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Eighth
Lesson
"Because of His
Importunity" Or,
The Boldness of God's
Friends.
"And He said unto them,
Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at
midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a
friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to
set before him and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise
and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him
because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity
he will rise and give him as many as he needeth."
-Luke 11:5-8
...he will rise and give him as many as he
needeth.
The first teaching to His
disciples was given by our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. It was near
a year later that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
In
answer He gave them a second time the Lord's Prayer, so teaching them what
to pray. He then speaks of how they ought to pray, and
repeats what he formerly said of God's Fatherliness and the certainty of
an answer. But in between He adds the beautiful parable of the friend at
midnight, to teach them the two fold lesson, that God does not only want
us to pray for ourselves, but for the perishing around us, and that in
such intercession great boldness of entreaty is often needful, and
always lawful, yea, pleasing to God.
...the perseverance that takes no
refusal...
The parable is a perfect
storehouse of instruction in regard to true intercession. There is,
first, the love which seeks to help the needy around us: my
friend is come to me. Then the need which urges to the
cry I have nothing to set before him. Then follows the
confidence that help is to be had: which of you shall have a friend,
and say, Friend, lend me three loaves. Then comes the
unexpected refusal: I cannot rise and give thee.
Then again the perseverance that takes no refusal: because of his
importunity. And lastly, the reward of such prayer: he will give him as many as he needeth. A wonderful setting
forth of the way of prayer and faith in which the blessing of God has so
often been sought and found.
Let us confine ourselves to the
chief thought: prayer as an appeal to the friendship of God; and we
shall find that two lessons are specially suggested.
The one, that if we
are God's friends, and come as such to Him, we must prove ourselves the
friends of the needy; God's friendship to us and ours to others go hand
in hand. The other, that when we come thus we may use the utmost liberty
in claiming an answer.
...the higher, the true glory of prayer, for which Christ has taken
us into His fellowship and teaching, is intercession...
There is a twofold use of
prayer: the one, to obtain strength and blessing for our own life; the
other, the higher, the true glory of prayer, for which Christ has taken
us into His fellowship and teaching, is intercession, where prayer is
the royal power a child of God exercises in heaven on behalf of others
and even of the kingdom. We see it in Scripture, how it was in
intercession for others that Abraham and Moses, Samuel and Elijah, with
all the holy men of old, proved that they had power with God and
prevailed.
It is when we give ourselves to be a blessing that we can
specially count on the blessing of God.
It is when we draw near to God
as the friend of the poor and the perishing that we may count on His
friendliness; the righteous man who is the friend of the poor is very
specially the friend of God. This gives wonderful liberty in prayer.
Lord! I have a needy friend whom I must help. As a friend I have
undertaken to help him. In Thee I have a Friend, whose kindness and
riches I know to be infinite: I am sure Thou wilt give me what I ask.
If
I, being evil, am ready to do for my friend what I can, how much more
wilt Thou, O my heavenly Friend, now do for Thy friend what he asks?
Ye are my friends if ye do
whatsoever I command you.
The question might suggest
itself, whether the Fatherhood of God does not give such confidence in
prayer, that the thought of His Friendship can hardly teach us anything
more: a father is more than a friend.
And yet, if we consider it,
this pleading the friendship of God opens new wonders to us. That a
child obtains what he asks of his father looks so perfectly natural, we
almost count it the father's duty to give. But with a friend it is as if
the kindness is more free, dependent, not on nature, but on sympathy and
character. And then the relation of a child is more that of perfect
dependence; two friends are more nearly on a level. And so our Lord, in
seeking to unfold to us the spiritual mystery of prayer, would fain have
us approach God in this relation too, as those whom He has acknowledged
as His friends, whose mind and life are in sympathy with His.
But then we must be living as
His friends. I am still a child even when a wanderer; but
friendship depends upon the conduct. Ye are my friends if ye do
whatsoever I command you. Thou seest that faith wrought with his
works, and by works was faith made perfect; and the scripture was
fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and he was called the
friend of God.
It is a life as the friend of
God that gives the wonderful liberty to say: I have a friend to whom I
can go even at midnight.
It is the Spirit, the same
Spirit, that
leads us that also bears witness to our acceptance with God; likewise,
also, the same Spirit helpeth us in prayer. It is a life as the friend of
God that gives the wonderful liberty to say: I have a friend to whom I
can go even at midnight. And how much more when I go in the very spirit
of that friendliness, manifesting myself the very kindness I look for in
God, seeking to help my friend as I want God to help me. When I come to
God in prayer, He always looks to what the aim is of my petition. If it
be merely for my own comfort or joy I seek His grace, I do not receive.
But if I can say that it is that He may be glorified in my dispensing
His blessings to others, I shall not ask in vain.
Or if I ask for
others, but want to wait until God has made me so rich, that it is no
sacrifice or act of faith to aid them, I shall not obtain. But if I can
say that I have already undertaken for my needy friend, that in my
poverty I have already begun the work of love, because I know I had a
friend Who would help me, my prayer will be heard. Oh, we know not how
much the plea avails: the friendship of earth looking in its need to the
friendship of heaven: He will give him as much as he needeth.
But not always at once. The one
thing by which man can honour and enjoy his God is faith.
...what the mighty power is they can wield in
heaven, if they do but set themselves to it.
Intercession is part of faith's training-school. There our friendship
with men and with God is tested. There it is seen whether my friendship
with the needy is so real, that I will take time and sacrifice my rest,
will go even at midnight and not cease until I have obtained for them
what I need. There it is seen whether my friendship with God is so
clear, that I can depend on Him not to turn me away and therefore pray
on until He gives.
O what a deep heavenly mystery
this is of persevering prayer. The God who has promised, who longs,
whose fixed purpose it is to give the blessing, holds it back. It is to
Him a matter of such deep importance that His friends on earth should
know and fully trust their rich Friend in heaven, that He trains them,
in the school of answer delayed, to find out how their perseverance
really does prevail, and what the mighty power is they can wield in
heaven, if they do but set themselves to it. There is a faith that sees
the promise, and embraces it, and yet does not receive it.
It is in this trial that the faith
that has embraced the promise is purified and strengthened and prepared
in personal, holy fellowship with the living God, to see the glory of
God.
It is when
the answer to prayer does not come, and the promise we are most firmly
trusting appears to be of none effect, that the trial of faith, more
precious than of gold, takes place. It is in this trial that the faith
that has embraced the promise is purified and strengthened and prepared
in personal, holy fellowship with the living God, to see the glory of
God. It takes and holds the promise until it has received the fulfillment
of what it had claimed in a living truth in the unseen but living God.
Let each child of God who is
seeking to work the work of love in his Father's service take courage.
The parent with his child, the teacher with his class, the visitor with
his district, the Bible reader with his circle, the preacher with his
hearers, each one who, in his little circle, has accepted and is bearing
the burden of hungry, perishing souls, let them all take courage.
Nothing is at first so strange to us as that God should really require
persevering prayer...
Nothing is at first so strange to us as that God should really require
persevering prayer, that there should be a real spiritual needs-be for
importunity. To teach it us, the Master uses this almost strange
parable. If the unfriendliness of a selfish earthly friend can be
conquered by importunity, how much more will it avail with the heavenly
Friend, who does so love to give, but is held back by our spiritual
unfitness, our incapacity to possess what He has to give.
O let us thank
Him that in delaying His answer He is educating us up to our true
position and the exercise of all our power with Him, training us to live
with Him in the fellowship of undoubting faith and trust, to be indeed
the friends of God. And let us hold fast the threefold cord that cannot
be broken: the hungry friend needing the help, and the praying friend
seeking the help, and the Mighty Friend, loving to give as much as he
needeth.
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LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY.
O my Blessed Lord and Teacher!
I must come to Thee in prayer. Thy teaching is so glorious, and yet too
high for me to grasp. I must confess that my heart is too little to take
in these thoughts of the wonderful boldness I may use with Thy Father as
my Friend. Lord Jesus! I trust Thee to give me Thy Spirit with Thy Word,
and to make the Word quick and powerful in my heart. I desire to keep
Thy Word of this day: Because of his importunity he will give him as
many as he needeth.
He has made the dispensing of His gift
dependent on our prayer.
Lord! teach me more to know the
power of persevering prayer. I know that in it the Father suits Himself
to our need of time for the inner life to attain its growth and
ripeness, so that His grace may indeed be assimilated and made our very
own. I know that He would fain thus train us to the exercise of that
strong faith that does not let Him go even in the face of seeming
disappointment. I know He wants to lift us to that wonderful liberty, in
which we understand how really He has made the dispensing of His gift
dependent on our prayer. Lord! I know this: O teach me to see it in
spirit and truth.
And may it now be the joy of my
life to become the almoner of my Rich Friend in heaven, to care for all
the hungry and perishing, even at midnight, because I know My Friend,
who always gives to him who perseveres, because of his importunity, as
many as he needeth. Amen.
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Text
is in the Public Domain.
Candle Photo, Logo, & Layout: Copyright © 2002 S.G.P. All rights reserved.
Next Andrew Murray Index Next Topic
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Andrew Murray
1828-1917
Author of over 250 books,
he was the minister at the Dutch Reformed Church of
Wellington (South Africa) from 1871 to 1906, and lived there until his
death in 1917.
This statue of Andrew Murray was
erected in Wellington in 1923.
His vision for winning Africa
for Christ led him beyond the borders of Wellington. Missionaries from
Wellington penetrated into the heart of Africa.
He was a
proponent and at the forefront in founding schools both of education for
girls, and of Higher Education for women.
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Copyright
© 2002 S.G.P. All
rights reserved.
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Andrew
Murray
With
Christ
In
the School
of Prayer:
