Power in PrayerSýnishorn

There is a great difference between the prayer of a soul seeking mercy and the prayer of a saved person. If you sincerely seek the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, you shall have it. Whatever may have been your previous condition of life, if now penitently you seek the Lord’s face, through the appointed Mediator, you will find Him. If the Holy Spirit has taught you to pray, hasten to the cross and rest your guilty soul on Jesus.

We must speak in a different way to the saved. You have now become the people of God. While you will be heard and will daily find the grace every seeker receives in answer to prayer, you are now a child of God and thus under a special discipline as such. In that discipline, answers to prayer occupy a high position. There is something for a believer to enjoy over and above bare salvation: mercies, blessings, comforts, and favors that render his present life useful, happy, and honorable, though not irrespective of character. They are not matters of salvation, but these honors are given or withheld according to our obedience. If you neglect obedience, your heavenly Father will withhold these honors from you. The essential blessings of the covenant of grace stand unconditioned; the invitation to seek mercy is addressed to everyone. But other choice blessings are given or withheld according to our attention to the Lord’s rules in His family.

To give a common illustration: If a hungry person were at your door asking for bread, you would give it to him, whatever might be his character. You will also give your child food, whatever may be his behavior. You will not deny your child anything that is necessary for life, but there are many other things your child may desire that you will give him if he is obedient but will withhold if he is rebellious. This illustrates how far the paternal government of God will push this matter and where it will not go.

Understand also that the text refers not so much to God’s hearing a prayer of His servants now and then, for that He will do even when His servants are out of course with Him and when He is hiding His face from them. The power in prayer here intended is continuous and absolute so that “whatever we ask we receive from Him.”

For this prayer, there are certain prerequisites and essentials, and the first is childlike obedience. If we are destitute of this, the Lord may say to us, “You have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen” (Judg. 10:13–14).