Post by Shepherd on Dec 2, 2008 8:32:29 GMT -6
PRAYER A GOOD REMEDY IN DESPERATE CASES;
JAMES 5:17-18
“ Elijah PRAYED EARNESTLY THAT IT MIGHT NOT RAIN.”
When God means to bestow blessings, He stirs up the hearts of the people to pray for them. God that decrees the end, decrees the means . Though we are sure of the accomplishment of a blessing, yet we must not give over prayer. God’s children are never more diligent and free in their endeavors than when confident of a blessing; hope is industrious, then we can see action.
Prayer is a good remedy in the most desperate cases, and when you are lost to all other hopes, you are not lost to the hopes of prayer.
The efficacy of prayer is very great. Certainly they that neglect prayer do not only neglect the sweetest way of converse with God, but the most forcible way of prevailing with Him.
There is a mutual dependence and subordination between ministries and supplies; the earth is cherished by the heat of the stars, moistened by the water, and by the temperament of both made fruitful, and so sends forth innumerable plants for the comfort and use of living creatures, and living creatures are for the supply of man.
Why did Elijah pray that IT MIGHT NOT RAIN? Because the whole house of Israel had forsaken God, and he saw that nothing but severe judgments would bring them to penitence and obedience.
Let famine stalk, throughout the lands, let it enter the proudest palaces and the humblest cottages, what a ghastly shadow would it cast over the devotees of Ashtaroth while celebrating her unholy mysteries.
What a blow to the worshipers of Baal, when, at the word of Elijah, there was neither dew nor rain for more than three years, when the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal had so little influence over the powers of nature that they could not bring down one drop of rain, nor one particle of dew, to moisten the parched earth, or to revive the perishing plants and trees.
I. PRAYER IS NATURAL TO MAN.
Here is a mother whose child is dangerously ill, apparently suspended between life and death. What is the use of telling that mother that the life of her child depends on fixed laws, and that therefore , it is sheer ignorance to pray? In her inmost heart she knows the life of her child is in the hands of God, and that her hope is only in :Him.
Here, again, is a farmer, the greater part of whose land is under water, an unless the floods dry up ruin will stare him in the face, if this man believe at all in God, how can he help praying?
But the same God who made the earth and the whole universe also made the man, and wrought into the very texture of his being that belief in the efficacy of prayer.
He will answer prayer in relation to the weather.
God is present in every part of the universe, He is near to every atom of matter throughout infinite space, and He is there able to interfere effectively at any given point, or throughout any given region.. Not by changing the laws which He Himself has ordained, but by working through those laws.
Man cannot “make the clouds his chariot, or walk upon the winds of the wind”; but he can make the winds and the lightning his submissive servants. Nay, more, by cutting down forest and by draining low lands and marshes man has actually changed the climate to large tracts of country. Man controls Nature while acting in harmony with her laws; why, then, may not the omnipotent Creator to do the same?
Read the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, and you can have no doubt as to his opinion upon the subject (I Kings 8:35-36).
Take, again, the case of Elijah. When he prayed, first of all, that “ IT MIGHT NOT RAIN”, and then after wards, when the people repented, that rain might be sent, could he give a stronger proof of his belief in the power of prayer with regard to nature?
Both these men, too, evidently believed that God has reserved to Himself the right of turning nature to moral uses. Further, does not the Bible give many instances in which God used famine as a rod to chastise His people when they reveled against Him, and sent plenty when they
repented.
JAMES 5:17-18
“ Elijah PRAYED EARNESTLY THAT IT MIGHT NOT RAIN.”
When God means to bestow blessings, He stirs up the hearts of the people to pray for them. God that decrees the end, decrees the means . Though we are sure of the accomplishment of a blessing, yet we must not give over prayer. God’s children are never more diligent and free in their endeavors than when confident of a blessing; hope is industrious, then we can see action.
Prayer is a good remedy in the most desperate cases, and when you are lost to all other hopes, you are not lost to the hopes of prayer.
The efficacy of prayer is very great. Certainly they that neglect prayer do not only neglect the sweetest way of converse with God, but the most forcible way of prevailing with Him.
There is a mutual dependence and subordination between ministries and supplies; the earth is cherished by the heat of the stars, moistened by the water, and by the temperament of both made fruitful, and so sends forth innumerable plants for the comfort and use of living creatures, and living creatures are for the supply of man.
Why did Elijah pray that IT MIGHT NOT RAIN? Because the whole house of Israel had forsaken God, and he saw that nothing but severe judgments would bring them to penitence and obedience.
Let famine stalk, throughout the lands, let it enter the proudest palaces and the humblest cottages, what a ghastly shadow would it cast over the devotees of Ashtaroth while celebrating her unholy mysteries.
What a blow to the worshipers of Baal, when, at the word of Elijah, there was neither dew nor rain for more than three years, when the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal had so little influence over the powers of nature that they could not bring down one drop of rain, nor one particle of dew, to moisten the parched earth, or to revive the perishing plants and trees.
I. PRAYER IS NATURAL TO MAN.
Here is a mother whose child is dangerously ill, apparently suspended between life and death. What is the use of telling that mother that the life of her child depends on fixed laws, and that therefore , it is sheer ignorance to pray? In her inmost heart she knows the life of her child is in the hands of God, and that her hope is only in :Him.
Here, again, is a farmer, the greater part of whose land is under water, an unless the floods dry up ruin will stare him in the face, if this man believe at all in God, how can he help praying?
But the same God who made the earth and the whole universe also made the man, and wrought into the very texture of his being that belief in the efficacy of prayer.
He will answer prayer in relation to the weather.
God is present in every part of the universe, He is near to every atom of matter throughout infinite space, and He is there able to interfere effectively at any given point, or throughout any given region.. Not by changing the laws which He Himself has ordained, but by working through those laws.
Man cannot “make the clouds his chariot, or walk upon the winds of the wind”; but he can make the winds and the lightning his submissive servants. Nay, more, by cutting down forest and by draining low lands and marshes man has actually changed the climate to large tracts of country. Man controls Nature while acting in harmony with her laws; why, then, may not the omnipotent Creator to do the same?
Read the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, and you can have no doubt as to his opinion upon the subject (I Kings 8:35-36).
Take, again, the case of Elijah. When he prayed, first of all, that “ IT MIGHT NOT RAIN”, and then after wards, when the people repented, that rain might be sent, could he give a stronger proof of his belief in the power of prayer with regard to nature?
Both these men, too, evidently believed that God has reserved to Himself the right of turning nature to moral uses. Further, does not the Bible give many instances in which God used famine as a rod to chastise His people when they reveled against Him, and sent plenty when they
repented.
