August 27 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him" (1 John 5:15).

Devotional

The prayer of faith is prevailing, successful prayer. It assails the kingdom of heaven with holy violence, and carries it as by storm (Matt. 11:12). It believes that God has both the heart and the arm—both the love that moves him and the power that enables him—to do all and to grant all that his pleading child requests of him.

Reflect on a few attributes of believing prayer.

First, it is real prayer because it expresses need. It springs from a felt necessity of the mercy which it craves. It is sincere prayer, welling up from a soul schooled in the knowledge of its deep poverty and need. Oh, how much passes for real prayer which is not prayer—which is not the breathing of the soul, nor the language of the heart, nor the expression of need. There is in it no true approach to God, no thirsting for Christ, no desire for holiness. If God were to bestow the things which had been so thoughtlessly and heartlessly asked, the individual would be taken by surprise.

Second, the prayer of faith is importunate and persevering. It will not take a refusal. It will not be put off with a denial. Thus Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the covenant until he prevailed; "I will not let you go unless you bless me" (Gen. 32:26). Thus the woman of Canaan would not release the Savior from her hold until he had granted her suit—"even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table" (Matt. 15:27). And thus, too, the man who besieged the house of his friend at midnight for bread and would not go away until he obtained it (Luke 11:5–8), and the oppressed widow who sought justice at the hands of the unrighteous and reluctant judge until he righted her (Luke 18:1–8) illustrate the nature of that prayer—even earnest, persevering prayer—which prevails with God, and obtains the blessing.

Third, believing prayer is humble. How low in the dust the truly importunate suppliant lies before God! There is nothing of bold ruffianism, of unholy freedom, in the cases of earnest prayer which we have cited. There is no irreverence of manner, nor brashness of speech, nor rushing into God's holy presence as if he were an equal. But rather that awful consciousness of the Divine presence, that profound spirit of self-abasement which seems to say, "How awesome is this place!" (Gen. 28:17). "I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth" (Job 40:4 NIV). Oh, how lowly is the heart from whence arises the incense of believing prayer! How utterly unworthy it feels of the least of all the Lord's mercies; how unfit to be a channel of grace to others; and with what trembling it lies prostrate upon the spot where God, the Triune God, is passing by! "Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few" (Eccl. 5:2).

Fourth, the prayer of faith is submissive. Its utmost range of request is bounded, and its deepest fervor of spirit is chastened, by submission to the Divine will. It presumes neither to dictate to God, nor to counsel him. It leaves the mode of answering its petitions—the time, the place, the way—with God. Trained, perhaps, in the school of bitter disappointment, it has learned to see as much love in God's heart in withholding as in granting its requests—as much wisdom in delaying as in promptly bestowing the blessing. And, seeing that delays in prayer are not denials of prayer, he who believes will not make haste to anticipate God's mind, or to run ahead of God's blessing. "Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36) ever breathes from the praying lip of faith.

Fifth, yet another attribute of believing prayer—the crowning attribute—is that it is presented in the name of Jesus. As prayer is life from God through Christ, so through Christ it is life breathed back again to God. It approaches the Divine Majesty by the "new and living way" (Heb. 10:20). Its mighty argument, and its one prevailing plea, is the atoning blood of Jesus. This is the ground of its boldness. This the reason of its nearness. And this the secret of its power and success. "Whatever you ask in my name," observes the Son, "this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:
Jesus loves to answer pray'r;
he himself has bid thee pray,
therefore will not tell thee, "Nay."

(John Newton, 1779)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.