An Unknown Christian

The Kneeling Christian

Chapter 10
How God Answers Prayer

FOR man fully to understand God and all His dealings with
us is an utter impossibility. “O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing
out!” (Rom. xi. 33.) True, but we need not make
difficulties where none exists. If God has all power and
all knowledge, surely prayer has no difficulties, though
occasionally there may be perplexities. We cannot discover
God’s method, but we know something of His manner of
answering prayer.

But at the very outset may we remind ourselves how little
we know about ordinary things? Mr. Edison, whose knowledge
is pretty profound, wrote in August, 1921, “We
don’t know the millionth part of one per cent about
anything. We don’t know what water is. We don’t
know what light is. We don’t know what gravitation is.
We don’t know what enables us to keep on our feet to
stand up. We don’t know what electricity is. We
don’t know what heat is. We don’t know anything
about magnetism. We have a lot of hypotheses, but that is
all.” But we do not allow our ignorance about all
these things to deprive us of their use! We do not know
much about prayer, but surely this need not prevent us from
praying! We do know what our Lord has taught us about
prayer. And we do know that He has sent the Holy Spirit to
teach us all things (John xiv. 26). How, then, does God
answer prayer? One way is just this: —

He reveals His mind to those who pray. His Holy Spirit
puts fresh ideas into the minds of praying people. We are
quite aware that the devil and his angels are busy enough
putting bad thoughts into our minds. Surely, then, God and
His holy angels can give us good thoughts? Even poor, weak,
sinful men and women can put good thoughts into the minds
of others. That is what we try to do in writing! We do not
stop to think what a wonderful thing it is that a few
peculiar-shaped black marks on this white paper can uplift
and inspire, or depress and cast down, or even convict of
sin! But, to an untutored savage, it is a stupendous
miracle. Moreover, you and I can often read people’s
thoughts or wishes from an expression on the face or a
glance of the eye. Even thought transference between man
and man is a commonplace today. And God can in many ways
convey His thoughts to us. A remarkable instance of this
was related by a speaker last year at Northfield. Three or
four years ago, he met an old whaling captain who told him
this story.

“A good many years ago, I was sailing in the desolate
seas off Cape Horn, hunting whales. One day we were beating
directly south in the face of a hard wind. We had been
tacking this way and that all the morning, and were making
very little headway. About 11 o’clock, as I stood at
the wheel, the idea suddenly came into my mind, ‘Why
batter the ship against these waves? There are probably as
many whales to the north as to the south. Suppose we run
with the wind instead of against it? In response to that
sudden idea I changed the course of the ship, and began to
sail north instead of south. One hour later, at noon, the
look-out at the masthead shouted ‘Boats ahead!’
Presently we overtook four lifeboats, in which were
fourteen sailors, the only survivors of the crew of a ship
which had burned to the water’s edge ten days before.
Those men had been adrift in their boats ever since,
praying God frantically for rescue; and we arrived just in
time to save them. They could not have survived another
day.”

Then the old whaler added, “I don’t know whether
you believe in religion or not, but I happen to be a
Christian. I have begun every day of my life with prayer
that God would use me to help someone else, and I am
convinced that God, that day, put the idea into my mind to
change the course of my ship. That idea was the means of
saving fourteen lives.”

God has many things to say to us. He has many thoughts to
put into our minds. We are apt to be so busy doing His work
that we do not stop to listen to His Word. Prayer gives God
the opportunity of speaking to us and revealing His will to
us. May our attitude often be: “Speak, Lord, Thy
servant heareth.”

God answers other prayers by putting new thoughts into the
minds of those we pray for. At a series of services dealing
with the Victorious Life, the writer one afternoon urged
the congregation to “makeup” their quarrels if
they really desired a holy life. One lady went straight
home, and after very earnest prayer wrote to her sister,
with whom, owing to some disagreement, she had had nothing
to do for twenty years! Her sister was living thirty miles
away. The very next morning the writer of that note
received a letter from that very sister asking forgiveness
and seeking reconciliation. The two letters had crossed in
the post. While the one sister was praying to God for the
other, God was speaking to that other sister, putting into
her mind the desire for reconciliation.

You may say, Why did not God put that desire there before?
It may be that He foresaw that it would be useless for the
distant sister to write asking forgiveness until the other
sister was also willing to forgive. The fact remains that,
when we pray for others, somehow or other it opens the way
for God to influence those we pray for. God needs our
prayers, or He would not beg us to pray.

A little time back, at the end of a weekly prayer-meeting,
a godly woman begged those present to pray for her husband,
who would never go near a place of worship. The leader
suggested that they should continue in prayer then and
there. Most earnest prayers were offered up. Now, the
husband was devoted to his wife, and frequently came to
meet her. He did so that night, and arrived at the hall
while the prayer-meeting was still in progress. God put it
into his mind to open the door and wait inside — a thing
he had never done before. As he sat on a chair near the
door, leaning his head upon his hand, he overheard those
earnest petitions. During the homeward walk he said,
“Wife, who was the man they were praying for
tonight?” “Oh,” she replied, “it is the
husband of one of our workers.” “Well, I am quite
sure he will be saved,” said he; “God must answer
prayers like that.” A little later in the evening he
again asked, “Who was the man they were praying
for?” She replied in similar terms as before. On
retiring to rest he could not sleep. He was under deep
conviction of sin. Awaking his wife, he begged her to pray
for him.

How clearly this shows us that when we pray, God can work!
God could have prompted that man to enter that
prayer-meeting any week. But had he done so it is a
question whether any good at all would have come from it.
When once those earnest, heartfelt petitions were being
offered up on his behalf God saw that they would have a
mighty influence upon that poor man.

It is when we pray that God can help us in our work and
strengthen our resolves. For we can answer many of our own
prayers. One bitter winter a prosperous farmer was praying
that God would keep a neighbor from starving. When the
family prayers were over, his little boy said,
“Father, I don’t think I should have troubled God
about that. Why not?” he asked. “Because it would
be easy enough for you to see that they don’t
starve!” There is not the slightest doubt that if we
pray for others we shall also try to help them.

A young convert asked his vicar to give him some Christian
work. “Have you a chum?” “Yes,” replied
the boy. “Is he a Christian?” “No, he is as
careless as I was.” “Then go and ask him to
accept Christ as his Savior.” “Oh, no!” said
the lad, “I could never do that. Give me anything but
that.” “Well,” said the vicar, “promise
me two things: that you will not speak to him about his
soul, and that you will pray to God twice daily for his
conversion.” “Why, yes, I’ll gladly do
that,” answered the boy. Before a fortnight was up he
rushed round to the vicarage. “Will you let me off my
promise? I must speak to my chum!” he cried. When he
began to pray God could give him strength to witness.
Communion with God is essential before we can have real
communion with our fellow-man. My belief is that men so
seldom speak to others about their spiritual condition
because they pray so little for them.

The writer has never forgotten how his faith in prayer was
confirmed when, as a lad of thirteen, he earnestly asked
God to enable him on a certain day to secure twenty new
subscribers for missions overseas. Exactly twenty new names
were secured before night closed in. The consciousness that
God would grant that prayer was an incentive to eager
effort, and gave an unwonted courage in approaching others.

A cleric in England suggested to his people that they
should each day pray for the worst man or woman and then go
to them and tell them about Jesus. Only six agreed to do
so. On arrival home he began to pray. Then he said, “I
must not leave this to my people. I must take it up myself.
I don’t know the bad people. I’ll have to go out
and enquire.” Approaching a rough-looking man at a
street corner, he asked, “Are you the worst man in
this district?” “No, I’m not.”
“Would you mind telling me who is?” “I
don’t mind. You’ll find him at No. 7, down that
street.”

He knocked at No. 7 and entered. “I’m looking for
the worst man in my parish. They tell me it might be
you?” “Whoever told you that? Fetch him here, and
I’ll show him who’s the worst man! No, there are
lots worse than me.” “Well, who is the worst man
you know?” “Everybody knows him. He lives at the
end house in that court. He’s the worst man.” So
down the court he went and knocked at the door. A surly
voice cried, “Come in!”

There were a man and his wife. “I hope you’ll
excuse me, but I’m the minister of the chapel along the
round. I’m looking for the worst man in my district,
because I have something to tell him. Are you the worst
man?” The man turned to his wife and said, “Lass,
tell him what I said to you five minutes ago.”
“No, tell him yourself.” “What were you
saying?” enquired the visitor. “Well, I’ve
been drinking for twelve weeks. I’ve had the D.T’s
and have pawned all in the house worth pawning. And I said
to my wife a few minutes ago, ‘Lass, this thing has to
stop, and if it doesn’t, I’ll stop it myself —
I’ll go and drown myself.’ Then you knocked at the
door! Yes, sir, I’m the very worst man. What have you
got to say to me?” “I’m here to tell you that
Jesus Christ is the greatest Savior, and that He can make
out of the worst man one of the best. He did it for me, and
He will do it for you.” “D’you think He can
do it even for me?” “I’m sure He can. Kneel
down and ask Him.”

Not only was the poor drunkard saved from his sins, but he
is today a radiant Christian man, bringing other drunken
people to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Surely none of us finds it difficult to believe that God
can, in answer to prayer, heal the body, send rain or fair
weather, dispel fogs, or avert calamities?

We have to do with a God whose knowledge is infinite. He
can put it into the mind of a doctor to prescribe a certain
medicine, or diet, or method of cure. All the doctor’s
skill is from God. “He knoweth our frame” — for
He made it. He knows it far better than the cleverest
doctor or surgeon. He made, and He can restore. We believe
that God desires us to use medical skill, but we also
believe that God, by His wonderful knowledge, can heal, and
sometimes does heal, without human co-operation. And God
must be allowed to work in His own way. We are so apt to
tie God down to the way we approve of. God’s aim is to
glorify His name in answering our prayers. Sometimes He
sees that our desire is right, but our petition wrong. St.
Paul thought he could bring more glory to God if only the
thorn in the flesh could be removed. God knew that he would
be a better man and do better work with the thorn than
without it. So God said No-No-No to his prayer, and then
explained why!

So it was with Monica, who prayed so many years for the
conversion of Augustine, her licentious son. When he was
determined to leave home and cross the seas to Rome she
prayed earnestly, even passionately, that God would keep
him by her side, and under her influence. She went down to
a little chapel on the seashore to spend the night in
prayer close by where the ship lay at anchor. But, when
morning came, she found that the ship had sailed even while
she prayed! Her petition was refused, but her real desire
was granted. For it was in Rome that Augustine met the
sainted Ambrose, who led him to Christ. How comforting it
is to know that God knows what is best!

But we should never think it unreasonable that God should
make some things dependent upon our prayers. Some people
say that if God really loves us He would give us what is
best for us whether we ask Him or not. Dr. Fosdick has so
beautifully pointed out that God has left man many things
to do for himself. He promises seedtime and harvest. Yet
man must prepare the soil, sow, and till, and reap in order
to allow God to do His share. God provides us with food and
drink. But He leaves us to take, and eat, and drink. There
are some things God cannot, or at least will not, do
without our help. God cannot do some things unless we
think. He never emblazons His truth upon the sky. The laws
of science have always been there. But we must think, and
experiment, and think again if we would use those laws for
our own good and God’s glory.

God cannot do some things unless we work. He stores the
hills with marble, but He has never built a cathedral. He
fills the mountains with iron ore, but He never makes a
needle or a locomotive. He leaves that to us. We must work.

If, then, God has left many things dependent upon
man’s thinking and working, why should He not leave
some things dependent upon man’s praying? He has done
so. “Ask and ye shall receive.” And there are
some things God will not give us unless we ask. Prayer is
one of the three ways in which man can co-operate with God;
and the greatest of these is prayer.

Men of power are without exception men of prayer. God
bestows His Holy Spirit in His fullness only on men of
prayer. And it is through the operation of the Spirit that
answers to prayer come. Every believer has the Spirit of
Christ dwelling in him. For “if any have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” But a man of
prevailing prayer must be filled with the Spirit of God.

A lady missionary wrote recently that it used to be said
of Praying Hyde that he never spoke to an unconverted man
but that he was soundly converted. But if he ever did fail
at first to touch a heart for God, he went back to his room
and wrestled in prayer till he was shown what it was in
himself that had hindered his being used by God. Yes, when
we are filled with the Spirit of God, we cannot help
influencing others God-ward. But, to have power with men,
we must have power with God.

The momentous question for you and me is not, however,
“How does God answer prayer?” The question is,
“Do I really pray?” What a marvelous power God
places at our disposal! Do we for a moment think that
anything displeasing to God is worth our while holding on
to? Fellow-Christian, trust Christ wholly, and you will
find Him wholly true.

Let us give God the chance of putting His mind into us,
and we shall never doubt the power of prayer again.