Success in Prayer

We call prayer a success when we get audience with God and receive the things we desire of Him. This is a wonderful privilege. When we go to God in the right manner, He will extend the scepter. In order to get an answer to our prayers, we must have desire. This arises from a sense of want. The desire will be to the extent of our sense of want. If we have but a slight sense of want, we have but little desire. “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”* (Mark 11:24) “There is no want to them that fear him.”* (Psalm 34:9) God supplies every want of man. Desire, as we have said, arises from a sense of want, and God will supply our wants; therefore what we desire we shall receive. Again, we read in the Word of Truth that “the desire of the righteous shall be granted.”* (Proverbs 10:24) Thus we understand that in order to pray successfully we must experience a sense of want. Do you want more love for God? Do you feel in your soul a deep sense of such want? Then you have great desire for it and “the desire of the righteous shall be granted.” God will not hear cold, dead, formal prayers; He will not give us that for which we feel no need.

In order to be successful in prayer we must come to God humbly. It is the cry of the humble that God hears. He heard the prayer of the publican because he came feeling a sense of want and also came in a humble, dependent spirit. He did not hear the proud Pharisee. God heard the prayer of Abraham when this patriarch came to Him asking Him to spare Sodom if a certain number of righteous persons could be found there. God heard this prayer because of the manner in which the suppliant came. Abraham said, “Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.”* (Genesis 18:27) If we come to the Lord feeling that He is under some obligation to us because of something we have done or because of what we are, He will not hear us. O Lord, help us to be humble, to feel our dependence. In order for prayer to prevail with God, it must come from a submissive and obedient heart. “Submit yourselves therefore to God,”* (James 4:7) is the exhortation of the Bible. And “whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”* (1 John 3:22) When we keep the commandments of God and love His will, He will hear our prayers. The Lord would have us come to Him with reverence. We should come into the presence of God with a holy awe resting upon our souls. If we were to step into the presence of an earthly monarch, we would have a profound feeling of awe and reverence; then how much more on coming into the majestic presence of God. Oh! do not dishonor Him by bowing down so unfeelingly as if God were no more than an ordinary man. We should address Him with reverence. It is better not to say “you” and “your,” but to say “thou” and “thy.” The English language recognizes a solemn form of the pronoun. Do not rush hurriedly and unceremoniously into His presence, but come before Him as Moses did at the burning bush. Prayer should be sacred and hallowed. We feel constrained to bow our heads when devout men pray. When we come upon any one in secret communion with God, we feel impelled to withdraw in silence. In your worship around your family altar, let there be reverence. Teach your little ones to revere the name of Jesus. Let everything else be laid aside and come before Him with profoundness of thought and feeling.

We should come before the Lord in childlikeness. Being reverential does not necessitate being in slavish bondage. We can come to the Lord with reverence and also in childlike confidence and cheerfulness. We should come with a filial spirit filling our hearts. When we come in this manner, the Lord will hear us, and prayer will be availing.

Father, let me speak to Thee,
While Thou art near, so very, very near;
My soul would breathe her wishes and desires
Into thy listening ear.

It is the midnight hour,
And, Father, I would have with Thee a word.
The world in slumber lies; my heart awakes.
Hast thou its beat not heard?

Father, I would be pure;
For Thou hast said the pure shall see Thy face,
Shall see Thee here, in all thy glorious works
Of providence and grace.

And I would useful be.
Do thou arrange and order out my way
Just as shall bring most glory unto Thee
And best Thy pains repay.

Oh! keep me in Thy love;
Help me in all I do or think or say,
To do out of purest love for Thee.
For this, dear Lord, I pray.