Now How Shall We Pray? 7/19/42
Scripture: Matthew 6: 6-15
How strong is the urge to pray! A surgeon, known all over the nation for the success of his work, was reputed to enter the surgery only after prayer, on his knees, that his skill might be effective in saving a life. A soldier and an officer both find themselves praying in a fox-hole on Bataan while shells explode closely all around them. When questioned about it later, the soldier says quite simply, “There are no atheists in fox-holes.”
An American aborigine rides toward the rising sun, throws out his arms and prays to the Great Spirit. A Buddhist monk in an Asiatic monastery writes prayers on slips of paper, ties them to a cylinder which revolves in the wind, and considering that the prayer has been made with every revolution of the wheel, hopes that its many repetitions will attract the attention and favor of the deity.
The most highly organized and capable creature of the world, man, is constantly seeking the source of power that is infinitely greater than his own.
Probably all of us pray - at least some times; under some circumstances. A man whose wife had passed away quite suddenly, in the prime of life, said to me “I never prayed as hard in my life,” as during those few days of her illness. A young man who was deeply in love with a fine, talented, Christian young woman told me that, during his courtship of her, before she had decided that she would have him, he had wakened during many a long night with a prayer on his lips that God might give him her love. We pray for the success of our work; of the great causes in which we believe; for deliverance from danger or pain; for the safety of loved ones.
It is not a question for most of us as to whether or not we should pray. Most of us ought to pray oftener, more intelligently, with greater faith; to put in the words of our lips some of the desires of our hearts - but we do pray.
The question for us is “how shall we pray?” For the most part, our physical attitude is of secondary importance. Whether one should get down on his knees, stand, or sit; pray with his eyes closed, or openly lifted to the skies - these are matters of importance only as they enable one better to seek the presence of God. Probably most of us can shut away distractions better by closing the eyes and bowing the head.
But the important question for us is, “With what spirit shall we pray? What shall we expect? What shall we offer?”
Jesus’ disciples were doubtless men who had prayed during all of their lives. But they observed that he prayed with an effect which made them feel utterly inadequate by contrast. And so he suggested to them how they might pray. His emphasis was not “In these words, pray ye;” but “After this manner, pray ye.” Remember that God’s name is holy, to be held in reverence. Remember that He is Lord of the earth and that the world can be right only with the coming of His kingdom. Seek your daily food, that which is necessary for the maintenance of your body. Recognize your shortcomings and sins and seek forgiveness for them, remembering that a just and good God ought hardly to forgive you if you refuse to forgive others who would like to be free of the burden of their sin toward you. Ask that you may be saved from the evil which sears the soul; that you may not have trials, sorrows and harmful impulses which you can not bear.
“After this manner,” then, in this spirit we should pray always.
The concerns of our lives, the things for which we wish to pray, vary with the circumstances of our human lives. In a time of national danger, one of our concerns is for the safety and preservation of our country.
It has been urged that, beginning with the first day of this year, January 1st, 1942, and continuing through the duration of the year, we all observe “America’s Prayer Minute.” The Federal Council of Churches sponsors this plan for a nationwide observance of one minute of prayer daily for our nation. The suggestion is that we pause when the church bells of our community ring at 6 PM, or that we bow when the radio announces the minute of prayer at 6 PM Eastern War time, 5 PM by our clocks. The Federal Council has prepared a little booklet of prayers for the use of those who care for this kind of aid or suggestion (a few samples are on the literature table.)
Of course, in a way, it is typically American to squeeze one minute out of the 1440 of the day for direct attention to God. Actually, however, such a minute of prayer has been observed in Great Britain for more than a year each evening at 9 o’clock when Big Ben is heard striking that hour over the radio. Millions are reported to join in this experience, individually and unitedly, finding spiritual strength in the act.
One wonders whether or not we expect too much of a mere minute - sixty seconds - with God. But the thought is good. In this rumbling, quaking, explosive world, the unshakable fact that “God is our refuge and strength” is one well worth remembering. There are some who are wanting to pray today who have not done so since the days when they said “Now I lay me down to sleep.” The impulse is one not of craven fear but of recognition in crisis that we must find what is vital and unshaken.
Now how shall we American Christians pray for our nation; its soldiers, sailors, marines, aviators; its industrial workers and executives; its protection and strengthening? Praying has its problems for any intelligent person. Can prayer change the course of a bullet? Can prayer protect a man or a child from the bursting bomb? Can we pray for victory? What kind of victory? are not Christian people in Britain and in Germany, in China and in Japan, in Belgium and Norway and Italy praying for the success of their causes and the safety of their loved ones? Remembering one of the basic Christian beliefs that Christian people everywhere, of every race and clan and nation are children of one God, may we ask God’s favor for certain of his children? Could we ask God to stop this war which many Christian thinkers believe to be his judgment on the sins of the nations?
These are questions without easy answer. It may help to think a bit more about this Father, this God and creator of all peoples. “It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves.” [Psalm
100: 3]. He “made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” [Acts 17: 26].
But He created us with freedom to live by his laws or to reject them and “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” [Galatians 6: 7]. “Shall not the Judge of the earth do right?”
God is also redeemer. Because he is a Father who loves, his judgments on his children fall also on Him. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” [Isaiah 53: 5]. Because God is like that, He must stand ready to say to America, Germany, England, Italy, Japan, Russia, China, “Fear not, I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.” [Isaiah 43: 1].
Well, then shall we pray for our loved ones, many of them in places of danger these days? Certainly we shall! Leslie Weatherhead, of City Temple in London, offers counsel here. Says he: “When in doubt, pray. You may offer a foolish prayer, a selfish prayer, a sentimental prayer, a prayer that God cannot answer as you want it answered, or a prayer that God must not answer -- but don’t let any scruples of this sort stop you from praying. You are God’s child in God’s world, and God loves you and longs for you more than you have ever wanted him in your life.”
We must not put away our trust in God if he denies us the kind of special privileged answer which we may seek in our prayers. A British clergyman remarked that he felt sure God had answered the prayers of British soldiers in giving them cloudy weather for the escape across the channel for Dunqurke. Whereupon a soldier asked pointedly why God had not given the British the kind of weather that would have stopped the Germans from driving them to Dunqurke!
Let us not be so crude as to think that “a minute a day will keep trouble away.” Let us pray rather that our loved ones shall be able to perform their duty free from craven fear; that it may be given to all of us to know what Jesus meant when he said, “Fear not them that kill the body and have no more that they can do.” [Matthew 10: 28].
I believe that we ought to pray for our country. Let us pray that her noblest ideals may be realized, her best traditions kept, her finest purposes fulfilled. Let us pray for purified motives and purposes and acts. Let us pray for the chance to do what as a nation we have heretofore neglected to do to improve the security of all the nations with whom we dwell. Let us pray that God will give our leaders and our forces the wisdom, courage and power to bring the conflict to a right conclusion - and the insight to know what is a right conclusion.
It is reported, reliably I think, that occasionally a Christian Japanese soldier will show up at a Chinese Christian Church to worship, and that he is welcomed. Chinese Christians have been praying for Japanese Christians; and Japanese Christians for Chinese Christians throughout these terrible five years of destruction.
The new Archbishop of Canterbury gives us food for deep thought when he says, “If we pray as Christ taught us, we will pray in perfect unity on both sides of the battlefront. I would propose as a test of our discipleship in prayer, to ask whether a patriotic German Christian could join us in prayer.” Perhaps that spirit contributes much to the British tenacity in holding out against the evil aggression that is not Christian.
Bishop Gore, of Oxford, England, led his people to the throne of grace, in the last World War, with this prayer which I commend to your consideration: “Give thy blessing, O Father, to the people of that great and far land with whose rulers we are at war. Strengthen the hands of the wise and just who follow charity, and look for justice and freedom among them as among us. Relieve and comfort the anxious, the bereaved, the sick and tormented, and all the pale host of sufferers among them as among us. Reward the patience, industry, loving-kindness and simplicity of the common people, and of men of honest and good heart among them as among us. Help us to use our present afflictions which come from us and not from Thee that we may build on the ruins of our evil past and form a lasting peace wherein the nations may live together in trust and fellowship, following in all things the standard of the Son of Man whom we have denied and put to shame and crucified afresh upon the Calvary of our battleground.”
You and I can repeat that prayer in sixty seconds. Perhaps we can hardly learn it in a lifetime. But may not that be the spirit in which we must pray now and always?
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Dates and places delivered:
Wisconsin Rapids, July 19, 1942