The question is often asked, inwardly or outwardly, “Why pray?” There are many reasons (e.g., we are commanded to pray–Lk. 18:1; 1 Thess. 5:17; Col. 4:2; the example of Christ–Lk. 3:21; 5:16; 9:29; 22:39-46; 23-34; etc.; God has revealed in His word that He desires the fellowship of His own–1 Pet. 5:7). Yet among the chief reasons is one generally overlooked–the by-products of prayer.
These spiritual rewards, to which no earthly evaluation can be attached, are the blessed experience of all who persevere and prevail in prayer. Who would not value an audience with a well-known king, prime minister, or president, yet at any time we may seek the face of Him who is the “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” one who is infinitely more interested in our individual welfare than any earthly ruler. Yet how little we avail ourselves of this wonderful privilege. We are grateful for rallies and retreats, teen-times and tea-talks, but these can never substitute for personal prayer in the life of the believer.
In his instructive and valuable little book, Method of Prayer, W. Graham Scroggie has aptly said:
“One of the greatest mistakes that a Christian can make is to imagine that increased social or spiritual activity can be any compensation for the lack of secret communion with God. A prayerful life is always a powerful life; and a prayerless life is always a powerless life. If we cannot pray aright, we really can do nothing aright; but how slow we are to believe that. We find a spiritual law at work in the uniform experience that the more we pray, the more we need to, and want to; and the less we pray, the less is the desire to do so.”
Why do we not pray more? The words of Dr. L. S. Chafer will stay with me as long as I live. One day, he quietly yet forcefully said to us students, “Men, prayer is hard work, and we are inherently lazy.”
To be acquainted with the by-products of prayer should alone be sufficient stimuli to make us want to throw off our lethargy and pray more than ever, especially as this age draws to its climactic close. True, a price must be paid–time. But is there any better investment of our precious time than to daily lay hold of eternity? Even the world will tell us that anything really worthwhile will cost us something.
The Scriptures reveal at least seven by-products of prayer (perhaps you can ferret out others).
FORTIFYING PEACE
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).
“Why pray when you can worry?” seems to be the philosophy of some, but this is completely contrary to God’s will and only demonstrates a lack of faith and obedience. How such conduct on our part must grieve the heart of our gracious God!
As a young boy, the words of Isaiah 26:3 were indelibly impressed upon me by my godly grandmother. I never recall this text but I think of her. Do others ever think of us in this way? An invalid during the last seven years of her life and never uttering a word of complaint, she was a splendid example of these texts. What was her secret? She possessed “perfect peace.” How? Her mind was fixed on God. Day by day she breathed deeply of the refreshing atmosphere of the Throne of Grace. Sweetly submissive to His will, having known peace with God (Rom. 5:1) for at least half a century, she continually realized the promise of the peace of God (Phil. 4:7) simply because she obeyed the prescription of chapter 4:6.
These familiar verses need little, if any, explanation. What is needed is the daily appropriation of them. Remember the old saying, “Anxious for nothing, prayerful in everything, thankful for anything”? This sums up the simple prescription for realizing the fortifying “peace of God” which surpasses all understanding, and misunderstanding, too!
RENEWED SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).
Over and over in Scripture, especially in the Psalms, we are exhorted by example and precept to wait on God (cf. Ps. 27:14; 37:9, 34; 40:1; 65:1, 5). Unless we learn to truly wait on Him, we can never hope to worship, war, work, walk, and witness effectively for His glory. The word “wait” can have at least three distinct meanings in connection with this promise: (1) to stop; (2) to be in an attitude of expectation; and (3) to bind together by twisting (the meaning of the Hebrew word), much as a vine binds itself to the trunk and branches of a great tree.
Yesterday’s strength will not do for today, nor will today’s strength do for tomorrow. As Israel gathered fresh manna every morning, with the exception of the Sabbath, so must we seek daily to wait on the Lord that we might exchange our weakness for His strength.
EVERY NEED SUPPLIED
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Mt. 7:7-8).
It has been said that the greatest saints are the asking saints. So often we fail to ask the Lord for our desires and needs. The latter He has promised to supply (Phil. 4:19); the former He delights to give when in accord with His will. “Ask,” “seek” and “knock” are present tense commands, emphasizing a necessary persistence in our praying and appropriately illustrated by the Lord’s parable of the importunate friend (see Lk. 11:5-8). The words of Matthew 7:7 have often been used as an acrostic: Ask, Seek, Knock.
The practical-minded James chided his readers, saying, “.Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (Jas. 4:2-3).
What a blessed by-product of prayer! Every need supplied. But we must ask.
ABOUNDING JOY
“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (Jn. 16:24).
Again, the Lord commanded His disciples to “ask,” the present tense once more stressing perseverance in prayer. The sense is: “keep on asking.”
Christian, have you lost your joy? Then pray! If any man had reason to lose his joy, it was Nehemiah. Having been granted permission by the Persian king, to go to Jerusalem–and this through prayer–Nehemiah made the three-month journey. Arriving in the city of his fathers, he was faced with the arduous task of rebuilding the ruined walls and gates, rallying the returned remnant, and restoring moral and civil order–all in the face of enemy opposition from within and without. With the manifold task finally completed, what does the godly, stalwart Nehemiah say? “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:10).
What was his secret? Prayer! A study of this Old Testament book will readily reveal that Nehemiah was a man of prayer. It is noteworthy that his praying was coupled with hard work. A true builder for God, he had learned the secret of praying without ceasing, that is, of holding communion with God about everything as it happened. He turned his heart simply and naturally to the Lord as an ever-present Friend, as natural as breathing.
A joyless Christian is a weak Christian, and the basic reason for such a condition stems from prayerlessness. No prayer; no joy. No joy; no strength. It’s that simple and clear-cut. Faithfulness in prayer will yield fullness of joy.
ALL-SUFFICIENT GRACE
“. . . There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:7-9).
The apostle Paul was a strong Christian, but a physical affliction of some sort (it doesn’t matter what it was) proved a tremendous trial to his soul, even bringing him into conflict with the powers of hell. Three times over he cried to the Lord for deliverance, revealing on his part a readiness to pray and assurance of being heard. Did the Lord hear and answer? He certainly did, but not as the great apostle had asked Him. Instead, the Lord gave him a promise, the realization of which transformed his burden into a blessing; his trial into a triumph. This promise was the sufficiency of Christ’s grace to meet his deep need.
The present tense of “is” in the Lord’s promise to Paul should fill our hearts with the assurance that His grace today is no less sufficient to minister to our needs than it was in the apostle’s day, even in the severest of trials and temptations. If we will only draw on it, Christ’s limitless grace–His infinite love and power harnessed on our behalf–is always there “in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). G. Campbell Morgan never tired of pointing out that the Greek phrase translated, “in time of need,” is a colloquialism, of which our expression, “nick of time,” is the exact equivalent.
Handley C. G. Moule has attested the authenticity of the account that has often been told of an esteemed servant of Christ who, in an hour of deep trial, agonized before the Lord, praying, “Let thy grace be sufficient for me.” Momentarily lifting his tear-filled eyes, a newly hung wall plaque met his gaze, bearing the words, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” The text came home to his heart with such freshness and blessing that he rose to a new life of peace and power in Christ (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 118).
DIVINE WISDOM
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (Jas. 1:5).
Wisdom is the practical use of knowledge, and every day we need divine wisdom, especially amidst the testings of life which sooner or later come to us all (see Jas. 1:2-4). This choice and challenging text reveals the twofold secret of obtaining it. First of all, we must realize that we lack wisdom; and, secondly, we must ask God for it. Again, we are commanded to “ask,” the present tense of the verb once more emphasizing persistence in prayer–“let him keep on asking.” Furthermore, if we ask God for wisdom, we are assured that He will not rebuke us, for He delights to give with a free hand, as conveyed by the adverb “liberally” (see 2 Cor. 8:2). There are no strings attached to the Lord’s giving. When He gives He keeps nothing back, but graciously promises to grant His wisdom to all who ask Him for it.
AN INCREASED SENSE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD
“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (Jas. 4:8).
As for “the proud,” who feel no need of coming to the Throne of Grace, God resists such (Jas. 4:6). But the humble-hearted are promised an increased sense of God’s presence as they act on the blessed invitation to draw near to Him. In fact, “draw nigh” is not alone an invitation, it is a command, the tense calling for a decisive stand.
It was David who said, “It is good for me to draw near to God” (Ps. 73:28). And this should be our decisive and daily attitude, knowing that God never refuses the fellowship of those who seek His face and that He cannot but be intensely grieved if we choose to live at a distance from Him. True, the Lord has promised to be with us always, to never leave us nor forsake us (Mt. 28:20; Heb. 13:5), but unless we draw near to Him we shall never know the blessedness of His presence. It is nothing short of tragic that so many Christians seem content to know the presence of Christ only as a fact, not as a force; only as a promise, not as a power.
The brief but blessed words of our text suggest not only the idea of waiting on God in prayer, but also the thought of walking with God along life’s path, just as Enoch did for 300 years (see Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5-6)! However, such a privilege requires the kind of preparation seen in the remaining words of James 4:8. Let us be like Abraham, the great “pioneer of faith,” who “stood yet before the Lord” and “drew near” (Gen. 18:22-23).
Here, then, are seven by-products of prayer: Fortifying Peace, Renewed Spiritual Strength, Every Need Supplied, Abounding Joy, All-Sufficient Grace, Divine Wisdom, and An Increased Sense of the Presence of God. Martin Luther once said: “If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.” And to this might be added that if we neglect prayer but a single day, we would forfeit much of the spiritual blessedness of prayer’s by-products which are its enriching and enabling rewards.