Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

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SABBATH
SCHOOL LESSON
March 13, 1955
Rev. W. J. McBurney
(Lessons based on International Sunday School
Lessons ; the International Bible Lessons for
Christian Teaching, copyrighted by International
Council of Religious Education.)
PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Matt. 6:5-15; 7:7-11; Mark 9:14-29;
Luke 18:9-14; John 14:13-17; James
5:13-18; I John 5:14, 15.
PRINTED TEXT: Matt. 6:5-8; 7:7-11
Luke 18:9-14; James 5:13-16
MEMORY: I John 5 :14 "And this is the
confidence we have in Him, that, if we
ask anything according to His will, He
heareth
This lesson introduces many phases of
a large subject. Volumes without num
ber have been written about prayer.
That is well, and it is well to read much
on the subject. But prayer is like skat
ing, in one way, it is learned by prac
tice.- One of the most pleasing pianists
I have known, who played the music
of the masters fluently, never had a les
son. Skill was developed by attentive
listening and practice. With practice,
one may learn how to pray, and what
prayer will do.
After an address on prayer, a woman
asked me for my outline. She was the
leader of a large Bible class of young
women. They were making a special
study
of prayer. She said she had read
every book on prayer that she could find,
but had found nothing as fine as my out
line. (With humility I confess that she
did not mention my address. It was my
outline that impressed her.) Knowing
that she was a Presbyterian, I was sur
prised, and said, "Why my outline was
the answer from the Westminster
Shorter Catechism." She explained that
she had been raised a Methodist, and so
did not know the Catechism.
The first of the five points in the
Question on Prayer is,
"Prayer is an
God."
offering up of our desires unto
Not asking, begging, demanding certain
things, but "Offering our desires to
God, handing them over, putting them
in God's hand, that He may do with
them what is best for us.
Matt. 6:5
Christ warned against making a pub
lic show of prayer. Prayer is not to dis
play
our virtues before men. Our per
sonal prayers are between us and God.
We are not to boast when we face God
alone. We are warned against vain
(empty), repetitions. The people of In
dia who turn their prayer wheels with a
crank or the Roman Catholics who count
the number of their repetitions on a
string of beads are not the only offend
ers. A small child remarked after a
prayer meeting that God would know a
lot about Himself and the world after
what He was told that night. When we
124
pray we should keep in mind that God
knows more, even about our own hearts,
than we do.
A desire is a prayer. If it reaches out
to God through Jesus Christ, it is Chris
tian Prayer. If a Christian plants a
field of wheat, he desires favorable
weather for its growth, and that desire
is a prayer to God. The desire is con
tinuous through harvest. In that, do we
not pray
without ceasing A continual
desire offered up to God, a continual
consciousness that we are in His hands
A pagan plants wheat, his desire for
good weather goes to one of his gods,
probably the god of chance. Therefore
his sowing is sin. When one draws or
receives cards from a shuffled deck, he
desires favorable cards. Does any Chris
tian dare to tempt the Lord God, by
directing that desire to Him If the
prayer is not to God through Jesus
Christ, it is to the pagan god, Chance.
It is for the pagan to submit the issues
of any work or game to the shuffled
deck, or rolling bones, or spinning
arrow. A Christian should have no
trouble in occupying his time in work
and games where he can desire God to
give him skill. "To pray is to desire; but
it is to desire what God would have us
desire."
(Fenelon)
Matt. 7:7-11
Christ is speaking of prayer, so the
asking must be for things agreeable to
God's will. Or when the desire is offered
up to God, He will answer it according
to His will. The hungry child sees a
stone, and thinks it is bread. Some
trickster might give him the stone and
laugh at his attempt to bite it. But the
child is asking his father, and of course,
he is given bread. He sees a serpent, and
thinks it is a fish, a scorpion and thinks
it is an egg. It is well for the child that
he asks his father for the things he
wants.
"O sad state
Of human wretchedness, so weak is man,
So ignorant and blind, that did not God
Sometimes withhold in mercy, what we
ask,
We should be ruined at our own re
Hannah Moore
SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND. "They
never sought in vain, that sought the
Lord BURNS, Cotter's Saturday
Night. The richest find is God. Job's
problem in the book that bears his name
is to find God. His Miserable Comforters
were not seeking. They thought they
could tell Job all about it. Step by step
Job found God. His would-be instructors
were sent to learn at the feet of him
whom they had presumed to teach. How
much the world would have lost if Job
had given up his search, and accepted
the false comfort of his friends!
"Knock and it shall be
opened."
First,
we find the door seeking.
by Then we
knock because we wish to be admitted.
The door Perhaps we would enter into
the fellowship
Perhaps we desire to enter into the mys
of Christ and His people.
teries of the Kingdom. When Nico
demus knocked, the door was opened,
but he did not find what he expected. He
expected to find some deep mystery that
only
one of great intellectual power
could understand. He learned the deep
mystery in words that a child could
understand. He opened his heart to
Christ, and Christ opened His heart to
him.
Queen Victoria, in a little jog through
the hills incognita,
was caught in a
storm and received hospitality from a
humble woman
in a humble cottage.
later, that woman dined with the queen
in Buckingham. Christ stands at the
door and knocks. The latch is on the in
side. If we open the door to Christ, we
will never knock in vain at His door.
Luke 19:9-14
In this parable, the Pharisee felt no
personal need, so he asked for nothing,
and received it. The Publican felt a
great need, and asked for a great gift
and it was given to him. There would
have been no use in offering this price
less gift to the Pharisee; he had no place
to put it.
James 5:13
James tells us how to meet our sever
al needs and moods. In suffering do not
grumble, but pray. When merry, do not
get drunk, or be otherwise a fool, but
sing
praise. I have noticed at conven
tion bon-fires, more interest was taken
in singing the Psalms than in the funny
songs. Why not address our merry mo
ments to God
In our troubles,
James tells us to pray. Pray
physical and spiritual,
with and
for our fellows. If we have offended
them, confess it. It is the prayer of a
righteous man that availeth. In sickness,
James would have us use the ordinary
physical means that we use as servants
of the Lord, and to pray for His blessing.
A healing sect has arisen based on a
superstitious interpretation of the word
anointing. The answer is very simple.
James did not use the usual word for
anointing. What he said does not refer
to anointing at all. His word is the verb
al form of the noun oil. Literally, oiling
with oil. That's what the Good Samari
tan did. Christ used water, clay, physi
cal exercise, manual help, in His mira
cles. Why Not that He needed them.
But as a sign that we should not aban
don the ordinary physical means.
James emphasizes the great truth
that whatever we do,' we should recog
nize that we are Christ's servants, and
do all things in His name, and submit
the issue to Him in prayer.
THE COVENANTER WITNESS