We are sure to have our prayers answered, if it is right that they should be answered. Sometimes, even the Lord’s people ask for things which it would not be for God’s glory to give, nor for their profit to receive, if you should tell your child you would give him anything he liked ask for, you would not for a moment suppose that you included in the promise any absurd request he might make. Suppose he should! ask you for a dose of arsenic, suppose he should request you to kill him, would you fulfill your promise? Certainly not. You would Say, “My child, I love you too well to listen to the ravings of your madness; I desire your good too much to grant your absurd request, and I cannot hearken to you. God says the same: “‘Call upon me, and I will answer you,’ but I will not always answer you as you wish to be answered. If you ask for a thing which is not fit for you to receive, I will give you something better. I will not give you that very thing; I will hear your prayers, but I will not give you exactly what you ask for, but I will grant you something infinitely superior to the thing itself.”
It would be a sad thing if God always heard our prayers, and gave us just what we asked of him. If he always gave us the exact thing we asked for, we should ruin ourselves. You may have heard the story of a woman who had a child who was very ill; and when her pastor called, to see her, she asked him to pray for the child’s life, and in the prayer he very properly said, “O Lord, spare this child’s life, if it be thy will.” The mother interrupted him, and said, “No, I cannot have it so; this child must live. I want you to pray to God that the child may live whether God wills it or no.” The minister said, “Woman, you will have cause to tremble on account of this petition. If you ask such a thing as this of God, there will be a curse upon it.” Nevertheless, the prayer was prayed; and, twenty years afterwards, that woman, with an aching heart, saw her son riding in a cart to Tyburn, where he was going to be hanged. Better would it have been for him and also for her that he had perished at the breast, and be carried to an untimely grave, than that he should send her grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. God, therefore, makes this very kind reservation that, if we ask for ask for absurd things, things which would not be for our profit, he will not grant them.
But the question is put to me again, “Sir, if I ask for a thing which is obviously a good thing, which is most assuredly for my profit, may I be certain, after I have aaked in prayer for that thing, that I shall have it?” Once more, I must ask another question. Have you yet learned the heavenly art of believing God? Because, you may be a Christian, you may believe in Christ enough for your soul’s salvation; but you may be so small a Christian that you have never yet attained the mountain height of belief in all your Lord has uttered. And, mark you, the promise of an answer to our prayers is only given to our faith. The Lord Jesus Christ put it thus to his disciples: “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Now, if you go on your knees in prayer, and ask God for anything, and do not believe that he will give it to you, it may come in God’s extraordinary bounty, but it will not come in answer to your prayer. Your prayers shall be answered in proportion to your faith; so, if you believe, and ask for a thing at is for your good and God’s glory, you will have it as surely as the promise is a promise and God is God. I have talked with many Christians, and some of my aged friends have talked with far more than I have, but both they and myself can bear witness that we have never yet met with any Christian that could charge God with breaking his promise. We have met with many who have been far from having the faith they ought to have, but we have never discovered one go faithless to God as to charge him with not answering the prayer that was stamped with believing. Whenever there is faith, there will be the answer to the prayer of faith; you will never hear a Christian deny that truth.
It was my privilege, some two years ago, where at Bristol, to visit the Orphan house of Mr. Muller, and I never saw a more striking or startling exhibition of the power of faith than I did there. Mr. Muller supports three hundred orphan children on no resources but his own faith and prayer. When he needs anything, he calls them together, offers supplication to God, and asks that necessaries may be supplied; and, although there are three hundred to be fed, to be clothed, and to be housed, and though they have often been brought so low that there has not been a farthing in their coffers, nor a handful of meal in their barrel, when mealtime has come, there has always been abundance of bread in the house in answer to prayer. I shall never forget my interview with that holy man of God. Some gentleman said to me, “I wish you would ask Mr. Muller a question or two, if you see him, as to the foundation of a new Orphan House which he proposes to build to hold seven hundred more children.. Now, I feel that three hundred is quite enough for one man to care for; I think it is very absurd for him to have seven hundred more; he will never be able to support a thousand. AS to the preset Institution, I believe that generous persons hear about it, and send him subscriptions for it maintenance; but as to his supporting seven hundred more orphans, that is impossible.” I replied, “I think there is something in what you say. I will ask him when I see him.” But when I saw him, I could not, and dare not, ask him any such questions; and when I saw what a great work he had done by his faith, and began to remark upon it, he said, “Oh! it is only a little thing that I have done; faith could do far more thou that. If it were God’s will that I should feed the universe on prayer and faith, I could do ft. If I had more faith, it could be accomplished.” I was just going to say that, possibly, a thousand orphans would be more than he could support, when he said, “When I got three hundred children, I began to pray God to send me money to build an Orphan House to hold seven hundred more; and I have already £17,000 sent in for it, although I have never solicited a contribution from anybody but the Lord. I believe God has made me to be here, to be to the world, a proof that he hears and answers prayer.” I thought so, too, when I saw that huge building, and the many dear children rising up to praise their God, and singing so sweetly in honor of the good Shepherd, who had gathered them like lambs to his bosom, and had gently folded them there.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
