p. 469 | Specific Prayer

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 7, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 30.

Specific Prayer.

GOD does more than to give general assurance of a willingness to hear prayer, and to relieve human want. He makes mention of specific blessings, which he is ready to bestow. These more minute pledges are in various forms of promise, prophecy, covenant, and command. A promise is a direct engagement; a covenant is a still more formal and solemn act, usually accompanied by a seal; a prophecy is a statement of divine purpose, intended for our encouragement in prayer and labor; and a command always implies a result which God is willing to aid us in securing. It is only necessary, then, to ascertain that the desired favor is covered by some promise, covenant, prophecy, or command, to have a perfect warrant for faith that, in answer to prayer, God will bestow that very thing. One could not ask for a better ground of assurance.

“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!”

We are entitled to claim, at God’s hand, whatever he has been pleased graciously to promise. And so our prayers may and should have the characteristic of perfect faith, that they will be literally answered according to the blessing asked.

Are these specific pledges numerous? Do they cover the ground of our usual necessities? Will they impart an element of certainty to our prayers, in the emergencies which men are often called to face? An affirmative reply to these questions is authorized by the language of Scripture. For we find in the Bible promises to the righteous of protection, deliverance, food, raiment, wisdom, guidance, sustaining grace, reward for industry and beneficence, and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit as a guaranty of peace, holiness, and usefulness. The prayer of faith uses these divine assurances as a sufficient ground of conviction that God will aid in the emergency to which any of these promises apply, according to the exigency of the case. The man feels that he can pray with an accompanying certainty of being heard. It is not now so much an occasion of submission, as of grateful expectation. God here has made known his will, in advance. The true submission to it is, to take him at his word, and joyfully to claim what he has authorized us to ask. Not to do so, is a distrust of him, as well as a robbery of our own souls. It is as though a poor man should neglect to present a benefactor’s check at the bank, fearing that it might not mean what it said on its face, or might for some cause not be paid. As such lack of confidence is grievous to our heavenly Father, so a firm faith is his delight.—Prayer and Its Answers.