Lesson 70: The Word and Prayer, part 1
John 15:7 - If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
The vital connection between the word and prayer is one of the simplest and earliest lessons of the Christian life. As that newly-converted heathen put it: I pray—I speak to my father; I read—my Father speaks to me. Before prayer, it is God’s word that prepares me for it by revealing what the Father has bid me ask. In prayer, it is God’s word strengthening me by giving my faith its purpose and its plea. And after prayer, it is God’s word that brings me the answer when I have prayed, for in it the Spirit gives me to hear the Father’s voice. Prayer is not monologue but dialogue; God’s voice in response to mine in its most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine. “Incline your ear, and hear;” “Give ear to me;” “Listen to my voice;” are words which God speaks to man as well as man to God. His listening will depend on ours; the acceptance His words find with me, will be the measure of the power of my words with Him. What God’s words are to me, is the test of what He Himself is to me, and so of the uprightness of my desire after Him in prayer.
It is this connection between His word and our prayer that Jesus points to when He says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever you will, and it shall be done unto you.” The deep importance of this truth becomes clear if we notice the other expression of which this one has taken the place. More than once Jesus had said, “Abide in me and I in you.” His abiding in us was the complement and the crown of our abiding in Him. But here, instead of “You in Me and I in you,” He says, “You in Me and My words in you.” His words abiding are the equivalent of Himself abiding.
What a view is here opened to us of the place the words of God in Christ are to have in our spiritual life, and especially in our prayer. In a man’s words, he reveals himself. In his promises he gives himself away, he binds himself to the one who receives his promise. In his commands, he sets forth his will, seeks to make himself master of him whose obedience he claims, to guide and use him as if he were part of himself. It is through our words that spirit holds fellowship with spirit, that the spirit of one man passes over and transfers itself into another. It is through the words of a man, heard and accepted, and held fast and obeyed, that he can impart himself to another. But all this is in a very relative and limited sense.
Prayer: Blessed Lord! Your lesson this day has again shown me my error. I see how it is that my prayer has not been more believing and prevailing. I was more occupied with my speaking to You than You speaking to me. I did not understand that the secret of faith is this: there can be only so much faith as there is of the Living Word dwelling in the soul. And Your word had taught me so clearly: “Let every man be swift to hear, and slow to speak; let not your heart be hasty to utter anything before God.” Lord, teach me that it is only with Your word taken up into my life that my words can be taken into Your heart; that Your word, if it be a living power within me, will be a living power with You; what Your mouth has spoken Your hand will perform.