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DOES GOD ANSWER PRAYER?
Text; 1 John 5: 14-15. “And this is the bold
ness which we have toward Him, that if we ask
anything according to His will, He heareth us, and
if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions which we have
asked of Him.’’
0 say the least of it, there is no doubt
in the mind of John about God’s an
swering prayer. Have you ever thought
in connection with the writings of John
how very emphatically lie speaks'?
Notice how often he uses the word
“know.” Os all the disciples, of all
the apostles, John seems to me to be the
one who is the most certain about the
T
things of which lie speaks.
And so in connection with prayer there is not
in the mind of this disciple a single question.
There are a great many people, good people, Chris
tian people, useful people in away, who are skep
tical about prayer. They woidd not, perhaps, ac
knowledge it: certainly they would not, proclaim
it. They, perhaps, feel ashamed of it, but it is,
nevertheless, a fact.
Os course, there are people, and, I am sorry to
say., members of the church, who do not believe in
prayer at all. but they have never had any expe
rience of real salvation, and hence they are not
to be expected to believe in prayer, for prayer
is only for those who have tasted salvation.
Then, again, there are those who believe that
God hears prayer for some people—a very limited
number of people—that occasionally there is to be
found a man or woman who has in some way Pe
ceived the gift of prayer. Now, that may be true.
I am afraid it is true to some extent, but it is true
only because we will- have it true. Prayer is the
privilege of every child of God. and God is at the
disposal, through prayer, of every child of His: so,
if there be a very limited number in our midst
who can really bring tilings to pass byway of
Heaven, it is our fault and not God’s, because we
are not living according to the conditions of prayer.
There are those who believe that prayer is an
swered for some things—a very limited number of
things. For example, I know good people who do
not believe that God hears prayer at all for mate
rial blessings, and they never pray for material
blessings. They pray for spiritual blessings, as they
call them, and nothing else. Os course such people,
good as they may be. are greatly deluded.
GOD IN LITTLE THINGS.
God is at the disposal of His people upon ceriain
conditions that they are to meet, for every kind
of blessing that is needed in life. We have just
as much right to ask God about the little every day
things that are going on in the kitchen, nursery,
the store and the factory, as we have to ask God
to be present and pour out His blessings on our ser
vices. From God’s standpoint, there is no such
thing as division of life into sacred and secular
things; neither is there any division in the life of
God’s people between little and great tilings. The
simplest little thing in our daily life may, after all,
be the biggest thing that we have to deal with.
Hence. God places Himself at the disposal of
His children, upon ceitain conditions, to bless and
help them in every little transaction as well as
the great transactions of their lives, and 1 thank
God lor it. I do not feel that I could worship Him
properly if 1 did not believe that He was inter
ested in me' to the extent that lie is interested in
the little, trying ami difficult circumstances that
are peculiarly mine; certain it is that I could not
regard Him as my loving Father, for I know that a
loving father would be interested in everything
that concerns me, no matter how small.
Then, there are other people who have an idea
that prayer is only effective in a reflective sense.
That is to say, that prayer brings the person pray
ing into a psychic relation which renders him or
The Golden Age for May 16, 1907.
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. ‘Broughton
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
he ra tit subject ft r all blessings. Os course, the
man who holds to that view absolutely disregards
the Bible. Not only that, bin he absolutely repu
diates all human testimony concerning prayer.
It is a fact that when a man prays he brings
himself into a kind of surrendered state; there is a
concentration of his mind upon a given subjeci,
which has to do with the breaking down, of his
will. But that is not what prayer means. Prayer
actually lays hold of God: if not. then it is not
prayer.
So, the. question com's to us with increased
interest and importance as Christians, does God
answer prayer? I shall attempt to say ves to this
question, and to back it up with what I believe
to be the teaching of God. Does God actuary
answer prayer?
01 course, any man is forced i«u considering a
subject like this to accept the Scriptural teaching
if he is to be honest. If he repudiates the teaching
of Hie Scriptures, then there is no further argu
ment. So we come to look at this question in
the light of the teaching of the Scriptures.
A hat is the record of the Scriptures concern
ing prayer? First we want to see the record in.
the Old Testament. The first prayer recorded in
the Old Testament is the prayer of Abram at Beth
el. No doubt there had been much praying before
this, and much answer to prayer, but this is the
first recorded instance in the Scriptures of prayer.
lou remember the circumstances. Abram had
gone from Bethel over into Egypt, and in Egypt
he was encountering difficulties thick and fast ;
but in the midst of his difficulties he had greatly
prospered in this world’s goods, and had growi:
cold in heart and had back-slidden.
Abram s experience in Egypt is the same ex
perience as any man in Atlanta will have when he
leaves Bethel and plunges into Egypt. He may get
riches in Egypt, but he will lose his grip on God.
there are men in this city today, and some in this
church, who have lost their experimental touch with
God because they have camped toe long in Egypt.
Finally Abram waked up to the realization of
the tact that lie was in the wrong place, so he came
back to Bethel, and when he got there he erected,
again his altar and prayed, and that prayer is the
first recorded in the Bible. We do not know what
lie prayed for, or just how he phrased his prayer,
hut we can get some idea concerning it from the
future life of Abram; for, after all, the life of the
man is the best and surest index to his prayer. As
a man prays he is going Io live.
A CHANGED LIFE.
I do not believe that a man can possibly perpet
ually pray right and live wrong. Some time ago
a man was telling me of an experience whicn Le had
in the erection of his family altar. He said: “I
used to be the snappiest old turtle that e\er lived,
and once I was persuaded to begin family worship.
1 had knelt in secret prayer with my family ever
since I had had one, but had never prayed audibly
before them. After the first night of this new
experience I felt that there had come a change
over me My wife felt it and remarked on it. .1
had lost my temper and irritability 1 knew where
and how I had lost it. 1 lost it there at the family
altar. 1 just could net get down on my knees ami
ask God to make me sweet and get up and go
hissing and turning around, because mv wife and
children would laugh at me.
“When I found.” he said, “what an effect it
had on me, 1 wanted to work it on mv wife, so I
very tactfully proposed that sometimes she should
lead the Bible and pray, so she did, and as si e
prayed she asked God to make her sweet, and tin?
first thing I knew’ she was just as sweet as could
bo. And 1 knew where and how she lost her ir
i it ability. ’’
That bears out what T said a moment ago. that
largely ns ft man prays he lives, and so I may judge
that Abram must have been in earnest, importunate
prayer at Bethel. Look at that transformation
with his nephew, Lot, which has furnished ns
preachers with so many good sermons. Abraham
found that be could not live in peace with Lot,
and so, rather than have any distmbance, he told
Lot to look out upon the land and make his choice,
and after Lot’s choice was made he would take
what was left.
Abraham had the right to first choice, but since
that place of prayer, he had learned the lesson
that the right of first choice carried with it the
higher right of taking second choice.
Oh, that is a lesson that many of us ought to
learn! The highest right before God and before
man —I repeat, before man, for man will see it
and honor it —is tin* noble spirit that tills the lieart
of a man and wakes him willing to surrender his
right for the sake of another’s gain.
Abraham could never have done that but for the
place of prayer. No man can do that unless he
lives much in prayer. Our disposition is to assert
our rights, and especially is that true in this coun
try. It is not only true with respect to secular
matters, but with respect to church and spiritual
things.
Our rights! My, how we do like to assert them,
and the assertion of our rights oftentimes is the
wreck and ruin of our souls.
THE PRAYER OF A NATION.
The next recorded answer to prayer that I shall
mention is that of Israel. Israel was under bond
age, and under bondage Israel had chafed long and
anxiously, waiting for deliverance. Thev were
weak, and Pharaoh was wrong. They saw’ no hope
until they began to call on God, and when they
called on Him He came to their deliverance. You
understand thoroughly how it came about, but the
point I. want you to remember is a nation’s cry
to God over its woes, and in that cry is a lesson
that I would to God our beloved nation could learn.
We are so disposed in national affairs to leave out
the question of supernatural control. We are. so
disposed to act as if God is not concerned about
the progress of the nation, and that if He is inter
ested He proposes Io have no hand in it.
Here we have a picture of God bending low’ to
catch the prayer of a people over its woes, and He
hears that prayer, and accomplishes the deliverance
of that nation in a marvelously mysterious way.
I was reminded of this some time ago when that
great and cruel and awful massicre in China, known
as the Boxer massacre was going on. I remember
the Sunday morning when the news flashed across
this continent and over the yvorld that England
and Germany and America had formed a kind of
auple alliance, and ware making ready to send na
vies and armies to invade China and to bring hei
to her senses.
At Washington a meeting of representatives
from all the denominations of Christians interested
in missions and the preservation of the lives of
the missionaries was held to discuss the situation
with the President and the Secretary of War. The
same thing was true in England and in Germany,
and yet, never for once did any man, any’ great
representative leader, send a call throughout the
nations oi Christendom for the marshalling of th?
army of God upon its knees to invoke die speedy
interference of Heaven.
Somebody said, “Oh, it would be good to do that,
but yve have got to have immediate relief! Our
missionaries are in danger and yve cannot wait.”
I thought of my own friends in that country’;
of those that were near and dear to some of ns.
ami 1 could not help feeling that the speed of a
gunboat, be it propelled by ever so great an engine,
was a small thing compared to the speed of the God
in the Heavens; He who is omnipresent; all-wise;
all-mighty and all-powerful. He could lay His
hand upon that great old sleeping nation of Clnna
and shake her into life, but we did not asT< Him
to. W r e saved our missionaries most of them; we
saved the cause in that country’ for a time, but I
believe only for a lime before if breaks out again.
“Not by. might, nor by power, but bv inv Spirit
sailh the Lord.”
