Andrew Murray – Page 2 – LOVE | ACCEPT

Day 17 in the School of Prayer : Harmony!

“Father, I thank you that have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here., that they may believe that you sent me.” ( John 11:41b-42 )

I will proclaim the decree of the Lord:

He said to me, “You are my Son, today I have become your Father.”

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. ( Psalm 2:7-8 )

Many Christians struggle with the seeming dichotomy between the eternal decrees of God and their effect upon our individuals lives and the notion of liberty in prayer. In other words, if God has determined the course of history corporate and individual of what effect are our prayers? Many will prefer to allow this question to linger unanswered. Some will allow themselves the conclusion that prayer is fruitless yet continue in a sort of stoic legalism. Still others will see this as an impassable roadblock and give up the discipline altogether.

Were God one person, closed up within himself the latter conclusion would be appropriate. We could never hope to be close to him nor hope to influence him. God is not one, however. He is Three-In-One, and in the Son and Holy Spirit we have the bond of unity and fellowship with the whole of the Trinity. Through this brotherhood we have an opened door to ear of the Father. We have assurance that our prayers are heard and in the Trinity, eternal as it is, we see that Jesus’ commands to pray form an active part of the eternal design.

We pray because we were commanded to.

We pray because we are heard.

We pray because our petitions are a crucial part of the great plan of history.

Day Fifteen in the School of Prayer : Unite!

“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:19-20)

When we think of the prayer meetings we have been a part of, many stand out as a group of individual Christians together in one room lifting their individual petitions to Heaven but without leadership that directed the group in a single voice. Christians gather for more than comfort and edification, we gather to lift corporate concerns to the single Father of all. As the Lord teaches, we are assured of answer when our collective voices speak of the same concern for kingdom and will.

Murray reminds us of “what an unspeakable privilege this of united prayer is, and what power it might be. If the believing husband and wife knew that they were joined together in the Name of Jesus to experience His presence and power in united power (1 Peter); if friends believed what mighty help two or three praying in concert could give each other; if in every prayer meeting the coming together in the Name, the faith in the Presence, and the expectation of the answer, stood in the foreground;…O who can say what blessing might come to, and through, those who thus agreed to prove God in the fulfillment of His promise.”

Day Fourteen in the School of Prayer : Forgive…

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:25

Is this an afterthought of the Lord? Coming immediately after that promise of answered prayer in the preceding verse, it appears that Jesus has suddenly made prayer conditional upon the state of your heart. If we extend our reading further we actually discover yet another rehearsal of the Shema of Jesus; Love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor likewise. In verse 22, Jesus emphasizes the faith requirements of prayer and a right relationship with God and here He imparts a reminder that this love is to also extend to our fellow man.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brought up a similar theme. In Matthew verses 23-24, the Lord spoke to the impropriety of worship while holding a grudge toward another. Love for your neighbors is a measure of the love and obedience that you have for God. Has His grace so permeated your soul that it is regularly visited upon your neighbors? If not a return to the altar of the gospel is in order.

Prayer holds the same requirements. God knows your heart and prayer that attempts to cloud the issues that swirl there is useless. Until we are able to know grace that transforms our attitudes toward others, God will continue to work out that aspect of our lives instead of moving us to a more mature relationship. Today is the day to seek out your brother.

Day Thirteen in the School of Prayer: Fast!

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:19-21)

“Why couldn’t we…”; we must all share this thought of the disciples from time to time. Why do our prayers seem to bounce against the ceiling or seem impotent? Why do we claim faith in the light but question our beliefs in the night? Jesus proclaimed the answer to the disciples, then and now: we have so little faith. Our faith is not muscular but bony and frail, though we might try to portray it otherwise. Appearances have become paramount at the experience of a true sacrificial faith.

Strong faith requires prayer. Strong prayer requires forsaking other things that threaten to derail or weaken that faith. We must be people who fast in order to retrain our sights on that which forms our core. To abstain from food nourishment is to point our souls to the deep well of being nourished in prayer. We can so easily feed our sorrows, fears, and failures and then when satisfied, forget about them. Throwing that crutch aside we must rely on the only thing that will satisfy our deepest hungers for meaning and purpose. As Murray reminds us “Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp the invisible; fasting, the other, with which we let loose and cast away the visible.”

Day Twelve in the School of Prayer : Have Faith!

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.’ (Mark 11:22-23)

The last lesson of the Master taught us to believe as though we had already received the answer to our prayers, infusing our petitions with a fresh urgency and strength. Belief or trust in the response is predicated on something. It is not our natural attitude toward anything as adults and with ‘things unseen’, it becomes an even greater challenge. Jesus points our belief to its foundation in this lesson. Faith in God is the basis for our belief.

The Lord points us to the God who created all, permeates all, and who knows all in and out of our hearts. On the basis of what we know to be true about God and His consistency in upholding and delivering all He has ever promised we can place our faith. As our tenure as a friend of God lengthens He becomes more visible to us. We know His works in our lives and in the historical lives of others. We make connections between what His Word has told us and what we experience. Faith becomes more real and gradually solidified. Our faith is the core of our belief.

In this faith we pray. We approach the throne with our petitions and a mature trust. We yield and mountains move.

Day 10 in the School of Prayer : Say It!

Jesus stopped and said, “Call Him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” (Mark 10:49-52)

Among the lessons in our primer, this may be the easiest thus far; the Lord does not want to us to voice vague calls for His mercy or undefined pleas for His blessing. He wants us to be direct and to state clearly our need. In doing so, we are moved to clarify our need, to dwell upon it and evaluate it, to consider it in the context of the Kingdom. Jesus asks, what do you want me to do for you? Are you prepared with an answer? No vague and pointless prayer will satisfy this question. It is prayer that is bold, direct, and from the deepest wells of our hearts that the Lord seeks. Put aside all other.

Murray directs us further though, back into the King James text for the emphasis of the Master’s words: “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” What wilt thou—not, what wish thou? A wish is a formless, meaningless, hope-for. Something can be wished for without being willed. The will however will stop at nothing until it is achieved. It has a purpose and as the Holy Spirit directs, it has a kingdom purpose. God will have no peace until He answers this prayer. The wish vanishes like a child’s balloon over the horizon. What is willed will be.

Lord, teach us to pray.

Day Nine in the School of Prayer: Seek Help

When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:36-38)

The Lord taught us the necessity of persistence in prayer for the goals of the kingdom, trusting in the Father’s love for our own providence. He now extends that focus, leading us into prayer for the workers necessary to imbue the kingdom with change. It is easy for us to look around and see the overwhelming need of the souls that press in on us from every side. It is not so easy to understand that we are to pray for the workers needed to reap this bountiful harvest in the name of the Father.

Is this need for prayer due to a deficit in God’s planning? Certainly not. The Creator knows all that is needed and has, in fact, supplied the workers. Who? You. We see Jesus in the passage moved with compassion at the plight of the lost, the sheep without a shepherd. As a disciple of the Son, the prayer that should result from this lesson is not that God would send additional workers but that those who have claimed love for Him would have their hearts turned in compassion to the plight of the sheep. No one should be found standing idle in the vineyard.

Day Eight in the School of Prayer : Be Persistent

Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’

Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (Luke 11:5-8)

We have often read this parable or heard it preached with an emphasis on the persistence of the asker. The friend who responds to our knock would turn us away because the conditions are not right, yet if we are bold (persistent depending upon your translation) he will arise and provide the requested loaves. There is another emphasis in the Lord’s words that is not often heard and that is speaking to a friend on behalf of another.

Christ teaches us of the importance of intercession in this brief interchange. Our temptation is most often to pray for ourselves and our own needs or comforts. God is certainly not offended when we voice our needs but He is examining our trust of His provision if this activity becomes our sole focus. Jesus speaks here of shifting our focus from ourselves to the needs of others in prayer. We do not seek the three loaves for ourselves because we were too lazy to bake them. We seek the three loaves from a friend at midnight when he is in bed because we want to provide for a visitor who has unexpectedly appeared at our door and is in need of sustenance. We can be assured of answer to our intercessory prayer.

Perhaps the easiest word to read over is ‘friend.’ Jesus does not say we go our neighbor or a stranger to request to loaves, we go to a friend. Are you approaching God as a friend? Jesus proposed the simplest test for us to evaluate our friendship; “You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:14) The prayer as a friend of God is the one in which confidence can be vested.

Day Seven in the School of Prayer

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13)

The Lord asks us to consider how small our prayers are. Are we limited in our thinking concerning what God will provide for us? Our prayers may be filled with the mundane and a focus on our day to day needs when our Father wants us to have so much more. To be filled with the Spirit satisfies so many of our needs and yet we fail to seek Him out. Not only will the presence of the Spirit change us as people, but He will also mature and expand our prayer life. It is through the guidance of the indwelling Spirit that we truly learn to pray the prayers of Heaven instead of dwelling in the smallness of the earth.

Day Six in the School of Prayer

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:9-11)

How much more indeed! Often we are willing to settle for simple material gifts when the Father wants to give us so much more. The cursory handling of the verses from the Sermon on the Mount leads to the idea that our material needs—food, clothing, shelter—are to be the core of our prayers as we see the human father gives sustenance rather than danger and damage. The Saints are further led astray by reading into this passage a ‘blank check’ from Heaven in the implicit promise of good gifts. The best gift, Murray points out, is nothing material. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and His control over our life and living in this world. This is the gift we should earnestly be seeking, trusting in God to take care of all of the things He already knows we need.

Jesus teaches in our lesson today to lift our eyes and hearts above our immediate circumstances to see how much more life the Father has for us when we open our connection to the Vine. The Spirit is our connection and the gift we receive upon belief that enables the life-giving nectar of the Vine to flow into our empty souls.