The exercise of prayer can only be a blessing to our souls when our own will is entirely merged in the will of our heavenly Father. If we only knew the truth, we should find that prayer is more connected with the discipline of the will than we generally imagine. Our will is not naturally in harmony with Gods. The carrying out of our own will, when bent on some desired object, is what invariably characterises us. It becomes habitual to us. We carry it, more or less, as a habit into the presence of God. It must not be, however. Wilfulness is not a characteristic of one of Gods children. He is but a child, and he must know it. The Fathers will is best; the child must know no will but His. It must be crossed, however painful it may be. To subdue that will, to blend it with His, and to make us perfectly happy under the conviction that our own is not to be carried out, is the only true explanation of many an unanswered prayer, many a bitter cup still unremoved, and many a thorn still left rankling in the flesh. But when the heart has been brought into that state when it can, with happy, confiding trust, look up and say, Father, not my will, but Thine, be done! then will relief come. The thorn, indeed, may not be extracted, the cup may not be removed, but there will appear the strengthening angel from heaven enabling us to bear it. (F. Whitfield.)
Scope and limit of prayer
In other places the promise is considerably qualified, We shall receive, not whatever we ask, but the Holy Spirit, i.e., we are to spread out our case, our needs, our desires, before God, for that is the way to come into close relations with Him; He will do the rest. The answer shall be the gift we ask for, and our demand shall be the needful link in the chain of causes which brings us and our hearts desire together; in other words, the answer shall be the Holy Spirit, who shall mould our wills into accord and illuminated acquiescence with His good will. In any case, prayer is seen to be the ways and means of bringing us into communication with One who is above all, and over all, and through all. Direct demands are the most obvious, simple, childlike forms of prayer; but the spiritual value of prayer is, after all, not this-to get exactly what we want, when we want it, like the magic ring in the fairy tale; but this-to bring the human into close relation with the Divine. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.)
The foundation of faithful prayer
I remember asking an old friend of mine, who is now between seventy and eighty years of age, and who, I think, as far as I have been permitted to know Christian men, is mightier with God than almost any man I have met, Do tell me the secret of your success in prayer. He said, I will tell you what it is. I say to myself, Is that which I am asking for promised? Is it according to the mind of God? If it is, I plant my foot upon it as upon a firm rock, and I never allow myself to doubt that my Father will give me according to my petition. (Bp. Bickersteth.)
The links that unite earth and heaven
Give me these links;
(1) sense of need;
(2) desire to get;
(3) belief that, though He withhold for a while, He loves to be asked;
(4) belief that asking will obtain-give me these links, and the chain will reach from earth to heaven, bringing all heaven down to me, or bearing me up into heaven. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Faith and prayer
Faith is to prayer as the feather is to the arrow; faith feathers the arrow of prayer, and makes it fly swifter and pierce the throne of grace. Prayer that is faithless is fruitless. (T. Watson.)
Earnestness in prayer
The arrow that is shot from a loose cord drops powerless to the ground, but from the tightly-drawn bowstring it springs forward, soars upward, and reaches the object to which it is directed. So it is not the loose utterance of attempted prayer that is effectual, but the strong earnestness of the heart sending its pointed petition to heaven, that reaches the Divine ear and obtains the desired blessing. (Bowden.)
Perseverance in prayer
I saw the other day a man attempting to split a rock with a sledge hammer. Down came the sledge upon the stone as if it would crush it, but it merely rebounded, leaving the rock as sound as before. Again the ponderous hammer was swung, and again it came down, but with the same result. Nothing was accomplished. The rock was still without a crack. I might have asked (as so many are disposed to ask concerning prayer) what good could result from such a waste of time and strength. But that man had faith. He believed in the power of that sledge. He believed that repeated blows had a tendency to split that rock. And so he kept at it. Blow after blow came down; all apparently in vain. But still he kept on without a thought of discouragement. He believed that a vigorously swung sledge has great power. And at last came one more blow and the work was done. That is the way in which we ought to use prayer. God has told us that the earnest prayer of the righteous man has great power. We ought to believe it, just as that man believed that his sledge had power. And believing it, we ought to use prayer for the attainment of spiritual results with just such confidence of success as that man used his sledge. We may not secure our answer at once. That rock was not split at the first blow, or the second. But that man believed that if he continued his blows, he was more likely to succeed every blow he struck. So we are to believe that there is a spiritual power in prayer, just as there was a physical power in that sledge; and that, the more perseveringly and earnestly we use it, the more certain are we to accomplish something by it.
Ye shall have them: Divine answers to prayer
Is the direct Divine answer to prayer a reality? Call the witnesses and let them testify. Let the martyrs of the early church answer, from their exile, from the prisons where they were chained, from the amphitheatre whose sands were crimsoned with their blood, from the chariots of flame in which they swept up to glory. Let the Covenanters, kneeling on the heather, or hiding in the grey fastnesses of the crags; let the Pilgrims, with their faces vet with the cold, salt spray, and the gloom of the wilderness overshadowing them; let Christian heroes everywhere-missionaries passing through belts of pestilence, women in army hospitals, philanthropists in jails and lazar houses-let all these testify whether prayer has anything more than a reflex influence. Let thousands of death beds answer. Let the myriad homes of sorrow, wrapped in darkness that may be felt, answer. Let every man or woman who has ever really prayed, answer. From each and all comes one and the same testimony: The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him, unto all that call upon Him in truth. (Ed. S. Attwood.)
Expecting answer to prayer
A few years ago there was a time of much dryness in a certain part of England. No rain had fallen for several weeks, and it seemed as if the crops would all perish for want of moisture. A few pious farmers who believed in the power of prayer asked their minister to make a special supplication on a particular Sunday for the needed blessing of rain. The day came, and was as bright and cloudless as those which had preceded it. Among the congregation the minister noticed a little Sunday scholar, who carried a large old-fashioned umbrella. Why, Mary, he exclaimed, what could have induced you to bring an umbrella on such a lovely morning as this? I thought, sir, answered Mary, that as we were going to pray for rain I should be sure to want the umbrella. The minister patted her cheek good naturedly and the service began. Presently the wind rose, the clouds gathered, and at length the long-desired rain fell in torrents. Mary and the minister went home together under the umbrella, while the rest of the congregation reached their dwellings well drenched. Let us follow Marys example, and always pray, not only hoping that God may hear, but believing that He does hear, and will send us what we ask if it is good for us.
The most mighty force
Thou hast power in prayer, and thou standest today amongst the most potent ministers in the universe that God has made. Thou hast power over angels, they will fly at thy will. Thou hast power over fire and water, and the elements of earth. Thou hast power to make thy voice heard beyond the stars; where the thunders die out in silence thy voice shall make the echoes of eternity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Power of prayer
Oh, God, thou hast given us a mighty weapon, and we have permitted it to rust. Would it not be a vile crime if a man had an eye given him which he would not open, or a hand that he would not lift up, or a foot that grew stiff because he would not use it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Pleading prayer
It was said of John Bradford that he had a peculiar art in prayer, and when asked for his secret he said: When I know what I want I always stop on that prayer until I feel that I have pleaded it with God, and until God and I have had dealings with each other upon it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The limit of prayer
I. Prayers limit. All things soever ye desire, believe and ye shall have them. The boundary line of desire and of faith.
1. The boundary line of faith. Faith is vast, recognizes the covenant of the promises, and whatever comes outside the promises for which she can find anywhere a direct engagement of Almighty God to do. Faith is the turning of an infinite future, into a present real receiving; it can go confidently when it treads on Scripture ground. So the Bible becomes, in a measure, prayer; you must try to bring prayer up to the mind of God in it.
2. Desire has a gracious limit. A man well acquainted with Gods Word lives under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and his mind is conformed to the mind of God, and his desires gradually blend with the wishes of the Almighty.
II. Prayers reach.
III. Prayers warrant. The blood of Christ and the worth of this warrant.
1. It is personal.
2. It is present.
3. It is absolute. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
See Poole on “Mat 21:22“. See Poole on “Mat 6:14-15“. See Poole on “Mat 7:7“, in which texts we before met with what we have in these verses, teaching us the necessity of faith and charity to those who would so pray as to find acceptance with God. This also lets us know the necessity of peoples full satisfaction, that what things they ask of God in prayer are according to the will of God, without which it is not possible they should pray with a full persuasion that they shall receive whatsoever they in prayer ask of God. And because it is impossible we should in this point be fully satisfied, without a Divine revelation, as to things not necessary to salvation, our faith or persuasion can rise no higher, than a full persuasion, that if things of this nature, when we ask them of God in prayer, be such as are for our good, and for Gods glory, we shall receive them. The cause was otherwise as to those to whom Christ had given a power to work miracles; what they asked of that nature they must know it was the will of God to effect by them, and they could not without sin doubt of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. Therefore I say unto you, Whatthings soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,and ye shall have themThis verse only generalizes theassurance of Mr 11:23; whichseems to show that it was designed for the special encouragement ofevangelistic and missionary efforts, while this is adirectory for prevailing prayer in general.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore I say unto you,…. For encouragement in prayer more particularly, without which nothing should be attempted, and especially which is above the power of nature, and is of a miraculous kind:
whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray; that is, according to the revealed will of God, is for the confirmation of his Gospel, and for the glory of his name:
believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them]; the petitions that are desired, and the things asked in them: that is, be as much assured of having them, as if you had already received them, and you shall have them; for the sense can never be, that they should believe they received them before they had them; this would be a contradiction in terms; and Beza’s ancient copy, and one of Stephens’s copies read it, “believe that ye shall receive”, as in
Mt 21:22, and so the Vulgate Latin version; with which agree the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, which render it, “believe that ye shall enjoy”, or “obtain”; and the Syriac version, “believe that ye are about to receive”; and great faith it is so to believe; and this is the prayer of faith; see 1Jo 5:14.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Believe that ye have received them ( ). That is the test of faith, the kind that sees the fulfilment before it happens. is second aorist active indicative, antecedent in time to , unless it be considered the timeless aorist when it is simultaneous with it. For this aorist of immediate consequence see Joh 15:6.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Receive [] . More lit., received. Rev., have received.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1)“Therefore I say unto you,” (kai touto lego humin) “Therefore I tell you all,” as professing and following disciples of mine.
2) “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,” (panta hosa proseuch esthe kai aiteisthe) “All things that you all pray and ask (for),” with a willing mind, to do His will, Joh 7:17; 2Co 8:12; Eph 5:17.
3) “Believe that ye receive them,” (pisteute hoti elabete) “You are to believe that you (will) receive,” 1Jn 5:14-15.
4) “And ye shall have them.” (kai estai humin) “And you will have, obtain, or possess it,” the object of your faith prayer and petition, as pledged by our Lord, Mat 7:7; Luk 11:9; the pledges are based on one’s being in and doing the will of God, based upon His word, when interpreted and obeyed in the context of or harmony with the condition of the promise of God, Joh 15:7; Jas 1:6-7; Col 3:17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(24) Believe that ye receive them.The better MSS. give the latter verb in the past tense, Believe that ye received them. It is obvious that, as a rule, such words imply prayer for spiritual rather than temporal blessings. In that region the subjective faith becomes an objective reality. We are to believe, not that we shall one day have what we pray for in a future more or less distant, but that we actually receive it as we pray. In most, if not in all cases, in prayer for peace, pardon, illumination, the promise, though it sounds hyperbolical, is psychologically true.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Therefore In view of this readiness of God to make your faith true the instant that it exists. I say I declare this high privilege of the faithful soul. Unto you Who have attained full communion with God. Believe that ye receive them Trust that God is already granting while ye pray. And ye shall have them The gift shall commence as soon as the faith is complete. While ye trust that it is being granted, it is being granted. The prayer and the answer are coexistent, as instantaneous cause and effect.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Therefore I say to you, All things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them and you will have them”.
This and the following verse could well be a teaching of Jesus which Mark knew of and put here in order to provide it with a context. It could be seen as a more general saying rather than as fitting the context directly. In that case it is a promise to the dedicated follower of Christ that whenever, in His service for God, he or she has a great need, they can come with confidence to the Father to meet that need. But note that their spiritual state must be such that they can come with confident faith. Then their confidence will be reflected by the certainty that they have that their prayer will be answered, and thus it will be. This is no promise to be used lightly for personal benefit or for trivialities. It is for those who are seeking first the Kingly Rule of God and His righteousness.
But again it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that its context indicates that included in the idea of the response to faith as exemplified here was what Jesus had Himself demonstrated, that just as the fig tree had withered at His word, so also finally will the Temple.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
v. 24. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
v. 25. And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have aught against any, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
v. 26. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. There are two factors which defeat the ends of prayer. The first is the lack of trust in efficacy of prayer. There are things which people need, which they desire, which they bring to God in prayer, and yet they lack assurance, they exhibit hesitation, fear as to the outcome. But Christ here states that every prayer of faith is heard. It may be that the fulfillment of wishes comes in a different form than the believer anticipated, in a manner more conducive to his temporal and eternal welfare, but the fact of God’s hearing prayer is unassailable. The second reason why prayers often have no effect is because of the condition of the person’s heart that presumes to pray. There cannot be, in the heart of a praying person, enmity, hatred, rancor, ill will, or any other unfriendly feeling which is at variance with the demand of God that a forgiving spirit must dominate our actions. No matter whether Christians have been wronged with or without reason, whether they feel hurt rightfully or wrongfully, their hearts must be filled with forgiveness toward all men. If they refuse to forgive, no matter what the occasion or the provocation, they thereby erect a wall, an impenetrable and insurmountable obstacle between themselves and God. They make God’s forgiveness of their own sins impossible, and God will not hear the prayers of such as have no clean record before Him, whose sins are not daily and richly forgiven them through the Gospel. Since they refuse their neighbor forgiveness, they shut themselves out from God’s mercy and goodness, and render their prayer of none effect.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
DISCOURSE: 1445
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH IN PRAYER
Mar 11:24. I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
THERE is no grace more highly commended in the Scriptures, than faith: for though in some respects love may be considered as the greater, inasmuch as it more assimilates us to the Deity, and is of infinitely longer duration [Note: 1Co 13:13.]; yet faith is the parent of love, and the root of every other grace. Faith, above all other graces, honours God, and benefits the soul; for it gives to him the glory of all his infinite perfections, and brings down from him a supply of all those blessings which he has promised to bestow. Its efficacy is particularly seen in prayer: our Lord has assured us, that it shall secure to us every blessing that we ask for: I say unto you, &c. &c.
It is our intention to shew,
I.
What is that faith which we are to exercise in prayer
[Many distinguish between that faith which worketh miracles, and that whereby we obtain salvation: but I much doubt the propriety of the distinction, as it is usually explained. It is supposed that the faith itself is different: but I apprehend that the difference exists, not in the faith, but in the objects of that faith: the faith is the same; but its operation is different, according to the objects on which it is exercised. I would say of faith, so far as it relates to our present subject, that it is an expectation founded on a promise. To expect any thing which God has not promised, is presumption: to doubt the fulfilment of what he has promised, is unbelief: to expect the accomplishment of his word is faith.
But promises are of different kinds; some are absolute and others conditional: and the office of faith is to apprehend them as they are given; if they are given absolutely, we must expect them absolutely; if conditionally, conditionally. Our faith in each must be equally assured: we must as fully expect the accomplishment of a conditional promise on the performance of the condition, as of any promises to which no condition is annexed. But we must be careful not to construe the conditional as absolute, or the absolute as conditional: if we take the absolute promises, and make them to depend on the performance of conditions, we deny to God the exercise of his sovereign grace: if, on the other hand, we make the conditional promises absolute, and expect their accomplishment merely from the circumstance of their fixing themselves strongly on our minds, we shall, on the occurrence of a disappointment, be led to doubt the veracity of God, and to reject all his promises as unworthy of belief.
We will explain ourselves more fully.
There are many promises which we call absolute; such as those which relate to Christ as the Author of salvation to a ruined world [Note: Gen 3:15; Gen 12:3.]; such as relate also to the increase and establishment of his Church [Note: Isa 2:2; Isa 11:6-9.]; and such also as afford the broad grounds of hope to all who shall believe in Christ [Note: Isa 55:7. Joh 6:37. Act 13:39. 1Jn 1:7.]. We are to believe these as true and certain, independent of any title to them, or interest in them, possessed by us. As applied to ourselves indeed, they may be considered as conditional; but as indefinitely taken, they may be called absolute.
There are other promises which we call conditional; because they are made to persons of certain characters, or upon our performance of certain conditions [Note: Mat 5:3-10; Mat 7:7-8; Mat 11:28-29. Act 16:31.]: and these we are to believe as infallibly certain to all who attain the qualifications or perform the conditions. Yet we must not imagine that the qualification or the action forms the proper ground on which God bestows the blessing: the blessing is Gods free gift, as well when it is conditionally granted, as when it is unconditional: the bestowment of Canaan on the descendants of Abraham was free, notwithstanding the final possession of it was suspended on their obedience to his commandments; and so it is in all cases: the performance of conditions may be appointed of God as means to an end; and the end may be inseparable from the means; but still the end is Gods free gift; and from his free grace alone do we derive our title to it: the use of the means is no more than the beggars stretching out his hand to receive a proferred donation.
Amongst these may be classed all temporal promises, such as those which relate to health, or riches, or honour: for these are no further promised than the bestowment of them shall accord with Gods will, and be subservient to his glory. We shall have them in that measure that shall be conducive to our spiritual and eternal welfare. Promises also which relate to others, are of this kind. God engages to pour out his Spirit on our seed and his blessing on our offspring, &c. [Note: Isa 44:3-5.] But this cannot be fulfilled, unless the individuals themselves seek his blessing: and therefore it must be understood as subject to that condition.
Such then is the faith which we are to exercise in prayer. We are to lay hold on the promises of God in his word, and are to apprehend them, not as they are applied to our minds, but as they are given by God. Their striking our minds more or less forcibly makes no alteration in them: they are not a whit more or less certain on that account: their accomplishment is no otherwise affected by our conduct than as we exercise faith on them, or entertain doubts respecting them: if we do not credit them, they will not be fulfilled to us; if we do credit them, they will be fulfilled absolutely, or on our performance of the conditions, according to the quality of the promises themselves.]
Having stated what we apprehend to be the kind of faith that we are to exercise, we proceed to mark,
II.
The importance of it towards the success of our prayers
Two things are noted in our text, the one expressed, the other implied; and they will serve to shew us the importance of faith in the strongest light in which it can be seen:
1.
Without it, no prayer even for the smallest blessing can succeed
[If we go to God without faith, instead of honouring, we insult him; we tell him to his face, that the representations given of him in his word are too good to be true. Unbelief necessarily ascribes to God a defect either of power or of will to accomplish what he has promised: for if we believe him fully able, and fully willing, to accomplish his word, there remains no ground of doubt. It may be said that doubts may arise from a sense of our own unworthiness: but I answer, that all doubts ascribed to that source, have their origin in pride and ignorance: they argue an unwillingness to receive the promises in our proper character, and an ignorance of the freeness and fulness of the promises. Let us make the case our own. We have invited a person to come and receive some great benefit: and he no sooner comes into our presence, than he betrays a doubt about our sincerity, and a suspicion that we intend to disappoint him. Should we be pleased with such a person? Should we feel disposed to extend our benefits to him in such a state? In what light God regards such persons, he himself has told us: he interprets all doubts of his power, or willingness to supply the necessities of his people, as a high provocation; an insult, that kindles his wrath against every person that indulges them [Note: Psa 78:19-22; Psa 78:40-41.]: and he warns us, that every prayer offered in such a spirit shall be disregarded; and that it will be in vain for such a suppliant to expect any thing at his hands [Note: Jam 1:5-7.]. Hence the command to all who would find acceptance to their prayers, is, to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubling [Note: 1Ti 2:8.].]
2.
With it, no prayer even for the greatest blessing can fail
[Faith honours every perfection of the Deity: his power, his love, his faithfulness are all acknowledged, when we go to him in a firm expectation that he will fulfil his promises. Hence to such suppliants he gives a liberty to ask for whatsoever they will, and assures them, that he will fulfil all their petitions [Note: Joh 14:13-14; Joh 15:7; Joh 16:24.]. He does not indeed bind himself to any particular time or manner of answering their prayers: he may see fit to defer his answer for a considerable time; but he will not delay beyond the best time [Note: Luk 18:7.]. He may also withhold the particular blessing that is asked; but he will give a better in its stead; as when he refused Moses his permission to go into the land of Canaan, but gave him a sight of Canaan, and then took him up to heaven [Note: Deu 3:25-26. with 34:4, 5.]. He may also continue the affliction which we desire to have removed: but he will give us grace to bear it; and will glorify himself by means of it; which, in the eyes of every real saint, will be incomparably better than the removal of it [Note: 2Co 12:7-9.]. It is possible enough that his people under particular circumstances may think that he has not answered their prayer; as for instance, when they hare been praying for spiritual benefits, and he has sent them temporal calamities: but the truth is, that he makes their tribulation to work the very blessings they have sought for, namely, patience, and experience, and hope; and it is not till long afterwards that they see how mysteriously, yet how graciously, he has answered their petitions. There is but one limit to their petitions, namely, the will of God: and if the desire be within that limit, every believer may rest assured, that God either has answered his prayers, or will answer them in due time [Note: 1Jn 5:14-15.].]
Learn then from hence,
1.
The true nature of prayer
[It is thought by men in general to be a duty: and a duty it certainly is in some point of view; but it should rather be regarded as a privilege. In what light did Hagar view access to a fountain, when she and her child were perishing with thirst? In what light did the man-slayer view his liberty of running to the city of refuge? Or in what light would any poor person consider the knocking at our door, when he was bidden to come for a supply of all his wants? O that we viewed aright Gods invitations to a throne of grace! We should not come then, as too many do, to perform a task; to offer petitions which we neither expected nor desired to have answered; and which, if God should offer to grant them, we would pray back again with ten times more fervour than was put forth in offering them: No: we should come as children to a father, delighting ourselves in him as our God, and saying with David, At morning and evening and at noon-day will I pray; or with the Apostle, Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.]
2.
The folly of unbelief
[Unbelief builds a wall, as it were, between God and us: it effectually prevents all access to him, and as effectually prevents the communications of his grace to us It may be thought, that if God has decreed to give us his blessing, our unbelief shall not prevent it; nor need we be solicitous about praying for it. But are we not told that Jesus could not do many mighty works at Nazareth because of their unbelief? Do we not remember that the Apostles failed in their attempts to cast out an unclean spirit because of their unbelief? Yea, are we not told, that, notwithstanding a promise was given to the Israelites that they should enter into Canaan, they entered not in because of unbelief? When God gave the most absolute promises, he said, Yet will I be inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them [Note: Eze 36:37.]. And, when he declared by his Prophet, that he had thoughts of peace towards his people to give them an expected end, he particularly added, that then they should go and pray unto him, and should find him, when they should search for him with their whole heart [Note: Jer 29:11-13.]. Let us guard then against this most pernicious evil, and go unto our God, saying, Lord, I believe: help thou my unbelief.
Yet, in exercising faith, we must guard against presumption; for if our faith be of an unhallowed kind, and go beyond the promise, it shall not be crowned with success. When Elisha heard that the widows son was dead, he sent his servant with his staff, conceiving that the touch of that would suffice to restore him: but God had promised no such thing; and therefore the attempt failed [Note: 2Ki 4:29; 2Ki 4:31.]. But in exercising faith, let us exercise it assuredly indeed, but humbly, and in an exact conformity to the command of God.]
3.
The wisdom of treasuring up the promises of God in our mind
[These are the true ground and measure of our expectations from God. And, if we look into the Holy Scriptures, we shall find, that there is not a state or condition in which we can be placed, but there is a promise exactly suited to it. We go with confidence to an honourable man, when we have a promise of any thing under his own hand: with what confidence then may we go to God, when we can take his promises along with us! Look at Jacob, how he pleads with God a promise that had been given him many years before [Note: Gen 28:15. with 32:12.]: see David pleading in like manner [Note: 2Sa 7:25. Psa 119:49.]: and learn from them the true use of the promises; nor ever stagger at them through unbelief; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. They are exceeding great and precious, commensurate with all our necessities. Let us therefore account nothing too great to ask; but open our mouth wide, that God may fill it: nor shall one jot or tittle fail of all the good things that he has promised to us.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them , and ye shall have them .
Ver. 24. What things soever ye desire, &c. ] To an effectual prayer two things are here required: 1. An earnest desire after the thing prayed for; “the desire of the righteous shall be satisfied,” Pro 10:24 ; but a cold suitor begs a denial. 2. A confident expectation of a gracious answer. He that prayeth and doubteth shutteth heaven’s gates against his own prayers, Jas 1:7 .
Believe that ye receive them ] Even as soon as you ask, as the word signifies. See Dan 9:20-21 ; Dan 9:24 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24. ] is aor., because the reception spoken of is the determination in the divine counsels coincident with the request believe that when you asked, you received, and the fulfilment shall come, .
Mar 11:24 . ; this reading ( [104] [105] [106] [107] [108] ) Fritzsche pronounces absurd. But its very difficulty as compared with (T.R.) guarantees its genuineness. And it in not unintelligible if, with Meyer, we take the aorist as referring to the divine purpose, or even as the aorist of immediate consequence, as in Joh 15:6 ( ). So De Wette, vide Winer, sec. xl. 5 b.
[104] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[105] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[106] Codex Ephraemi
[107] Codex Regius–eighth century, represents an ancient text, and is often in agreement with and B.
[108] Codex Sangallensis, a Graeco-Latin MS. of the tenth century, and having many ancient readings, especially in Mark.
Therefore = On account of (App-104. Mar 11:2) this. pray. App-134.
ye shall have them. [They] shall be to you.
24.] is aor., because the reception spoken of is the determination in the divine counsels coincident with the request-believe that when you asked, you received, and the fulfilment shall come, .
Believe and receive
Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.Mar 11:24.
1. Here we have a summary of the teaching of our Lord on prayer. Nothing will so much help to convince us of the sin of our remissness in prayer, to discover its causes, and to give us courage to expect entire deliverance, as the careful study and then the believing acceptance of that teaching. The more heartily we enter into the mind of our blessed Lord, and set ourselves to think about prayer as He thought, the more surely will His words be as living seeds. They will grow and produce in us their fruita life and practice exactly corresponding to the Divine truth they contain.
2. Yet the promises to prayer in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth verses of this eleventh chapter of St. Mark are so wonderful, that we are almost compelled to fall back before them, and ask ourselves whether we can have heard, or can have understood, aright. At the first sound, they surround our imaginations as with an air of fairyland; they seem to be something out of relation with the severities of the things that are: something out of relation with the necessary stringencies of a moral life. Then, if we feel that there is in our first sense something wrong, and begin to limit, to qualify, to explain, often it is not merely any childish misunderstanding of the promise, it is the promise itself that is slipping away from us; the solemn declaration of Christ begins to meannothing very definite or distinguishable: or, worse still, men find ground for pleasant mockery at the hollowness of a religious aspiration so transparently unreal. Do the words mean what they say, or do they not? or what do they mean?
I
The words mean first of all that we are to pray and ask for things. Now this involves (1) the recognition of our need of them, and (2) the utterance of that need.
i. That we recognise our Need
1. This seems to be expressed in the text itself according to the Authorized VersionWhat things soever ye desire, when ye pray. There, however, the word desire is used in the sense of request, just as we find it again in Joh 12:21, where we are told that certain Greeks who came up to worship at the feast came to Philip, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus, and as Shakespeare has it in The Merchant of Venice (IV. i. 402): I humbly do desire your grace of pardon. Yet the sense of need is undoubtedly one of the conditions of prayer, and Dr. Andrew Murray1 [Note: The Ministry of Intercession, 106.] is quite entitled to write as though the word desire in the Authorized Version were used in that sense. What things soever ye desire, he quotes, and then says: Desire is the secret power that moves the whole world of living men, and directs the course of each. And so desire is the soul of prayer, and the cause of insufficient or unsuccessful prayer is very much to be found in the lack or feebleness of desire. Some may doubt this: they are sure that they have very earnestly desired what they ask. But if they consider whether their desire has indeed been as whole-hearted as God would have it, as the heavenly worth of these blessings demands, they may come to see that it was indeed the lack of desire that was the cause of failure. What is true of God is true of each of His blessings, and is the more true the more spiritual the blessing: Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart (Jer 29:13). Of Judah in the days of Asa it is written, They sought him with their whole desire (2Ch 15:15). A Christian may often have very earnest desires for spiritual blessings. But alongside of these there are other desires in his daily life occupying a large place in his interests and affections. The spiritual desires are not all-absorbing. He wonders that his prayer is not heard. It is simply that God wants the whole heart. The Lord thy God is one Lord, therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
2. The best illustration that we are likely to findand it is an illustration not only of this point but of the whole textis furnished by the story of the ten lepers (Luk 17:11-14): And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go and shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed.
The facts to notice in this incident are these: (1) they knew that they were lepers and needed cleansing; (2) they asked Jesus to cleanse them; (3) when He said Go and shew yourselves unto the priests, although they felt and saw no difference in themselves, they took His word for it that they were cleansed, and acted upon it; (4) afterwards, as they were on the way to the priests, they knew that they were cleansed. That they did not know till they had gone some distance is evident, for we are told that one of them, as soon as he saw that he was healed, turned back, and thanked Jesus. We have reached as yet, however, only the first of these four factsthe recognition of a need.
We have wants, and we feel them: honest wants of body as of soul, wants personal, wants domestic, as well as all such aspirations as may seem to be of wider or higher scope. Are not these things true and proper subjects of prayer? Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven is not, after all, the whole of the Lords Prayer. Is it not followed at once by the more materialGive us this day our daily bread? Yes, most true indeed. Every need for body or soul, for ourselves or our children, our friends or our neighbours, in all the detail and variety which belong to vivid personal interest; it is all most true and holy subject-matter for prayer.1 [Note: R. C. Moberly.]
All things whatsoever. At this first word our human wisdom at once begins to doubt and ask: This surely cannot be literally true? But if it be not, why did the Master speak it, using the very strongest expression He could find: All things whatsoever? And it is not as if this were the only time He spoke thus; is it not He who also said, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth; If ye have faith, nothing shall be impossible to you? Faith is so wholly the work of Gods Spirit through His word in the prepared heart of the believing disciple, that it is impossible that the fulfilment should not come; faith is the pledge and forerunner of the coming answer.1 [Note: Andrew Murray.]
ii. That we give Utterance to it
1. The desire of the heart must become the expression of the lips. Our Lord more than once asked those who cried to Him for mercy, What wilt thou? He wanted them to say what they desired. To speak it out roused their whole being into action, brought them into contact with Him, and wakened their expectation. To pray is to enter into Gods presence, to claim and secure His attention, to have distinct dealing with Him in regard to some request, to commit our need to His faithfulness and to leave it there; it is in so doing that we become fully conscious of what we are seeking.
It may help to give definiteness to our thought, if we take a definite request in regard to which we would fain learn to pray believingly. Why should we not take as the object of desire and supplication the grace of supplication, and say, I want to ask and receive in faith the power to pray just as, and as much as, my God expects of me?2 [Note: Ibid.]
2. This is the second fact that we noticed in the story of the ten lepers. They asked for cleansingThey lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Would they have been cleansed if they had not asked for it? At any rate, Jesus lays down the rule: Ask, and ye shall receive. And when Bartimus was brought before Him, He insisted upon the blind man expressing his need, although it was perfectly evident what he needed. What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.
As God feeds the birds of the heaven (Mat 6:26), not by dropping food from heaven into their mouths, but by stimulating them to seek food for themselves, so God provides for His rational creatures by giving them a sanctified common sense, and by leading them to use it. In a true sense Christianity gives us more will than ever. The Holy Spirit emancipates the will, sets it upon proper objects, and fills it with new energy. We are therefore not to surrender ourselves passively to whatever professes to be a Divine suggestion (1Jn 4:1): Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God. The test is the revealed word of God (Isa 8:20): To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.1 [Note: Isaac Taylor, Natural History of Enthusiasm.]
I kindle a fire in my grate. I only intervene to produce and combine together the different agents whose natural action behooves to produce the effect I have need of; but the first step once taken, all the phenomena constituting combustion engender each other, conformably to their laws, without a new intervention of the agent; so that an observer who should study the series of these phenomena, without perceiving the first hand that had prepared all, could not seize that hand in any especial act, and yet there is a preconceived plan and combination.2 [Note: P. Janet, Final Causes.]
II
We are to believe that God has answered our prayer. This belief rests on three things: (1) Faith in God as a fountain of good; (2) the harmony of our request with His will; (3) His freedom in the use of ways and means.
i. Faith in God as the Source of all that is Good
1. In the first place we know that God is an ocean of boundless resources. And then we also know that prayer is His chosen channel for the application of those resources. This is everywhere the teaching of the New Testament, and it has been corroborated in the experience of the prayerful of every generation since. Lord Tennyson never had a truer thought given him from the heavenlies than this: Prayer is like opening a sluice between the great ocean and our little channels; when the great sea gathers itself together and flows in at full tide.3 [Note: Lord Tennyson: A Memoir, i.]
The summer before last I happened to be spending a part of my vacation in Scotland, and found my way up into the Highlands. At one point in the journey I came across a lovely little Highland loch, the name of which at this moment I forget. I noticed that some engineering works had been erected at the narrower end of the loch, so I inferred that the water was being made use of in some way, as indeed it was. My companion informed me that it had now become the drinking supply of a lowland town some distance away, and that the work had had to be done suddenly. It appears that during a season of severe drought there had been some danger of a water famine in the district referred to. All the wells ran dry. Neither the people in the houses nor the cattle in the fields could live without water, so it actually had to be carted from other districts at great expense. Then some one thought of the highland loch, many miles away. All difficulties were got over, and a tiny supply pipe was run the whole distance from the loch to the thirsty township. Later on, this temporary expedient for preventing disaster was replaced by works of a more efficient and costly character. But the interesting point about the matter is this: here was a whole population suffering for lack of something that was only waiting to be drawn upon, and had been in existence thousands of years before the township itself. Long before there was any thirst, the water was there to quench it. All that was required was the vision of the man who first conceived the project of bringing the water to the valley. After the vision came the labournot to create but to distribute the life-giving element which flowed downward in obedience to its own law. Is not this a fairly apt figure of the dealings of God with His children? Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. But we have to ask before the gift can be part of ourselves.1 [Note: R. J. Campbell.]
In this same time our Lord shewed me a spiritual sight of His homely loving. I saw that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable for us: He is our clothing that for love wrappeth us, claspeth us, and all encloseth us for tender love, that He may never leave us; being to us all-thing that is good, as to mine understanding.2 [Note: Julian the Anchoress.]
2. The great reason of our lack of faith is our lack of knowledge of God and intercourse with Him. Have faith in God, Jesus said when He spoke of removing mountains. It is as a soul knows God, is occupied with His power, love, and faithfulness, comes away out of self and the world, and allows the light of God to shine on it, that unbelief will become impossible. All the mysteries and difficulties connected with answers to prayer will, however little we may be able to solve them intellectually, be swallowed up in the adoring assurance, this God is our God: He will bless us. He does indeed answer prayer. And the grace to pray which we are asking for He will delight to give.
To know God simply as an absolute Sovereign, bowing to His doings merely because they are His, receiving His commands merely because He commands, this is not to know God as a fountain of life. Unless the character of God, and not merely the fact that there is a God, be apprehended, there is nothing known of God upon which the soul can feed. See then what a fresh well-spring of life it is, that this is the very truth concerning God, that He willeth all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; that as God is good, He delights in mens deliverance from evil; as He is holy, He delights in mens deliverance from sin; as He is true, He delights in mens deliverance from unbelief and ignorance and belief of a lie, for all unbelief is the belief of a lie.
Why does the man in charge of a Chinese temple bang the drum and pommel the bell morning and evening? And why do millions of Chinese in their houses tinkle a cast-iron pot when they worship? It is to call the god to attention. And when they pray for riches, sons, and long life (the three manys which sum up all their subjects of prayer, in most cases), it is to coax the god into willingness to help them. For those who thus worship, and call it prayer, know not of a majestic Mother-Love in the heavens, and around them, which always longs ever so much to help and to bless.1 [Note: W. A. Cornaby.]
One sunny morning, after a spell of dismal weather, a little girl of six came running up to some one I know, exclaiming: Look, father, how bright it is! I prayed God last night to send us a bright morning sometimecautious child!and isnt it bright now? The reply was: Yes, indeed, my child, and you know it is bright every morning if we only go high enough. For the sun up yonder is always shiningalways.2 [Note: Ibid.]
Lord, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make!
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take,
What parched grounds refresh as with a shower!
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all the distant and the near
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear.
We kneel how weak! We rise how full of power!
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,
Or othersthat we are not always strong;
That we are ever overborne with care;
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
And joy and strength and courage are with Thee?1 [Note: R. C. Trench, Poems, 134.]
ii. Our Request must be in Harmony with the Will of God
1. It is plain that there is a manner in which we can not apply the words of St. Mark, a sense in which they would not be true. So much at least the rebuke of St. James says clearly, Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss. Christian prayer is not a thing wild, capricious, unlimited. Christian prayer, the genuine uplifting of the heart of a man to his God:this cannot be as random or as reckless as all the random impulses of the mind of a man. It has limits; it has conditions; it has laws. There are things which may be asked in prayer, and there are things which may not. There are ways of asking aright, and there are ways of asking amiss. The mind that is really prayerful is a mind trained and disciplined. And we, too, if we would grasp the secret and blessing of prayer, must learn to conform ourselves to its conditions; we must rightly learn its spirit, its method, its rules; we must pray, in one word, not amiss, but right.
There is an old legend of two sheikhs of the desert. The one sheikh had many date palms. He insisted on having his own way with the trees. When the boughs seemed dry, he asked for rain, and the rain fell. When the boughs seemed too moist, he asked for sunshine, and the fierce heat came. When the trees seemed to bend under the wind, he asked for frost that the trunks might be strengthened. So what with much asking and changing the trees died. Fearing starvation the sheikh journeyed across the desert. One day he came to a grove of date palms, and found the owner thereof. The owner explained all by saying, God has blessed my trees abundantly. But, answered the discouraged sheikh, I too have date palms. I asked God for rain, and He sent showers. I asked for sunshine, and He sent heat. I asked for frost, and He sent cold. Lo, all my trees are dead. And I, answered the other, said unto God, For my date palms, Thou knowest what is best, and lo, the trees have brought forth fruit abundantly, and they live for your hunger.
2. Prayer is not the effort of a man to bend or win to himself the will of God. There is in it no effort, no desire, no thought against, or apart from, God. Rather it is mans most deliberate and perpetual effort, through the power of God the Spirit in the Name of God the Sonnot against but towardsthe realisation of the will and life of God. Make Thy will my will; and my will into Thy will! If the voice of prayer in its moment of supreme distraction reaches its simplicity only in tones which are wrung with anguish, nevertheless not my will but Thine be done, remember that the perfectness of prayer, not its cessation, is realised in fruition of perfect communion. In agony, or in victory, the perfectness of praying is the praying of the Son of God.
Do we ask for relieffor ourselves or for our dear onesfrom sickness, from anxiety, from bereavement? Do we ask for strength, for livelihood, for guidance, for success? It is well. Yet we recognise that, if we could learn aright, our greater longing, even in these, would be for the perfectly unthwarted consummation of Gods divinely wise and loving will. In so far as these things, which in detail we ask for, are, or may be, within the divinely beneficent will of God; in so far as any tormenting influence of evil is, or may be, in the withholding of them, thwarting the highest perfectness of Divine benevolence; so far we entreat Him, by the uniting of our earnest will with His will for all good, to let us taste in these things His perfect love.
Oh, Amma! Amma! do not pray! your prayers are troubling me! We all looked up in astonishment. We had just had our Band Prayer Meeting, when a woman came rushing into the room, and began to exclaim like this. She was the mother of one of our girls. Now the mother was all excitement, and poured out a curious story. When you went away last year I prayed. I prayed and prayed, and prayed again to my god to dispel your work. My daughters heart was impressed with your words. I cried to my god to wash the words out. Has he washed them out? Oh no! And I prayed for a bridegroom and one came, and the cart was ready to take her away, and a hindrance occurred; the marriage fell through. And I wept till my eyes well-nigh dissolved. And again another bridegroom came, and again an obstacle occurred. And yet again did a bridegroom come, and yet again an obstacle; and I cannot get my daughter tied, and the neighbours mock, and my Caste is disgracedand the poor old mother cried, just sobbed in her shame and confusion of face. Then I went to my god again, and said, What more can I offer you? Have I not given you all I have? And you reject my prayer! Then in a dream my god appeared, and he said, Tell the Christians not to pray. I can do nothing against their prayers. Their prayers are hindering me! And so, I beseech you, stop your prayers for fourteen daysonly fourteen daystill I get my daughter tied.1 [Note: Amy Wilson-Carmichael, Things as they are, 267.]
iii. We recognise Gods right to answer Prayer in the way He sees to be best
Christs prayer, Let this cup pass away from me (Mat 26:39), and Pauls prayer that the thorn in the flesh might depart from him (2Co 12:7-8), were not answered in the precise way requested. No more are our prayers always answered in the way we expect. Christs prayer was not answered by the literal removal of the cup, because the chinking of the cup was really His glory; and Pauls prayer was not answered by the literal removal of the thorn, because the thorn was needful for his own perfecting. In the case of both Jesus and Paul, there were larger interests to be consulted than their own freedom from suffering.
Be not afraid to prayto pray is right.
Pray, if thou canst, with hope; but ever pray,
Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay;
Pray in the darkness, if there be no light.
Far is the time, remote from human sight,
When war and discord on the earth shall cease;
Yet every prayer for universal peace
Avails the blessed time to expedite.
Whateer is good to wish, ask that of Heaven,
Though it be what thou canst not hope to see;
Pray to be perfect, though material leaven
Forbid the spirit so on earth to be:
But if for any wish thou darest not pray,
Then pray to God to cast that wish away.1 [Note: Hartley Coleridge, Poems, Prayer.]
III
We shall know that we have obtained what we askedfirst, when we act on the belief that we have obtained it; and next, when we see that we have obtained it.
i. We act on the belief that we have obtained what we asked
So did the ten lepers. When Jesus said, Go and shew yourselves to the priests, they turned and went. They did not wait to feel that they were cleansed; they did not wait to see the signs of it in their hands and faces. They simply took Him at His word and went.
1. Faith is very far from being a mere conviction of the truth of Gods word, or a conclusion drawn from certain premises. It is the ear which has heard God say what He will do, the eye which has seen Him doing it, and, therefore, where there is true faith, it is impossible that the answer should not come. If we only see to it that we do the one thing that He asks of us as we pray: Believe that ye have received, He will see to it that He does the thing He has promised: Ye shall have them. The key-note of Solomons prayer (2Ch 6:4), Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath with his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, is the key-note of all true prayer: the joyful adoration of a God whose hand always secures the fulfilment of what His mouth has spoken.
Signor Prochet, of the Waldensian Church, tells a story of a long-continued drought in the valleys of North Italy, which threatened to ruin the harvest. The pastor of one of the little congregations arranged to hold a special prayer-meeting to pray for rain to save the crops, and on the day of the meeting groups of people were seen wending their way along the valley, or clambering down the steep hillsides, to join the devotions. As the minister was nearing the church a little girl passed him. He was much struck by the size of the umbrella she was carrying, and laughingly called out: I fear you will not have much need of your umbrella this weather. Oh, sir, replied the child, I brought it because we were going to ask God for rain to-day, and I will be sure to need it before I get home. The minister pondered the words, and rebuked himself for his lack of faith. He had been going to pray for rain, but without any expectation that his prayer would be answered. The faith of the child put new life and power into the prayer-meeting. Before the close there was a sound of abundance of rain, and the minister was glad to share the shelter of the big umbrella on his way home.
2. Faith has to accept the answer, as given by God in heaven, before it is found or felt upon earth.This point causes difficulty, and yet it is of the very essence of believing prayer, its real secret. Spiritual things can only be spiritually apprehended or appropriated. The spiritual heavenly blessing of Gods answer to your prayer must be spiritually recognised and accepted before you feel anything of it. It is faith that does this. A soul that not only seeks an answer, but seeks first the God who gives the answer, receives the power to know that it has what it has asked of Him. If it knows that it has asked according to His will and promises, and that it has come to and found Himself to give it, it does believe that it has received. We know that he heareth us.
There are eases in which the blessing is ready to break through at once, if we but hold fast our confidence, and prove our faith by praising for what we have received, in the face of our not yet having it in experience. There are other cases in which the faith that has received needs to be still further tried and strengthened in persevering prayer. God alone knows when everything in and around us is fully ripe for the manifestation of the blessing that has been given to faith. Elijah knew for certain that rain would come; God had promised it; and yet he had to pray seven times. And that prayer was no show or play; there was an intense spiritual reality in the heart of him who lay pleading there, and in the heaven above where it had its effectual work to do. It is through faith and patience we inherit the promises. Faith says most confidently, I have received it. Patience perseveres in prayer until the gift bestowed in heaven is seen on earth.1 [Note: Andrew Murray.]
In 1886, the China Inland Mission under the care of Dr. Hudson Taylor had a force of two hundred missionaries. In a conference for Bible study and united prayer these missionaries were led to unite in prayer that God would, within a year, send one hundred additional workers to their assistance. So great was the faith of this little band of faithful workers that, before the conference closed, one of them suggested that they hold a praise meeting thanking God for answering their prayer, for, said he, We shall not be all able to come together for that purpose next year. They did so. During the following year the Mission received no less than six hundred applications, and by the end of the year one hundred of these had been selected and sent out to Inland China.
3. The receiving from God in faith, the believing acceptance of the answer with the perfect, praising assurance that it has been given, is not necessarily the experience or subjective possession of the gift we have asked for. At times there may be a considerable, or even a long, interval. In other cases the believing supplicant may at once enter upon the actual enjoyment of what he has received. It is specially in the former case that we have need of faith and patience: faith to rejoice in the assurance of the answer bestowed and received, and to begin and act upon that answer though nothing be felt; patience to wait if there be for the present no sensible proof of its presence. We can count upon it: Ye shall have, in actual enjoyment.
I never was deeply interested in any object, I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything, but it came; at some timeno matter at how distant a daysomehow, in some shape, probably the last I should have devisedit came. And yet I have always had so little faith! May God forgive me, and while He condescends to use me as His instrument, wipe the sin of unbelief from my heart!2 [Note: Adoniram Judson.]
O soul, be patient: thou shalt find
A little matter mend all this;
Some strain of music to thy mind,
Some praise for skill not spent amiss.3 [Note: Robert Bridges.]
ii. We shall know that we have obtained our request
So did the lepers. It came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was cleansed, returned, and fell down at Jesus feet, giving Him thanks.
The work began when first your prayer was uttered,
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there,
His glory you shall see, sometime, somewhere.1 [Note: Mrs. Browning.]
The question: Does prayer really help you? put to a prayerful Christian, is about as easy to answer as a certain question once put to a Chinese boatman of the river Han. The current was fairly strong, and, spite of much poling and rowing, we made little headway. Up to a certain point the journey was tediousness itself. Then, having performed a very simple operation, the boatmen sat at their ease, and we sped along grandly.
In a tone of innocent ignorance, I asked the skipper at the stern: Does putting up that sail really help you to get along? He made no reply, but grinned, wondering what was coming next. I suppose you say it catches the power of something no one has ever seenI believe you call it wind or something like that. But how can an unseen power make this heavy wooden boat to move up-stream? That is what I want to know! His broad grin exploded into thunderous laughter, and his two assistants said in confidence: Foreign funny-words!
But I had a purpose in view. I say, old chum, have you heard that we Christians pray to an unseen Godan unseen God, mind youto be made better men and women?
Aye, that I have, sir. I know that Christians are folks who believe in praying for that. Does it answer at all?
Now, old chum, be fair, you know! I just asked you a question easy to answer, and you only laughed at me. Suppose I just laugh at you now. I asked you in plainest Chinese: Does your putting up that sail answer at all?
Well, sir, everybody knows it does, of course. Look how were going ahead!2 [Note: W. A. Cornaby.]
Well, everybody who knows God as a Father, the Lord Jesus as Rescuer, and who really puts up the sail of his heartthats what prayer really isknows quite as surely that it does answer. Our prayers just catch hold of the unseen power of God, like a fair wind always blowing; and however the world customs flow downwards, we need not be down-drifting men. It helps our boat grandly up-stream.
My sorrow pierced me through, it throbbed in my heart like a thorn;
This way and that I stared, as a bird with a broken limb
Hearing the hounds strong feet thrust imminent through the corn,
So to my God I turned: and I had forgotten Him.
Into the night I breathed a prayer like a soaring fire;
So to the wind-swept cliff the resonant rocket streams,
And it struck its mark, I know; for I felt my flying desire
Strain, like a rope drawn home, and catch in the land of dreams.
What was the answer? Thisthe horrible depth of night,
And deeper, as ever I peer, the huge cliffs mountainous shade,
While the frail boat cracks and grinds, and never a star in sight,
And the seething waves smite fiercer;and yet I am not afraid.1 [Note: A. C. Benson.]
Believe and Receive
Literature
Campbell (J. M.), Responsibility for the Gift of Eternal Life, 126.
Caughey (J.), Revival Sermons and Addresses, 42.
Cornaby (W. A.), Let us Pray, 85.
Ealand (F.), The Spirit of Life, 38.
Farquhar (J. W.), The Gospel of Divine Humanity, 90.
Finney (C. G.), Revivals of Religion, 74.
Hammond (E. P.), Early Conversion, 108.
James (J. G.), Problems of Prayer, 67.
Lockyer (T. F.), The Inspirations of the Christian Life, 83.
Moberly (R. C), Christ our Life, 142.
Murray (A.), The Ministry of Intercession, 104.
Murray (A.), With Christ, 78, 86.
Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, vi. No. 328.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), ix. No. 763.
Christian World Pulpit, lxxiii. 248 (Campbell).
Clergymans Magazine, 3rd Ser., viii. 155; xvi. 61 (Heath).
Treasury, xvi. 76 (Murray).
What: Mat 7:7-11, Mat 18:19, Mat 21:22, Luk 11:9-13, Luk 18:1-8, Joh 14:13, Joh 15:7, Joh 16:23-27, Jam 1:5, Jam 1:6, Jam 5:15-18, 1Jo 3:22, 1Jo 5:14, 1Jo 5:15
Reciprocal: 1Ki 3:5 – Ask what Isa 45:11 – Ask Isa 65:24 – General 1Co 14:13 – pray 2Co 6:13 – be 1Ti 2:8 – and Heb 10:22 – in full
PRIVATE PRAYER
All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.
Mar 11:24. (R.V.)
Private prayer and meditation seem to be in special danger of being overlooked or misunderstood, and yet they are of paramount importance. There is among us, even in sacred things, a restlessness of much serving, a distraction of external excitements, of publicity, of display, which threaten to overwhelm the more silent and hidden duties of religion.
I. What is the nature of private prayer?The text says that the answer to the prayer is coincident with the prayer itself. Prayer is the conscious and hearty acceptance of Gods will for us when we have first endeavoured to estimate our own wants. Prayer is in its purest form the echo of Christs voice in the believers heart, the voice of affectionate self-surrender and not of self-seeking. Private prayer demands the most serious reality of thought and expression.
II. What rules can be suggested for its guidance?There must be careful reflection. To be real, our prayers must deal directly with wants which we individually feel. In order to learn the inspiring truth that working is praying, we must first learn that truth through which the inspiration comes, that praying is working.
III. The blessings of private prayer.It is by prayer that we know that in the darkest hours we are not solitary or unfriended. It helps us to live in the world as in a holy temple of God. Prayer calms little jealousies; subdues human passions; brings us fullness of peace and joy.
Bishop Westcott.
Illustration
There is a touching narrative of the opening hours of the reign of Queen Victoria. When the great announcement was made to her by the Primate, she said to him, I ask your Grace to pray for me. And when after the proclamation she retired to her mothers apartments, there followed that conversation and that request of which the world afterwards heard with so much sympathy. I can scarcely believe, mamma, that I am really Queen of England. Can it indeed be so? You are really Queen, my child, replied the Duchess of Kent. Listen how your subjects still cheer your name in the streets and cry to God to bless you. In time, said Her Majesty, I shall perhaps become accustomed to this too great and splendid state. But since I am Sovereign, let me, as your Queen, have to-day my first wishlet me be quite alone, dear mother, for a long time. And that day Queen Victoria spent the first hours of her reign on her knees, praying to heaven for herself and her people with supplications innocent and noble.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
FAITH AND PRAYER
No grace more highly commended in New Testament than faith. What is the faith we are to exercise in prayer? It is expectation founded on a promise. Promises are of different kinds(a) absolute; (b) conditional. Importance of faith towards success of our prayers. (a) Without it, no prayer, even for the smallest blessing, can succeed; (b) with it, no prayer, even for the greatest blessing, can fail.
Learn therefore:
I. The true nature of prayer.It should not be regarded as a duty, but as a privilege, and should be as the coming of children to a father.
II. The folly of unbelief.It builds a wall between man and God. But in exercising faith we must guard against presumption; for if faith be unhallowed and go beyond the promise it shall not be crowned with success.
III.The wisdom of treasuring promises of God in our mind. These are the true ground and measure of our expectations from God.
Rev. Charles Simeon.
Illustration
When Maimon went one day to Hillel, he was sitting in his garden under the shade of a palm tree meditating, and Maimon asked the master what he was meditating upon. Then Hillel said, I have a friend who lives upon the produce of his estate. Till now he has carefully cultivated it, and it has well repaid his toil; but now he has thrown away the plough and the hoe, and is determined to leave the field to itself, so that he is sure to come to want and misery. Said Maimon, Has he gone mad, or fallen into despondency? Neither, said Hillel. He is of a pious disposition and well grounded in learning, both human and Divine. But he says that the Lord is omnipotent, and can easily give us nourishment without our bending our head to the ground; and as He is gracious, He will bless my table and open His hand. Why, said the young man, is not that tempting God? Have you not told him so? Then Hillel smiled and said, I will tell him so. You, dear Maimon, are the friend I am speaking of. Are you not tempting the Lord (by prayerlessness)? Is prayer less than work? Are spiritual blessings inferior to the fruit of the field? And He Who tells you to stoop your head to the earth for the sake of the earthly fruit, is He not the same as He Who tells you to lift your head towards heaven to receive His heavenly blessing? Thus spoke Hillel, and looked up to heaven; and Maimon went away and prayed, and his life became a godly one.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
LIMIT, RANGE, WARRANT
I. Prayers limit.Is there a limit? Our text says, All things whatsoever ye desire, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Look more closely and you will find two boundary lines beyond which, if prayer range, it carries with it no certain promisethe boundary line of faith and the boundary line of desireAll things soever ye desire, believe and ye shall have them.
II. Prayers range.Whatever is necessary for your souls happiness and comfort, and for Gods glory, is bound up in the promises for those who seek them by prayer only. The compass of prayer comprehends everything in which an anxiety in temporal things can exist. All that is necessary, all, everything, is yours. You may ask for all you want and how much more to add, I know not, but it shall be sufficient for every need.
III. The warrant of prayer.You must be very careful that you see your warrantit is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Till you lay fast hold of the Atonement, you will have but very little power in prayer. If you have your eye fixed upon the finished work and death of Christ, you will have power in prayer, for the warrant of prayer is the death of Christ.
Illustration
Have we not been guilty of making a serious mistake in the way in which we have sometimes allowed ourselves to speak about prayer? How common it is to hear it suggested, If you cannot do anything else, at least you can pray. Surely that must be wrong. Surely it would be more true to say, If you can pray, if you have in any degree acquired the holy art, then for Gods sake and mans sake do not do anything else. Give yourself to it; continue on the mount with hands upraised. There will be no lack of fighters down below, who will triumph by the help of your prayers. The man too busy for prayer is like a workman too busy to sharpen his tools.
11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that {f} ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them].
(f) Literally, “that you receive it”, speaking in the present tense, to show the certainty of the thing, and that it will indeed be performed.
Asking is a particular form of praying. Disciples can believe we have what we request in prayer when we ask for God’s will to take place (Mat 6:10; Mat 7:7) because God will accomplish His will.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)