Luke 18:1

‘PRAY, ALWAYS PRAY’

‘Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.’

Luke 18:1

I. The reality of prayer.—God’s mighty men have been men steeped in prayer. There are some in this church who can look back and remember instances when in trouble they have kneeled down to pray, and have known that they have been heard. The burden of responsibility has been lifted from their shoulders, and they have gained peace—the peace which God alone can give.

II. The reflex influence of prayer.—We are to put our trouble into words just as if He did not know anything about it, and while we are telling Him all about it we are telling ourselves that He knows all about it, and the time that we spend in telling Him what He already knows is not badly spent, as one might think. One might call this telling of our trouble the reflex influence which prayer has on us. There are certain things which we cannot tell to our fellow-men; they would not understand us if we did; and there are certain things so secret that we cannot tell them to our neighbour. In telling these things to God we become conscious that there is Someone to sympathise with us, Who knows all about us, and can feel for us. The Christian life should be one long act of prayer. We may live out our days in His presence. We may pray about everything. It is as possible to pray as it is to read, and write, and walk. We often say of a thing that we are thinking of and waiting for, that we are working at it night and day. That does not mean that we never rest, but that we give all our time and thoughts to it; and it is just the same with prayer. ‘Men ought always to pray.’

III. Desire a condition of prayer.—Desire is a condition of prayer—‘Whatever ye desire believe that ye shall receive,’ etc. How many pray and lack desire! How many men come to church and say, ‘Lord, keep me from sin,’ and all the time they are indulging in some besetting sin; who as soon as they go out walk into the temptation; who say, ‘Lord, set my thoughts on things above,’ and all the time they are setting their thoughts on making what they call their ‘pile’! Our prayers will not be efficacious until our desires go with them.

Rev. J. Pullein-Thompson.

Illustration

‘When Martin Luther was wrestling with a man’s sin, he used to say, “I have spent three hours of the day in prayer”; and when Abraham Lincoln was in trouble he said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go; my own wisdom and the wisdom of all those around me seemed useless, and so I was driven to prayer.” ’