Andrew
Murray, in humble consideration of prayer, touches on the idea
that when we pray we can only ever really do so "in" Christ and
"through" Him to the perfect Father who stands apart
from every
unholy thing, in perpetuation of an eternal dialogue
of sorts. Here are his thoughts...
"Just as the
Sonship of Jesus on earth may not be separated from His Sonship
in heaven, even so with His prayer on earth, it is the
continuation and the counterpart of His asking in heaven. The
prayer of the man Christ Jesus is the link between the eternal
asking of the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father and
the prayer of men upon earth. Prayer has its rise and its
deepest source in the very Being of God. In the bosom of Deity
nothing is ever done without prayer—the asking of the Son and
the giving of the Father."
Now is it just me or doesn't
this positively shatter all of our ideas and concepts about
praying and the pre-eminence of Christ in our personal
interaction with the Father?
Murray elaborates...
"It is only
thus that the believer will be able fully to approach and
rightly to adore the glory of God’s grace; and only thus that
our heart can intelligently apprehend the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge there are in redemption, and be prepared to enter
fully into the highest note of the song that rises before the
throne: ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God!’ .
In our
prayer life this truth has its full application. While prayer
and faith are so simple that the new-born convert can pray with
power, true Christian science finds in the doctrine of prayer
some of its deepest problems. In how far is the power of prayer
a reality? If so, how God can grant to prayer such mighty power?
How can the action of prayer be harmonized with the will and the
decrees of God? .
How can
God’s sovereignty and our will, God’s liberty and ours, be
reconciled?—these and other like questions are fit subjects for
Christian meditation and inquiry. The more earnestly and
reverently we approach such mysteries, the more shall we in
adoring wonder fall down to praise Him who hath in prayer given
such power to man."
Dear brethren, a most
important question facing all of us in Christ is exactly that -
"How can the action (and I might add here - the content of...)
prayer be harmonized with the will and decrees of God? Is it
merely enough to submit our prayers in Christ's Name when in
fact we are asking that our wishes and desires be fulfilled?
Surely this cannot be what it means? As Andrew Murray suggests,
our Lord is no mere means to an end that we devise, but He is
the personal link that binds us to the Father in spiritual harmony and
agreement. He alone represents any hope that our prayers will be
answered according to the Father's will.
When we pray have we ever
truly considered that what we are doing is
participating in a conversation that has gone on between
Father and Son through all eternity? True spiritual prayer
effectively draws us up and into their world and their reality.
Perhaps sharing a personal
episode will help us to understand this a little better.
Some weeks back, my 7 year
old son was up all night crying and in pain with a severe ear
infection. Without question, this represented the severest and
most prolonged pain the little guy has ever had to endure. The
poor little thing was in such agony, as anyone with an ear
infection knows. As I held him and wiped his tears I wanted so
much for it to stop. I would have gladly changed places with Him
as any parent would. I felt so helpless and I prayed unceasingly
that the Lord would relieve His suffering, that He would simply
take the pain away or let him sleep. He chose not to, and my son
wailed and sobbed and hurt most of the night.
This is so hard as it
challenges everything we think we know about God - His love and
mercy for those He loves, His compassion and loving kindness,
His knowledge of what we can handle. We know He can help and
heal at will, that nothing is beyond His capability. Yet there
is this little boy in sheer agony and his helpless, blubberring
father crying out, just wanting it to go away. With so many
questions probing the love and wisdom of God. Why? Why Lord? It
is even more difficult when our little ones, whom we have taught
about God's love and mercy and power ask the question - "Why
doesn't He listen daddy?" Why doesn't He hear and take my pain
away?"
You think you are a good
Christian. You may even have a website devoted to spiritual
things. You believe in Him and think you know a little about
what He is and represents. Yet there in the wee hours of the
morning you have a little boy with tears that won't end, with
questions that you can't really answer with any satisfaction.
And so what is prayer, my
friends? Does it not bring us into His heavenly chambers where
everything we know or think we know no longer serves us or
informs our reality. Do our prayers not often collide head on
with His wisdom and love being played out all around us. We may
not have any grand agenda in mind, no desire for riches or fame,
only that a little child would be relieved of suffering, only
that his tears would stop. Do our prayers not test us
even, our faith and understanding about what God is doing, our
trust in His ability to reach down into our material
reality and circumvent His own physical laws to deliver His
loved ones?
As mentioned, my son suffered
with an ear infection recently, and spent a dreadful night awake
and in excruciating pain. The Lord's response to all of our
prayers and supplication was seemingly - No, I will not take
away this pain but you will endure with my grace and help. You
have something to learn through this.
Now once we were through this
I was discussing the whole matter with my son, and trying to
help him understand the whole dynamic of prayer and God's mercy
and wisdom. I fumbled of course, trying to reduce it down to a
level I assumed he could grasp. Then he interrupted me -
"Sometimes he needs to test us, daddy, to know that we will love
Him even when we don't really know what he is doing". I was
floored, and his little words have been ringing in my head and
spirit for days, churning up so much that needs to come to the
surface in my own faith and understanding. The simple truth is
that, for the most part, we just don't know specifically what He
is doing; how whatever it is we are suffering through relates to
His larger plans and purposes. Here is where we either trust Him
or we don't.
Indeed, for in that sweet
miracle of self-releasing and self-reducing prayer we mortals
encounter all of the mystery and wonder that is God. We
momentarily leave all that we are behind, and enter into His
reality - His world, His wisdom, and all that He represents,
wills and
desires. It is a world that Father and Son have occupied for all
eternity. Here is the place where prayer and God's purposes
meet. In this kind of true and trusting prayer He allows us to
share in Him all that He sees and desires and wishes for His
creation, out of the vast depths of His loving heart. A child
sees this quite naturally, but why can't we? Why is our reflex
to think prayer is somehow about or for us? Or that it in some manner gets God
to share in our world, and to see our lives and reality as we
do? What fools we are if we think this is the dynamic of
spiritual prayer; that it draws the Most High down to the earth.
My friends, often when I am
out walking alone, I may not actually be saying much, but I do
feel that the Father is walking beside me, perhaps directing my
thoughts to this or that, or helping me to reconsider things in
a new light. I am not praying aloud so much (talking to Him) but
this time of sharing is invaluable. Scripture suggests that He
in fact knows everything we need, and everything we are going
through and wrestling with - before we ever bring it to Him. If
this is true, then perhaps the content of our prayers is not as
important as "religion" has made it to be. Perhaps it is more
important to merely be real, open, honest, sincere, and
accessible to God such that He can further impress Himself and
His "business" (what He is doing all around us) on our spirit?
Hmmmm.
At times, when the words or
thoughts don't come, I simply say somewhat exasperatingly, "You
know Lord. You know all that I am and need. You know how I
completely responded in the flesh and not the spirit and wasted
an opportunity to manifest your Son". I am starting to see that
when we come before the Lord in true openness and honesty, it
often expresses a spirit-fed desire for His mercy and grace more
than anything. Everything else is secondary. The older I get the
more I realize how absolutely puny I am, and how little I really
know about anything. Yet He knows us so perfectly doesn't He?
And His ways and His wisdom are always truth; they are always
right.
