Let’s consider some of
the practical reasons for our failure to make the most out of our power to pray. Our failure in prayer is partly due to the prevailing temper
of our generation, which in its splendid enthusiasm for work has neglected that
culture of prayer, on which in the end the finest quality of spirit and the
deepest resources of power must depend. This is one of the reasons why our
generation is marked by practical efficiency and spiritual shallowness.
May we enjoy the best gains of this efficient age but at the
same time recover the practice of real communion of God
Failure to cultivate our power of prayer goes back in many to
childish ideas of the meaning of prayer, which, never altogether outgrown,
hamper us and make our praying seem unreasonable and futile.
There are some who still think of prayer in terms of childish
supplications to a divine Santa Claus.
“And he sat down, and called
the twelve; and he saith unto them, If any man would be first, he shall be last
of all, and servant of all. And he took a little child, and set him in the
midst of them: and taking him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall
receive one of such little children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever
receiveth me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. Mark 9:35-37.”
“When I was a child, I
spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become
a man, I have put away childish things”. I Cor. 13:11
When Jesus sets as our ideal the childlike qualities of
sincerity and humility, he is not asking us to be childish. Many foolish prayers are offered by the well-meaning but unintelligent
with the excuse that they are childlike in their simple trust. But we are
grown-up children, and have an obligation to exercise our intelligence, to
outgrow infantile ideas of prayer that belittle it, and to enlarge our
conceptions of the significance which fellowship
with God may have for life. To pray to God as though he were Santa Claus is
childish; but a man may still be childlike
in his faith.
Childishness in prayer is chiefly evidenced in an overweening
desire to beg things from God, and a corresponding failure to desire
above all else the friendship of God himself.
There ought to be a growth in our relationship with God which
occurs in the normal fellowship between a child and his parents. At first the
child wants the parents’ gifts, and thinks of the parents largely in terms of
the things which they do for his comfort and pleasure. He is not able yet to
appreciate the value of the parents' personalities.
A sure sign of wholesome maturity, however, is found in the
child’s deepening understanding of the parents themselves his increasing
delight in their friendship, thankfulness for their care, acceptance of their
ideals, reliance on their counsel, and joy in their approval. The child grows
through desiring things from his parents into love of his parents, for their
own sakes.
“A certain man had two sons: and the
younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of
thy substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not
many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey
into a far country; and there he wasted his substance with riotous living. . .
. But when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father's
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger! I will arise and
go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven,
and in thy sight: I am no more worthy to be called thy son: make
me as one of thy hired servants.”
Luke 15: 11-13, 17-19.
Note the change of prayer from “Give me” to “Make
me.” Whether through experience of sorrow or hard practical struggle we
come to a real maturity, we always tend to grow out of crying to God “Give
me” into the deeper prayer “Make me.” In a word we cease
valuing God merely because of the things he may give, and we come into the love
of God himself and the desire to be made over by him.
Let’s share a word of prayer (Adapted from Thomas A Kempis, 1379 - 1471)
Grant me, O most loving
father, to rest in you above all, above all health and beauty, above all glory
and honor, above all power and dignity, above all knowledge and subtilty, above
all riches and art, above all fame and praise, above all sweetness and comfort,
above all hope and promise, above all gifts and favors that you can give and
impart to us, above all joy that the mind of man can receive and feel;
finally, above angels and archangels, and above all the heavenly host, above
all things visible and invisible, and above all that you are not, O my God. It
is too small and unsatisfying, whatsoever you bestow on me apart from You, or
reveals to me, or promises, whilst you are not seen, and not fully obtained.
For surely my heart cannot fully rest, nor be entirely contented, unless it
rest in you.
Amen.
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