Magyar Egyház, 1955 (34. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
1955-03-01 / 3. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 11 ENGLISH SECTION CAN WE REALLY GET WHAT WE PRAY FOR? A sermon for the World Day of Prayer, by the Rev. Charles W. Krahe, Reformed minister, pastor of St. Paul’s Evangelical Church, Perth Amboy, New Jersey. John 15:7, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” On the World Day of Prayer, when in cities and towns all over the world, Protestant church women will gather in great public prayer meetings, thousands of good prayers will be prepared and offered to God. How many of them will be answered? The believing Christian will reply, All of them will be answered. God answers prayer. Very good. You have faith, and faith will remove mountains. But what I really want to know is, How many of the prayers uttered on the World Day of Prayer will be answered by the actual occurance of the event prayed for? Now even the most faithful will waver and seek refuge in such a statement as this: “God answers prayer, not always as we expect, but as is best for us and for His Kingdom.” This is true, of course. But somehow or other, it does not measure up to the many accounts of successful prayer requests we find in the Bible. And it does not fully agree with the words of Jesus, which we find in John 15:7, “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” How can we get these words of Jesus to work for us? How can we get what we pray for, as He promised? How can our World Day of Prayer become more than just another prayer meeting? How can it become a great force for the conversion of the world, and the advance of the Kingdom of God? The answer to our questions is to be found in the same verse in which such successful prayer is promised. Jesus makes a condition before He makes a promise: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,” THEN, “ye shall ask” — or perhaps the imperative mood is better, “ask!” — “ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” In other words, Union with Christ is the indispensible condition of successful praying. I. What is this union with Christ of which this text speaks? What does it mean to “abide” in Him? We find the key to the meaning of this condition in the parable of the Vine, in which this text is imbedded. In this parable, Christ compares Himself to the vine and us to the branches of the vine. It is obvious, therefore, that permanence is certainly one characteristic of this “abiding” in Christ which is the condition of successful prayer. The branch cannot live unless it stays always connected with the vine, and we certainly do not abide in Christ unless our relationship to Him is a permanent one. Too many Christian blow hot and cold in their religion. A funeral or a wedding in the family, or elction to office in a church society, brings on a sudden spurt of religious activity, but soon the ardor cools, and the person lapses back into easy inactivity. Some practice religion on festival days only, or on Sundays, but it is not a regular part of their lives. Unless Christ comes first always, in everything, we are certainly not abiding in Him, and we cannot expect to pray successfully. Another aspect of abiding in union with Christ, suggested by the parable of the vine, is cleanliness. The branches of the grape vine often develop “suckers” or wild shoots, which, unless they are pruned, will take away all the strength of the branch itself. So if we would really abide in Christ, we must allow ourselves to be pruned of the cares and sins of the world. Christ promises to do this for us by His Word, but we must be careful to hear and obey, if we are to abide in Him, so as to have the answer to our prayers. Again, fruitfulness is required of every branch that is allowed to remain on the vine, and fruitfulness is also demanded of us, if we are to abide in Christ. Without works of thankfulness in the service of our Redeemer, we cannot claim to be united to Him. Without union with Him, we cannot ask what we will, and expect it do be done unto us. II. So far we have spoken of union with Christ only from the aspect of what we can do to “abide in Him.” But there is another aspect to the matter, even more important: He must abide in us, or, as our text puts it, His words must abide in us. Actually, this comes before our abiding in Him. We cannot abide in Christ with that permanence that true faith allows, unless His Spirit “works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel, and confirms it by the use of the sacraments.” (Heidelberg Catchism, question 65.) In short, union with Christ, abiding in Him, is a close and intimate fellowship with our Redeemer, in which we partake of His lifegiving grace day by day, as we pray to Him, and serve Him, and live with Him in the Holy Spirit. And this is the condition upon which we may begin to pray successfully. If we abide in Christ, and His words abide in us, our prayers will no longer be formal affairs, coming out of the often confused heart of a sinful man. They will be calling down upon ourselves those good things which the Father already has in mind to give to us, His children. Beloved in the Lord, “men ought always to pray, and not to faint,” we are told in the New Testament (Luke 18:1). We must not cease praying, because we do not yet live in such intimate fellowship with Christ as really successful prayer requires. But neither should we rest satisfied with uncertainty and doubt in our prayer life, when Christ has shown us the way to claim such a wonderful promise, to ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. “Lord, teach us to pray!” (Luke 11:1)
