MR. MOODY ON PRAYER

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 7, 1878

MR. MOODY ON PRAYER.

There are eight aspects of prayer. In prayer there ought to be, first of all, adoration. A man cannot rush into the presence of the eternal, the great and holy God. When we go into his presence we ought to go with adoration. In that prayer which Christ taught his disciples, he commences, “Hallowed be thy name.” Isaiah, when he saw God in vision, heard the words, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God.” In the seventeenth chapter of John, we find Christ, amid that wonderful prayer when he prayed for all men, even down here in this century, saying, “Holy Father.” So that is one of the elements of prayer, that when we pray, we should be careful that we hallow God’s name, and then he will bless us.

The next thought that I want to call your attention to is the confession of sins. Some people seem to think that when they were first converted their sins were all put away, and that they will never have to wipe out further sins by confession. The Bible makes provision for the remission of believers’ sins, and if I cover my sins, God will not hear and answer my prayer, and I am not going to prosper in any way. Just this, I believe, is the reason why so many cannot receive and do not receive answers to prayer: they have some sin covered up somewhere. If I hide my sin, God says he will not hear my prayer.

In the first epistle of John, first chapter, ninth verse, are these words: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness;” and again, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” You will find through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and indeed the whole of the Old Testament, that it was when the people came near to God and confessed their sins that God put away their sin. When David came in repentance to the confession, “I have sinned,” then God forgave him. When the prodigal came to the contrite confession, “I have sinned against Heaven,” God blessed him from Heaven; he did not get the blessing until the confession came. We must then confess our sins. I think we are living in the days of sham; we may make pretense, but we do not confess all our sins. If my boy had done wrong, I would do him injustice to forgive him till he had made a clean breast of it. My friends, let us make clean work of it with our God. Let us not cover up anything, and then God will hear and answer.

Following confession, we must make restitution. Make restitution, if you want power in prayer, and God to bless you. There is no use confessing your sin if you do not make restitution. A question came up when talking about confession of sins. Can it be that I am going back to the Confessional, to priestly absolution, and all that? There are some sins that need to be confessed to the church. If I have sinned publicly and brought a scandal on the cause of Christ, I ought to confess publicly. If the offense is against my neighbor, I ought to confess to him, and other sins I ought to confess to God in private. Some may say, “If I have taken money from my employer, must I go personally, openly disgrace my wife, my family, and myself?” I do not say so; you might do it through a third party; only make confession and restitution, and see if the Lord does not hear and answer prayer. God has never failed to answer prayer when made aright; the reason why prayers are not answered is, there is something wrong in our hearts.

The next condition is, to be thankful. What would you think of the child that was never thankful for anything done for it? We know there is nothing like ingratitude. How we turn from ungrateful people who have abused our kindness, and betrayed our confidence and friendship. That is a hateful sin.

Paul says in Phil. 4:6: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” It does us good to thank God for the blessings we have. Some people always look on the dark side instead of on the bright. Nearly all Paul’s epistles open with a note of thanksgiving. In Philippians he says: “I thank my God on every remembrance of you.” He forgot all about the stripes he received down there.

Then there is unity. As I look over the field, I see differences enough among Christians to make one weep—little differences and bickerings and wranglings—oh, so pitiable! and just like dust in the balance. Do not let us stop to bicker about little differences, let’s be united, and go up to the help of the Lord against the mighty enemy. Where there is unity, there is power—must always be.

The next thing we want is the spirit of forgiveness. It is folly for a man to preach who has a rankling in his heart against any one. The spirit of the gospel is forgiveness, and we shall have power, every one of us, when that spirit is in our hearts. In the sermon on the mount Christ says, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” That is pretty plain. How can I ask God to forgive ten thousand sins if I won’t forgive my neighbor one? I beseech you, if you have any bad feelings, do not let the sun go down till the matter is straightened.

Then we have petition. When we have met all these conditions, we come and make our petitions. The modern philosopher says the laws of God are fixed, and it’s no use to pray. I told one of these men lately that I had received answers to prayer. “Well,” said he, “you have a glorious imagination.” I said, “I won’t admit that it is not something beside imagination. I know it is.” “Oh, yes,” he replied, “prayer is a very healthful exercise; it tones you down and makes you more submissive to God’s will; but God doesn’t answer prayer.” And yet God says, “Ask and ye shall receive,” but he doesn’t mean it, according to these modern scientists. It’s just a healthy exercise to keep on asking.

When darkness comes in like a flood on our souls, and God seems afar off, and seems to shut his ear, let us not doubt that we have failed to comply with his conditions, that we have not approached him in adoration, in confession, in all the ways of his appointment.

Lastly, there is submission. When Christ found that the cup could not be taken away from him, he cried, “Not my will but thine be done.” After making our wants known unto God, we have just to leave the matter with him. In his own good time, perhaps not as we hoped or thought, he will answer; for he is a covenant-keeping God, and his words shall not return unto him void. Let us only approach him in his appointed way,—through adoration, confession, restitution, thanksgiving, unity, forgiveness, petition, submission.