Confidence in Prayer by Augusta C. Bainbridge

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 24, 1911

Confidence in Prayer

By Augusta C. Bainbridge

IT seems as if man's need and God's abundant supply should unite and form a perfect whole; but just here came sin, the fall, and the curse; and man needed a Saviour. So a way was opened for man to choose God's will, and let God give him according to His own holy desire, or to choose his own will, and thus hinder God from giving him the beautiful things He has for him.

A communicating door was opened, a ladder let down, an invitation given; and man was told that God's plan for him was yet to be fulfilled. God will not be disappointed, and He will not disappoint His children. "For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation." The meek will receive the invitation, and all that it includes. Here we find prayer.

While in prayer, we may tell the Lord of our needs, yet we must realize that this does not inform Him. He knows our needs as we know them; and yet, infinitely beyond this He sees deeper needs, that we, perhaps, do not know at all.

While in prayer, we may ask the Lord for what we desire, according to the best of our knowledge, and yet fall far short of the real desire that He is longing to have us express. He can not give us things which are not good; and He would have us know His will, that we may ask for the things He has in His plan for us.

The Spirit of God knows the mind of God; and may we not listen to the Spirit, and thus learn what to ask for that it will please God to grant? Just as earthly parents are grieved to be obliged to say "No" to their children, so our Father is grieved when we ask Him for things He must refuse to give. The desire of the Lord is that we may have "Christ formed within," the heavenly character developed, the divine nature partaken of; and all that may come into our lives must yield or bend to that one aim, that one end. So when we ask for things which would hinder that beautiful purpose, the answer must be "No."

If we are willing, tho ignorant, patiently, step by step, to choose His way, the Lord will lead us, until we lose the desire that once filled our minds, and let His desire bear sway. Then shall we understand Ps. 37:4: "He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Not that He will gratify all our ignorant or foolish wishes, but He will teach us to abide in Him, then we shall have His desires. Our prayers will then all be in harmony with His will, and hence be answered as both He and we desire. Nothing in earth or heaven can hinder the fulfilling of God's will in a submissive heart; hence nothing can hinder the answers to such prayers as these. Then prayer, by faith, will be praise.

Sometimes, looking beyond, to blessings greatly to be desired, we ask our Father for that which we are in no condition to receive; so He must reply, "Wait a while, My child; you are not ready yet." Hence there are no unanswered prayers, for "No" and "Wait" are answers just as truly and as lovingly given as "Yes."