With Christ In The School of Prayer by Andrew Murray

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e her mouthpiece against the adversary; but for a long time the Lord would not. I asked nothing more than the three loaves; what I needed for my guest. At last the Lord listened to the importunate beggar, and helped me. Was it wrong of me to pray thus? The two parables must surely be applicable somewhere, and where was greater need to be conceived? And what was the fruit of my prayer? The friend who was at first unwilling, did not say, Go now; I will myself give to your friend what he needs; I do not require you; but gave it to me as His friend, to give to my guest. And so I used the three loaves, and had to spare. But the supply was small, and new guests came; because they saw I had a heart to help them, and that I would take the trouble even at midnight to go to my friend. When I asked for them, too, I got the needful again, and there was again to spare. How could I help that the needy continually came to my house? Was I to harden myself, and say, What do you come to me? there are large and better homes in the city, go there. Their answer was, Dear sir, we cannot go there. We have been there: they were very sorry to send us away so hungry, but they could not undertake to go and ask a friend for what we wanted. Do go, and get us bread for we suffer great pain. What could I do? They spoke the truth, and their suffering touched my heart. However much labor it cost me, I went each time again, and got the three loaves. Often I got what I asked much quicker than at first, and also much more abundantly. But all did not care for this bread, so some left my home hungry.'1 In his first struggles with the evil spirits, it took him more than eighteen months of prayer and labor before the final victory was gained. Afterwards he had such ease of access to the throne, and stood in such close communication with the unseen world, that often, with letters came asking prayer for sick people, he could, after just looking upward for a single moment, obtain the answer as to whether they would be healed. 1From Johann Christophe Blumhardt, Ein Lebenabild von F. Etindel.
Or SEVENTEENTH LESSON. ‘I know that Thou hearest me always;’ Prayer in harmony with the being of God. ‘Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always.’ --JOHN xi. 41, 42. ‘Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I shall give Thee.’--PS. ii. 7, 8. IN the New Testament we find a distinction made between faith and knowledge. ‘To one is given, through the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit.’ In a child or a simple-minded Christian there may be much faith with little knowledge. Childlike simplicity accepts the truth without difficulty, and often cares little to give itself or others any reason for its faith but this: God has said. But it is the will of God that we should love and serve Him, not only with all the heart but also with all the mind; that we should grow up into an insight into the Divine wisdom and beauty of all His ways and words and works. 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 newborn 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. One of the secret difficulties with regard to prayer,--one which, though not expressed, does often really hinder prayer,--is derived from the perfection of God, in His absolute independence of all that is outside of Himself. Is He not the Infinite Being, who owes what He is to Himself alone, who determines Himself, and whose wise and holy will has determined all that is to be? How can prayer influence Him, or He be moved by prayer to do what otherwise would not be done? Is not the promise of an answer to prayer simply a condescension to our weakness? Is what is said of the power--the muchavailing power--of prayer anything more than an accommodation to our mode of thought, because the Deity never can be dependent on any action from without for its doings? And is not the blessing of prayer simply the influence it exercises upon ourselves? In seeking an answer to such questions, we find the key in the very being of God, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. If God was only one Person, shut up within Himself, there could be no thought of nearness to Him or influence on Him. But in God there are three Persons. In God we have Father and Son, who have in the Holy Spirit their living bond of unity and fellowship. When eternal Love begat the Son, and the Father gave the Son as the Second Person a place next Himself as His Equal and His Counselor, there was a way opened for prayer and its influence in the very inmost life of Deity itself. Just as on earth, so in heaven the whole relation between Father and Son is that of giving and taking. And if that taking is to be as voluntary and self-determined as the giving, there must be on the part of the Son an asking and receiving. In the holy fellowship of the Divine Persons, this asking of the Son was one of the great operations of the Thrice Blessed Life of God. Hence we have it in Psalm ii.: ‘This day I have begotten Thee: ask of me and I will give Thee.’ The Father gave the Son the place and the power to act upon Him. The asking of the Son was no mere show or shadow, but one of those life-movements in which the love of the Father and the Son met and completed each other. The Father had determined that He should not be alone in His counsels: there was a Son on whose asking and accepting their fulfillment should depend. And so there was in the very Being and Life of God an asking of which prayer on earth was to be the reflection and the outflow. It was not without including this that Jesus said, “I knew that Thou always hearest me.’ Just as the Sonship of
Page 1 and 2: WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER
Page 3 and 4: PREFACE WITH CHRIST In the School o
Page 5 and 6: THIRTEENTH LESSON. 30 'Prayer and f
Page 7 and 8: 'Lord, teach us to pray.' Yes, we f
Page 9 and 10: Second Lesson 'In spirit and truth.
Page 11 and 12: Third Lesson 'Pray to thy Father, w
Page 13 and 14: ecause they cannot find ought to br
Page 15 and 16: 'Thy kingdom come.' The Father is a
Page 17 and 18: Or, FIFTH LESSON. 'Ask, and it shal
Page 19 and 20: in the Spirit, and that the power f
Page 21 and 22: perfect fulfillment of the law; no,
Page 23 and 24: Or, SEVENTH LESSON. 'How much more
Page 25 and 26: accept, take, 'the Holy Spirit.' Re
Page 27 and 28: And Abraham believed God, and he wa
Page 29 and 30: NINTH LESSON. 'Pray the Lord of the
Page 31 and 32: assurance that prayer, offered in l
Page 33 and 34: expect to receive; it is in the ans
Page 35 and 36: 'Believe that ye have received.' It
Page 37 and 38: Or, Twelth Lesson 'Have faith in Go
Page 39 and 40: sure that all that Thou art Thou ar
Page 41 and 42: living God, that faith can increase
Page 43 and 44: FOURTEENTH LESSON. 'When ye stand p
Page 45 and 46: make the pardon of my sins such a r
Page 47 and 48: prayer meeting the coming together
Page 49 and 50: Or, SIXTEENTH LESSON. 'Speedily, th
Page 51: we have the petitions we ask, and t
Page 55 and 56: people to pray. O let this each day
Page 57 and 58: frustrated God’s plans, prayer st
Page 59 and 60: Or, NINETEENTH LESSON. ‘I go unto
Page 61 and 62: elieving prayers in Thy Name. Power
Page 63 and 64: thence He might glorify Him in us;-
Page 65 and 66: Or TWENTY-FIRST LESSON. ‘If ye ab
Page 67 and 68: Let each word of this Thy promise b
Page 69 and 70: presence of the Father, and under t
Page 71 and 72: TWENTY-THIRD LESSON ‘Bear fruit,
Page 73 and 74: Blessed Master! teach me to apprehe
Page 75 and 76: men, or devils depends on the measu
Page 77 and 78: Or, TWENTY-FIFTH LESSON. ‘At that
Page 79 and 80: streaming from Thee, uniting to The
Page 81 and 82: it descends and takes possession of
Page 83 and 84: TWENTY-SEVENTH LESSON. Or, ‘Fathe
Page 85 and 86: my study and my wisdom, to know whe
Page 87 and 88: the cross, that God hath highly exa
Page 89 and 90: TWENTY-NINTH LESSON. ‘If we ask a
Page 91 and 92: their harmony with God’s blessed
Page 93 and 94: And now the way to the priesthood.
Page 95 and 96: THIRTY-FIRST LESSON. ‘Pray withou
Page 97 and 98: unceasingly to the glory of the Fat
Page 99 and 100: xii. 33). “Owe no man any thing,
Page 101 and 102: surely teach us at last, if indeed
Page 103 and 104:
to wait upon the Lord with referenc
Page 105 and 106:
me the needed means for this enlarg
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With Christ In The School of Prayer by Andrew Murray

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