Prayer
For a prayerless man there is no mercy.
Brother Robert Roberts
The Law of Moses
~
When we ask a specific thing, it is because we think it would be for the best:
but in this we may be mistaken:
and if God withhold it, He is really answering our prayer in not giving us what we ask.
We would not desire what might interfere with our relation to God.
So we should reason fallaciously and do ourselves an injustice
if we were to conclude that God disregards our prayer because
He grants not what we request.
We know how it is with our own children sometimes:
they ask us to do this or that in their innocent inexperience.
We have to say, “My dear, I could not possibly do it:”
Why?
Because we love our children not? Nay, but because we love them.
Let us have this faith towards God, then,
that the best answer He can give us sometimes is not to permit what we ask.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
“The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry.”
The ears of the Lord are open always.
But we must approach Him in the right way.
There are certain conditions of approach, and those are indicated here.
One has been already referred to:-“full assurance of faith.”
There is another:-“with a true heart.”
That implies the existence of a false heart.
What is it to have “a true heart?”
Is it not for our heart to be true to God?
Is it not to have our affections fixed upon Him,
to love what He loves, to hate what He hates,
much after the manner indicated in the salutation of Jehu to Jonadab, the son of Rechab
( 2 Kings 10:15 ).
“Is thine heart right, as My heart is with thy heart?”
Let us come then to God with this “true heart” and “full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,
and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Brother Robert Roberts
1888
~
Our very attainment of the life to come is dependent
on the circumstances of our life in the flesh.
Hence, how needful in all our ways to acknowledge Him who can direct our path.
-( Prov. 3:6 .)
The forgiveness of our trespasses, the provision of daily bread,
and protection from the evil by which we are surrounded,
are among the subjects of the prayer sketched by Jesus for our guidance.
All of these are personal.
Personal needs are permitted to be brought forward
when we base them on a recognition of the Father's supremacy,
and the glory of his purposes.
Were we not so permitted,
prayer would be robbed of half its comfort to those who are invited to
“come boldly unto the throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need.”-( Heb. 4:16 .)
Brother Robert Roberts
The Christadelphian 1870
~
How shall we cultivate personal friendship with the Deity ?
The answer is, that after having apprehended Him by knowledge,
we must hold intercourse with Him by prayer,
and ripen our knowledge into friendship.
Our destiny in Christ, is to be eternally related in sonship to God.
The present is the preparation for the relationship;
and if we do not now make ourselves familiar, as it were,
with the Father by prayer,
how shall we be prepared to enter a state of existence
in which He will be the beginning and end of all our thought and action ?
Brother Robert Roberts
1865
~
The idea that there can be prayerful-mindedness without formal prayerfulness
is a delusion by which the indolent mind seeks to excuse itself the duty.
No man can address God in thanksgiving or request who does not turn his thoughts specially God-wards,
and no man can turn his thoughts God-ward without withdrawing them for a time from everything else,
and by an act of will, raising them to the throne of the Highest.
The human mind is so constituted as to be incapable of thinking of two things at the same time;
and where the mind dwells strongly on any one thought,
its musings involuntary take the shape of words, as familiarly illustrated in persons who talk to themselves.
It follows that those who really give themselves up to “the knowledge and love of God”-
(and this is what all the real children of God do) -
will naturally seek vent for their yearnings in formal words,
addressed to Him whom no distance can put beyond the reach of hearing,
and whom no amount of preoccupation can incapacitate
for attending to the feeblest and most distant petition ascending to his throne.
Brother Robert Roberts
The Ambassador 1865
~
You cannot conceive the rich mine you have found,
but the treasure lies buried , wrapped together in a clean place by itself,
and laid there by the Eternal Spirit's own hands, and if you say, where is it laid?
truth will whisper, Come and see;
but only the truth will reveal the hiding place,
and when you have found the pearl which is hid in the gospel of the kingdom,
you will indeed sell all, that you may retain it.
Wisdom has counted its cost, but tells us its value cannot be estimated.
We may buy the truth, says the word, but never sell it;
wisdom's holy ones hold it too dear to part with it.
To them it is most gloriously precious; continually they are heard to sing aloud
“Thy ways are ways of pleasantness, and all thy paths are peace.”
For step by step, wisdom lifts her children,
and although her footprints are only here a little, and there a little,
still are they deepened by the first tread of the Eternal Spirit's mysterious outline,
which nothing can efface.
And as we follow on to know the Lord, we indeed grasp a doctrine,
which Jesus said “is not mine, but His that sent me.”
We must be taught of God before we can come to Christ,
for the knowledge of the Father can alone draw us to him.
Therefore, let us “give attendance to reading”
that we may understand what God at sundry times and in divers manners
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
and in the last day of the Jewish dispensation He hath spoken by His Son.
Let the ear of our understanding catch every sound,
that we may be able to comprehend the manifold wisdom of God;
the leaven of the word must be hid,
and the warm atmosphere of faith and hope must surround it,
before the rising process can leaven the whole lump.
A Sister
1869
~
When a man
is deeply and continuously engaged in an atmosphere if Divine thoughts,
he has neither the time nor the inclination to plot mischief and play the fool.
this is the vocation of vacant minds and idle hands,
who know not what it is to enter within the veil.
Brother John Thomas
~
Scriptural prayer is dependant on scriptural knowledge...
Prayer, to be acceptable to God,
and edifying to men,
must not consist in the mechanical turning round and round
of a number of religious phrases...derived from all denominations;
neither must it be characterized by the frothy fervor of "orthodox" prayer meetings.
But it must be made up of the deep down appreciation of God's
inexhaustible goodness, and expressed with simplicity,
and as from the heart, the most pressing needs of our souls,
pleading the promises of present and future good.
Brother F.R Shuttleworth
The Christadelphian 1875
~
When we open the Word of God,
God speaks to us;
when we engage in prayer, we speak to Him.
The person who studies all of the time,
but never prays is like those dull companions
who are always ready to listen,
but never contribute anything to the conversation.
There is nothing stimulating in such company.
On the other hand, the person who is always praying,
but never studying,
is like those garrulous people who dominate all conversation,
and are never ready to listen to what others might like to say.
Such conversationalist soon bore us!
The ideal companion is one who is prepared both to listen and to talk,
to interchange thoughts and conversation.
His presence gives us pleasure,
and we delight to converse with him.
He is like the person who both studies, and prays.
He listens to Yahweh, and also communicates with Him-
H. P. Mansfield
~
People neglect God in tranquility,
and in trouble begin to pray.
Brother Robert Roberts
1871
~
Pray always.
You can do this in all places,
times and postures.
Thus you keep in touch with God who will hold you up.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
All study
and no prayer can fill us up;
all prayer and no study can puff us up;
but continual study blended with prayer will build us up.
The Power of the Word,
blended with the Power of Prayer,
can transform our preaching, our worship, ourselves..." .
H. P. Mansfield
Making Prayer Powerful
~
Scriptural prayer is dependant on scriptural knowledge...
Prayer, to be acceptable to God, and edifying to men,
must not consist in the mechanical turning round and round
of a number of religious phrases...derived from all denominations;
neither must it be characterized by the frothy fervor of "orthodox" prayer meetings.
But it must be made up of the deep down appreciation of God's
inexhaustible goodness, and expressed with simplicity,
and as from the heart, the most pressing needs of our souls,
pleading the promises of present and future good.
Brother F.R Shuttleworth
The Christadelphian 1875
~
To pray for a man that hates you
(when done in sincerity and truth and not with lips that receive no orders from the heart)
is a sublimer magnanimity than merely to send him a loaf in his hunger;
it is more; it is a blessing to the man who prays.
You cannot pray for an enemy without stilling your resentment towards him
and opening out your benevolent regards,
and every time you deliberately do this,
you are improved.
You are lifted towards the elevated plane of the divine character,
and the natural man is brought under the circumcising knife
of the Truth.
In no point is the difference between the natural and the spiritual man
more apparent than here.
The natural man is under the sway of his animal feelings only,
and cannot look towards the object of his injured feelings, let alone pray for him.
If he could hear the voice of God, a new power would come in,
and his very feelings take a new current.
The spiritual man hears this voice, and puts away,
at its bidding,
all bitterness anger, wrath, and evil speaking;
and puts on the new man which
is "renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him."
Brother Robert Roberts
~
We must cultivate individual enterprise in the ways of God.
While committing our way unto God, and praying for Him to open our way and direct our steps,
let us see to it that we are not lacking in measures of wisdom
and deeds of courage.
Do not let us sit down supinely and wait for God to do
what He will never do.
He brings things to a certain point and leaves man to do the rest.
God works in His own way, and it is for us to find it out.
Brother Robert Roberts
The Ways of Providence
1881
~
It would be a fatal mistake to overlook the priesthood of Christ,
as now accessible to his household by prayer.
The Truth would be of no use to us if we did.
The intercession of Christ is necessary to our salvation:
and we can only set it in motion in our individual behalf
by individual prayer.
To live in disregard of this would be soon to decay
from our places in the true vine,
and finally, at his coming, to drop as withered branches to the ground, to be bundled up for consumption,
with all other fruitless branches,
for any cause cut off.
Brother Robert Roberts
The Christadelphian 1869
~
Prayer
is a part of acceptable service to God,
and prayerfulness, a part of the character which is estimable in his sight.
It is important to keep this in mind, because in our search for “sound doctrine,”
we are apt to allow intellectual activity to triumph over the practical use of the truth we dig out.
There is a danger of the truth failing to beget the actual relationship to God
which finds its natural and strengthening exercise in the act of prayer.
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness:
thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
Ps 4:1
Brother Robert Roberts
1865
~
Our requests in particular cases may not be according to His will.
His will concerning those who please Him is that they shall have what is for their best interest in the ultimate sense.
Of this we cannot be judge:
but it must certainly be our desire that we should have this and this only.
When, therefore, we ask a specific thing, it is because we think it would be for the best:
but in this we may be mistaken: and if God withhold it, He is really answering our prayer in not giving us what we ask.
We would not desire what might interfere with our relation to God.
So we should reason fallaciously and do ourselves an injustice
if we were to conclude that God disregards our prayer because
He grants not what we request.
Brother Robert Roberts
1890
~
Our prayers reflect our minds in relation to the truth,
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
If the truth's affairs occupy a large and proper place in our affections, we, like Epaphras,
shall be found laboring fervently in our prayers for the truth's well-being.
If, however, self, flesh-gratification, is the aim of our supplications, we may be sure that something is amiss.
Let us see to it that our petitions run in lawful channels-channels that will tend to the glory of God and the salvation of man.
If our children are rebellious and unbelieving,
let it not be because we have failed to ask for wisdom and strength to guide them aright.
If our ecclesia is at sixes and sevens, let it not be because faithful prayer for its unity and well-being has not been offered.
How the strong, faithful Paul entreated for help in the form of prayers on his behalf!
Do, brethren and sisters, in these dry, parched times stand less in need of such help?
And ought not the same means to be adopted in order that it may be obtained?
Sisters, let us “pray always and not faint.”
Sister Clara Jannaway
~
1st Jn 5:14
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.
Our requests in particular cases may not be according to His will.
His will concerning those who please Him is that they shall have what is for their best interest in the ultimate sense.
Of this we cannot be judge: but it must certainly be our desire that we should have this and this only.
When, therefore, we ask a specific thing, it is because we think it would be for the best:
but in this we may be mistaken: and if God withhold it, He is really answering our prayer in not giving us what we ask.
We would not desire what might interfere with our relation to God.
So we should reason fallaciously and do ourselves an injustice
if we were to conclude that God disregards our prayer because He grants not what we request.
Brother Robert Roberts
1890