(with Matthew 7:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18; James 4:3; James 5:16)
A question about which there has been a good deal of discussion of late years is the question of prayer. Are our prayers answered? If so, if we admit in general the efficacy of prayer, what ought we to pray for? Should we confine our prayers to petitions for spiritual benefits? or may we also ask for temporal blessings?
I. I suppose no one will deny that there are no prayers more right and more natural than those offered by one who is himself sick, and by his friends on his behalf, that he may receive the blessings of patience, resignation, and cheerfulness; and yet we know that it is universally agreed that a state of mind marked by these virtues is conducive to the recovery of the patient. And even in other cases, where the effect on the material by answer to prayer for spiritual blessings is less obvious, it still seems to be equally real, even though our petition be directed to an object which appears to be far removed from the material world.
II. We hold that prayer can affect the physical world. We do not hold that to each prayer, regarded by itself, without respect to all its surroundings and to all its consequences, there is a certain answer. The answer is what God sees to be best, is in perfect accordance with His will. We believe that every prayer has some answer an answer in the shape of a blessing or a curse, according as it is the prayer of faith or by lack of belief in the petitioner is little better than a mocking of God. We believe that some prayers are specially answered in the way desired; that if so, it is not that God's will is altered, but because the prayer and its answer are completely in accord with that will.
III. This is our faith. To render it tenable, it is no way essential that we should be able to quote specific instances of the definite answer of prayer. We are here distinctly in the region of faith; it is sufficient if we show that there is nothing in God's ordering of the universe inconsistent with our belief. If we once accept it, we are left to the guidance of revelation alone; and this speaks to us with no hesitating voice: "Ask, and it shall be given you;" "The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working."
A. J. C. Allen, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates' Journal,April 24th, 1884.
Note:
I. The force of this petition. (1) This prayer constrains us to forego all bread but that which God gives. We can get bread from one or other of two deities: the god of this world will give it us, or our Father in heaven. When we say, "Our Father in heaven, give us daily bread," we turn our back on the other giver of bread, on all evil ways of making a living or augmenting our fortune, and ask only such comforts of God's providence as can come to us in an honourable way. (2) This petition requires us, next, to put away all greed, ambition, and anxiety. For it asks only "bread" nay, only today's bread. Enough to sustain, not enough to pamper us. Enough for comfort, not enough for display. Enough to free us from needless care, not enough to free us from wholesome dependence upon God. (3) Let us remember in our prayers and in our actions the needs of others besides ourselves. In all this prayer the plural number is prescribed. We have to come always thinking of others, and naming their wants with our own. (4) The prayer requires us to recognize that God is a great Giver of all good. The great Father lays up for the children. He opens His hands, and all things are full of good. Just below the surface and behind the appearance of things God is at work, and all good that comes to us comes from Him.
II. Some reasons for offering this petition. (1) The adoption of this prayer will give us peace. Not, indeed, all peace; but peace from worldly anxiety and from innumerable disturbances of the heart. (2) The adoption of this petition will hallow all our life. For the largest part of the work of all men is directed to the getting of the means of living; and if in the pursuit of our trade this gracious prayer moderates all selfishness, destroys all greed, and brightens with the smile of God all our activities, it will be found that the whole of life is somehow graciously affected by the one petition. (3) The use of this prayer will vastly enlarge our knowledge of God.
R. Glover, Lectures on the Lord's Prayer,p. 60.