Part 3 (2/2)
CHAPTER VI
Restraining Prayer: is it Sin?
”Thou restrainest prayer before G.o.d.”--JOB xv. 4.
”What profit should we have, if we pray unto Him?”--JOB xxi. 15.
”G.o.d forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.”--1 SAM. xii. 23.
”Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.”--JOSH. vii. 12.
Any deep quickening of the spiritual life of the Church will always be accompanied by a deeper sense of sin. This will not begin with theology; that can only give expression to what G.o.d works in the life of His people. Nor does it mean that that deeper sense of sin will only be seen in stronger expressions of self-reproach or penitence: that is sometimes found to consist with a harbouring of sin, and unbelief as to deliverance. But the true sense of the hatefulness of sin, the hatred of it, will be proved by the intensity of desire for deliverance, and the struggle to know to the very utmost what G.o.d can do in saving from it--a holy jealousy, in nothing to sin against G.o.d.
If we are to deal effectually with the lack of prayer we must look at it from this point of view and ask, Restraining prayer, is it sin? And if it be, how is it to be dealt with, to be discovered, and confessed, and cast out by man, and cleansed away by G.o.d? Jesus is a Saviour from sin.
It is only as we know sin truly that we can truly know the power that saves from sin. The life that can pray effectually is the life of the cleansed branch--the life that knows deliverance from the power of self.
To see that our prayer-sins are indeed sins, is the first step to a true and Divine deliverance from them.
In the story of Achan we have one of the strongest proofs in Scripture that it is sin that robs G.o.d's people of His blessing, and that G.o.d will not tolerate it; and at the same time the clearest indication of the principles under which G.o.d deals with it, and removes it. Let us see in the light of the story if we can learn how to look at the sin of prayerlessness, and at the sinfulness that lies at the root of it. The words I have quoted above, ”Neither will I be with you any more, except ye put away the accursed thing from among you,” take us into the very heart of the story, and suggest a series of the most precious lessons around the truth they express, that the presence of sin makes the presence of G.o.d impossible.
1. _The presence of G.o.d is the great privilege of G.o.d's people, and their only power against the enemy._--G.o.d had promised to Moses, _I will bring you in_ unto the land. Moses proved that he understood this when G.o.d, after the sin of the golden calf, spoke of withdrawing His presence and sending an angel. He refused to accept anything less than G.o.d's presence. ”For whereby shall it be known that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not that _Thou goest with us_?” It was this gave Caleb and Joshua their confidence: The Lord is with us. It was this gave Israel their victory over Jericho: the presence of G.o.d. This is throughout Scripture the great central promise: I am with thee. This marks off the whole-hearted believer from the worldling and worldly Christians around him: he lives consciously hidden in the secret of G.o.d's presence.
2. _Defeat and failure are always owing to the loss of G.o.d's presence._--It was thus at Ai. G.o.d had brought His people into Canaan with the promise to give them the land. When the defeat at Ai took place Joshua felt at once that the cause must be in the withdrawal of G.o.d's power. He had not fought for them. His presence had been withheld.
In the Christian life and the work of the Church, defeat is ever a sign of the loss of G.o.d's presence. If we apply this to our failure in the prayer-life, and as a result of that to our failure in work for G.o.d, we are led to see that all is simply owing to our not standing in clear and full fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d. His nearness, His immediate presence, has not been the chief thing sought after and trusted in. He could not work in us as He would. Loss of blessing and power is ever caused by the loss of G.o.d's presence.
3. _The loss of G.o.d's presence is always owing to some hidden sin._--Just as pain is ordered in nature to warn of some hidden evil in the system, defeat is G.o.d's voice telling us there is something wrong.
He has given Himself so wholly to His people, He delights so in being with them, and would so fain reveal in them His love and power, that He never withdraws Himself unless they compel Him by sin.
Throughout the Church there is a complaint of defeat. The Church has so little power over the ma.s.ses, or the educated cla.s.ses. Powerful conversions are comparatively rare. The fewness of holy, consecrated, spiritual Christians, devoted to the service of G.o.d and their fellowmen, is felt everywhere. The power of the Church for the preaching of the gospel to the heathen is paralysed by the scarcity of money and men; and all owing to the lack of the effectual prayer which brings the Holy Spirit in power, first on ministers and believers, then on missionaries and the heathen. Can we deny it that the lack of prayer is the sin on account of which G.o.d's presence and power are not more manifestly seen among us?
4. _G.o.d Himself will discover the hidden sin._--We may think we know what the sin is: it is only G.o.d who can discover its real deep meaning.
When He spoke to Joshua, before naming the sin of Achan, G.o.d first said, ”They have transgressed My covenant which I commanded them.” G.o.d had commanded (vi. 19) that all the booty of Jericho, gold and silver and all that was in it, was to be a devoted thing, consecrated unto the Lord, and to come into His treasury. And Israel had broken this consecration vow: it had not given G.o.d His due; it had robbed G.o.d.
It is this we need: G.o.d must discover to us how the lack of prayer is the indication of unfaithfulness to our consecration vow, that G.o.d should have all our heart and life. We must see that this restraining prayer, with the excuses we make for it, is greater sin than we have thought; for what does it mean? That we have little taste or relish for fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d; that our faith rests more on our own work and efforts than on the power of G.o.d; that we have little sense of the heavenly blessing G.o.d waits to shower down; that we are not ready to sacrifice the ease and confidence of the flesh for persevering waiting on G.o.d; that the spirituality of our life, and our abiding in Christ, is altogether too feeble to make us prevail in prayer. When the pressure of work for Christ is allowed to be the excuse for our not finding time to seek and secure His own presence and power in it, as our chief need, it surely proves that there is no right sense of our absolute dependence upon G.o.d; no deep apprehension of the Divine and supernatural work of G.o.d in which we are only His instruments, no true entrance into the heavenly, altogether other-worldly, character of our mission and aims, no full surrender to and delight in Christ Jesus Himself.
If we were to yield to G.o.d's Spirit to show us that all this is in very deed the meaning of remissness in prayer, and of our allowing other things to crowd it out, all our excuses would fall away, and we should fall down and cry, ”We have sinned! we have sinned!” Samuel once said, ”As for me, G.o.d forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.” Ceasing from prayer is sin against G.o.d. May G.o.d discover this to us. (Note A.)
5. _When G.o.d discovers sin, it must be confessed and cast out._--When the defeat at Ai came, Joshua and Israel were ignorant of the cause. G.o.d dealt with Israel as a nation, as one body, and the sin of one member was visited on all. Israel as a whole was ignorant of the sin, and yet suffered for it. The Church may be ignorant of the greatness of this sin of restraining prayer, individual ministers or believers may never have looked upon it as actual transgression, none the less does it bring its punishment. But when the sin is no more hidden, when the Holy Spirit begins to convince of it, then comes the time of heart-searching. In our story the combination of individual and united responsibility is very solemn. The individual: as we find it in the expression, ”man for man”; each man felt himself under the eye of G.o.d, to be dealt with. And when Achan had been taken, he had to make confession. The united: as we see it in all Israel first suffering and dealt with by G.o.d, then taking Achan, and his family, and the accursed thing, and destroying them out of their midst.
If we have reason to think this is the sin that is in the camp, let us begin with personal and united confession. And then let us come before G.o.d to put away and destroy the sin. Here stands at the very threshold of Israel's history in Canaan the heap of stones in the valley of Achor, to tell us that G.o.d cannot bear sin, that G.o.d will not dwell with sin, and that if _we really want G.o.d's presence in power, sin must be put away_. Let us look the solemn fact in the face. There may be other sins, but here is certainly one that causes the loss of G.o.d's presence--we do not pray as Christ and Scripture teach us. Let us bring it out before G.o.d, and give up this sin to the death. Let us yield ourselves to G.o.d to obey His voice. Let no fear of past failure, let no threatening array of temptations, or duties, or excuses, keep us back. It is a simple question of obedience. Are we going to give up ourselves to G.o.d and His Spirit to live a life in prayer, well-pleasing to Him? Surely, if it is G.o.d who has been withholding His presence, who has been discovering the sin, who is calling for its destruction, and a return to obedience, surely we can count upon His grace to accept and strengthen for the life He asks of us. It is not a question of what you can do; it is the question of whether you now, with your whole heart, turn to give G.o.d His due, and give yourself to let His will and grace have their way with you.
6. _With sin cast out G.o.d's presence is restored._--From this day onwards there is not a word in Joshua of defeat in battle. The story shows them going on from victory to victory. G.o.d's presence secured gives power to overcome every enemy.
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