Dennis Gillett - Class 5: Prayer Problems

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Well good morning everyone. Yes, prayer problems. Let's just think what we mean by prayer problems. We mean the difficulties and doubts and impediments that halt and hinder progress on the pathway of prayer. There is no doubt, brethren and sisters, that problems do exist and when you think about it, it's not surprising in such a personal subject as prayer. Then again, sometimes it's a matter of practice, how to put into practice the things that we've learned and understood about prayer. Of course, what is a problem to one person is not a problem to another. I mean, what baffles you may not baffle your neighbour. And then again, sometimes it's a matter of trying to make sense of the things which are revealed about prayer. What I mean, let's be honest, sometimes it's not easy to fully grasp what those things are meant to mean in these days. They were right for the infant church, but are they right for us today? See, it's one thing to approve a principle, but of course it's sometimes quite another thing to realise it in the common places of our daily life. Now, the problems that I've got down to consider in this session are those which have come to notice over the years in experience of, my own experience and the experience of my brethren and sisters and listening to them and hearing what they have to say about their own problems. Now, I realise that the selection I've made may not include your particular problem. I realise that. And if it doesn't, well, I'm sorry, but, you know, you can't include everything. But it may be that we should have an opportunity

2. 1:58

   to discuss your particular problem if there's time before the school closes. So there we are, that's the introduction. Let's get down then to the problems. First one, train and a shortage of words. Now, sometimes it's said that when praying after a short time there's nothing more to say. There is a shortage of thoughts and a shortage of words. Our petitions and our thanksgiving are quickly exhausted. Now, I must tell you that this is a problem for me. I find this a real problem. It's not easy to keep praying for, say, 15 minutes. If you will just pardon, Brother President, if you will just pardon a personal reference here, if you don't mind, just to illustrate something. When I was a young man in the Church of Rome, every year we used to have what is called the Quarantore, that is to say, 40 hours of continuous prayer. What the Catholics call the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, that is the concentrated host, which is supposed to be the real body of Christ, is exposed for 40 hours. And it mustn't be left. And so we had a continuous session of prayer lasting 40 hours. And we had to put our names down for the particular hour which we would watch in prayer. Now, of course, the young men were expected to go in the night time. And I used to go from, say, 2am to 3am. Now, I found it very difficult to keep praying for what happened. And I used to take a book of prayers of the saints, you know, the Catholic saints, and I used to read them. And that whole difficulty of Quarantore,

3. 3:53

   I still have a shortage of words. Of course, it may not be needful to pray for a long time. Perhaps 10 minutes is enough time to speak all that we have to say. There are people, though, who worry over this. And they feel that if they have the time, then they ought to fill it with more prayer, use a longer time on prayer. Now, if you are one of those who have this idea, then this suggestion that I've referred to could still be helpful. Although, of course, in our case, it wouldn't be a book of the saints, the church's saints' prayers, but it would be the book of God, his holy word. Have the word of God before you. If this is a problem, have the word of God before you when you pray. The idea is to read a portion from God's word, then meditate upon it for a while, and then pray, then read again. And in this way, new thoughts are provoked, new feelings, new ideas, which can be converted into prayer. Now, if you feel that this appeals to you, then, of course, the best part of the Bible for this kind of exercise, and the most profitable, is the Psalms. The Psalms have a way of putting into words some of the most inmost thoughts of our soul and mind, which perhaps, without the aid of the Psalms, would remain inarticulate. It's possible to take the words of the Psalmist and incorporate them in their own prayers and their own petitions, and feel them to be deeply part of our experience, and in a way, expressing their own needs in language which is moving.

4. 5:43

   Now, if you feel sad and forsaken in some way, then have Isaiah 41 before you when you pray. I knew a man who always felt sad on a Monday, for quite personal reasons. Monday was always a sad day for him, and he always had Psalm 116 before him when he prayed on that day. And I heard of a sister once who found that Revelation chapter 5 was a good chapter to use in praying because it lured her on to think deeply about the glory of God. Paul said, I will pray with the understanding also. And there are disciples who say that having the word of God before them and open when they are praying, gives more understanding to their prayers, and enables them to overcome this problem of shortage of words. Well, I leave it to you to ponder. It may not be everybody's way of dealing with this problem of shortage of words, but it is one suggestion. And of course, you do need time to use this kind of exercise. Now, a problem allied to this matter of a shortage of words is having to use the same words day after day. I was quite encouraged encouraged that our sister brought that up yesterday because it is one of my problems. And I was relieved to hear that somebody else has the same problem. Saying the same things day after day with the same words. I know the feeling, it tends to get stereotyped. Of course, I personally try to vary as much as I can the words, but there are limits to the variations that we can apply. I mean, there are only a limited number of ways in which you can express thanks for the gifts and the

5. 7:49

   benefits that come to us from our Heavenly Father and especially for the great gift of redemption. How many ways can you pray for the coming of the kingdom of God? Do you think? And then of course the other great problem along the line here is having to confess the same failures day after day. This reinforces the problem of sameness. Now, brothers and sisters, I think there is nothing to do but just to face the facts. We have got to face the facts. If we are going to pray every day about the same subjects, and that is true, isn't it? It is. Our prayer has got to be about the same subjects. And if we are going to do that day after day, we have just got to face the facts that we should be using the same words. And I believe that as far as God is concerned, it does not matter. It seems to matter to us, of course, but we must believe that in God's sight it is not important. Our Heavenly Father does not mind if we use the same sentences day after day.

6. 9:06

   Although it may worry us, the lack of vocabulary is not a problem in heaven. After all, it is not the eloquence of the prayer which commends it to God, but the inward spirit of it which prompts it. Now, don't misunderstand me. I have nothing against the prayer which is spoken beautifully with moving sentences. And that is very important sometimes in public prayer. It can be a great help. But for private prayer, it is not essential.

7. 9:39

   Eloquence is not essential in private prayer. Using the same words time after time. I don't think we can overcome this. There is nothing we can do. We have got to face it and live with it. Of course, using the same words time after time. We have got to be careful that it does not become just a performance, a repetition without a purpose.

8. 10:02

   There is a danger, of course, in repetition as our Lord has warned us in the Sermon on the Mount. And we must guard against it when we use the same words regularly. But I do not think that is our problem. Our problem isn't that using the same words, it will just become of no meaning. That is not our problem.

9. 10:24

   The meaning is there. We are worried by using the same words. But the real thing is, if the heart is truly in it, then the spirit of the prayer will transcend the actual words. And in the end, it is that that matters. Right. Now then, the next problem I want you to think about is unanswered prayer.

10. 10:47

    There ought to be no doubt in their minds, and I know there is no doubt in their minds, that God does answer prayer. Assurances abound in the Bible that this is true. Christ's own words are precise and emphatic. Everyone that asketh, receiveth. Matthew 7 verse 8. He taught us to pray for daily bread.

11. 11:06

    He taught us to pray for the forgiveness of our sins. And He would never have taught us to do that if there are no answers to prayer. But we must be honest and we must recognise that there are conditions and limitations. I mean, prayers that lack faith and sincerity are not heard. God judges by the heart and we approve of that kind of judgement.

12. 11:30

    Given the right conditions, on our side, there are sometimes situations where God does not grant us what we ask. We ought not to suppose, brethren and sisters, that prayer is unanswered or that God is indifferent. As has been said before many times, no is an answer. Good men have had to hear the answer no.

13. 11:57

    Moses prayed that he might go over Jordan, but he did not. Elijah prayed that he might die, but he did not. Paul prayed for the remover of his affliction, but it did not come. Now these three great men are great men of God in the Bible. And yet their requests were not granted.

14. 12:18

    And their prayers were, but their prayers nevertheless were answered. In each case there were good reasons why God did not grant the request at once. We must remember that delay is not denial. It is better to wait God's time, because he can see the end from the beginning and that is something we can never do.

15. 12:42

    Moses did not get into Canaan, but he will one day, and in the finest sense of all, to stay. Elijah did not die for loneliness, and God showed him instead that there were 7,000 in Israel who had taken his God to be their God. God made him live to see the great triumph of his life, the unsurmised obedience of 7,000 faithful souls in the midst of Israel.

16. 13:12

    Paul kept his thorn in the flesh, and when he understood its purpose he would not be without it. His weakness was made perfect in God's strength. God may refuse our most urgent requests, because he knows a root for us which is a better one. Sometimes we cry for things which are unsuitable, which are unsafe, which are unwise.

17. 13:39

    God has a reason for refusing our prayers, of course. He knows better than that. More than once people have lived to thank God that he withstood their agonised entreaties and refused their earnest prayers, for something which at the time seemed indispensable, but which, retrospectively, was seen to be a curse and a hindrance.

18. 14:04

    God always has a reason for refusing our prayers, of course. He knows better than we do. He can see our characters, and he knows that there are reasons which must sometimes disqualify us from receiving something, which with other people is quite safe. I mean, I was talking to a man once, and he was a poor man, humanly speaking, in this world, and he said he wished he was richer, and had more money, and he prayed about it, and he comes to the conclusion that God couldn't trust him with money.

19. 14:40

    He thought that other people perhaps could handle it, but he couldn't, and he may be right. He was kept poor, and he accepted it, that in his case, money would have been a curse. God knows that the immediate realisation of our dreams may imperil the future. Have you ever thought about this, that God gave Hezekiah 15 years extra to his life, and when you look at them, it does seem that he would have been better without them.

20. 15:12

    I remember Brother Len Richardson saying something once, I've never forgot it. He said, be careful what you ask for, you may get it. So let's ponder it, brothers and sisters, and learn a lesson about prayer.

21. 15:31

    Next problem, praying for somebody else. Now this is a problem for some people. It might not be for you, but for some people it is a problem, because they are inclined to argue that however much you may pray for certain things to happen to somebody else, it cannot happen to them unless they themselves are willing for it to happen to them.

22. 15:53

    You cannot pray for the recovery of someone who is sinning unless they themselves are willing to repent. It would not be fair for God to make people contrite and force them to give up sinning against their will. So, is it right to pray for other people? Is it asking God to do something which is impossible?

23. 16:16

    Will God bless someone, at my request, if they themselves are indifferent? Now, when you look at the Bible, brothers and sisters, it's evident, I think, that whatever problems may arise in this line of country, there is a good case for praying for other people. There is a good case for being an intercessor.

24. 16:45

    We have remembered already that Job prayed for his children, and lest perchance they should in the living of their lives be ensnared by their prosperity. Think of the examples of Abraham. He pleaded for Sodom. Surely that is an excellent argument for praying for what may seem to be a hopeless situation. Moses made intercession for Israel.

25. 17:14

    David prayed for the people over whom he ruled. Samuel prayed all night for Saul. Daniel prayed for the deliverance of the people of God. Now, you would never think, would you, that God is taken by surprise. But, here is a strange thing. The one thing that is said to have surprised God, it's in Isaiah 59, 16, and it goes like this.

26. 17:43

    It does seem that there is an element of surprise on God's part. And God saw there was no man, and he wondered that there was no intercessor. Or, again, the same idea in Ezekiel chapter 22, 30. It says, And I sought for a man among them, that they should make up the fence and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it.

27. 18:19

    But I found not. Again, God is, you know, he seems surprised that there was no one to speak on behalf of the others. No intercessor. Nobody to stand in the gap. So it looks as though it is something normal to intercede for others. It seems that prayer may well be private, but it's never solitary.

28. 18:43

    We can never be absolutely exclusive in our praying. It seems that prayer, as I say, can never be quite solitary. It ought to be personal, but it cannot be absolutely isolated. Romans 14, 7 says, None of us divveth to himself. And that's true of praying, as well as other things. The life we live is relative and always interdependent.

29. 19:11

    Praying like life is precarious. That one lonely man who is the saviour of the world, of him it is said, He made intercession because he bare the sin of the transgressors. That's Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Isaiah and Daniel identified themselves with the people they led. Think of the father of the epileptic boy and the despairing mother of the demon-possessed girl.

30. 19:42

    In each case they prayed for somebody else in these cases and they were heard. One way of bearing the burden of others is praying for them that they may place themselves in a position where God can remove the burden and ease the agony or cleanse the pollution. Of course there are difficulties in this kind of prayer, no doubt.

31. 20:08

    Faith ventures hopefully upon the promises of God. And God, and faith trusts God to blow away the chaff and keep the grain. That is, what I mean by that is that when we offer our prayers to God it may be made up of chaff and grain. Doubtless in other words we pray wrongly, we make mistakes, we ask for things which are not possible.

32. 20:32

    But because of our heavenly father's love towards us he blows away the chaff and keeps the grain. And that is the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit. Which brings us very nicely to the next problem. Romans chapter 8 verses 26 and 27. That is the spirit helping our infirmities.

33. 20:56

    I will wait till you have found it. Romans chapter 8 verses 26 and 27. The material sentence. The material sentences. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought.

34. 21:25

    But the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And of course the problem here is, what exactly did the apostle Paul mean by these words?

35. 21:50

    Now I think we can say, at the beginning we can say, we can be fairly confident about what he did not mean. But the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, a person separate from God the Father, takes our imperfect prayers and groaning in articulate and distressing ways, somehow presents them to God.

36. 22:17

    That may be a satisfactory explanation for those who believe in the Trinity. But of course for us it doesn't make any sense whatever. I mean, the Holy Spirit is not a separate person from God. In as far as it has any personality, it is God himself. And so we cannot think of the Holy Spirit a separate person, presenting our prayers with groanings which cannot be uttered.

37. 22:44

    And anyway, even with those who believe in the Trinity, there still raises this tremendous difficulty, God himself, in a condition of inarticulation, groaning and sighing. It doesn't make sense. It's difficult to imagine this to be true of God himself. Now, I came across an interesting passage in Grimm Thayer's lexicon the other day about this verse.

38. 23:14

    I'll just read it to you, whether it's going to help I don't know. It goes like this. The phrase, the Spirit intercedes with unutterable groanings in Romans 8, 26 means, as the whole context shows, nothing other than this. Quote, Although we have no very definite conception of what we desire, and cannot state it in fit language in our prayer, but only disclose it by inarticulate groanings, yet God receives these groanings as acceptable prayers, inasmuch as they come from a soul full of the Holy Spirit.

39. 23:52

    Well, of course we should have difficulty in agreeing with that final phrase, yet it presents the passage in a way, perhaps, which tends to make it more understandable. I think, to be consistent, we ought to understand the word Spirit in this passage, in the way in which it's been interpreted in the earlier part of the chapter.

40. 24:12

    In verse 1, for example, we understand the words, walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, as to mean refusing the domination of the natural appetites, and live in accordance with spiritual principles which have been revealed by God's Holy Spirit in His words. And the definition is clearly marked in verses 5 and 6.

41. 24:37

    For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And to be fair, the word Spirit is synonymous with being spiritually minded, which is another way of expressing what the New Testament calls the new man.

42. 25:03

    The born again nature created in holiness and righteousness by the word of the living God. And this is how John Carter sees it in his book on the letter to the Romans. I will now quote from that work about this verse. This is what John Carter says. The new man, when in suffering, approaches the Father in prayer.

43. 25:26

    But for what shall he pray? For the suffering to be removed, or for strength to endure? In his groaning he asks, after the example of Jesus, How is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father glorify thy name.

44. 25:47

    O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And God that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, that maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So he is saying that the new man is the Spirit, which although encumbered by the weakness of the flesh, is able to express through groaning and grieving, albeit weakly, the things that are desired.

45. 26:19

    And the one who is able to search the hearts, is able to discern what the Spirit, the new man, really is seeking. Now I don't know whether that satisfies you. It doesn't satisfy me altogether, I must be honest. But I can see this about it. It's not the Spirit which makes intercession for us, because we know that the intercessal, verse 34, if you have a look at verse 34 of Romans 8, quite evidently the intercessal is our Lord Jesus Christ, the one advocate between men and time.

46. 26:52

    But I think we have to face the fact that human nature being what it is, we pray sometimes for wrong things. Naturally we pray for the things we regard as the most urgent, and nobody can complain about that. But we have to admit that the most urgent things from their point of view may not be the most important from God's point of view.

47. 27:13

    Measured by our own desires I suppose, we should be asking for good health, home comfort, happiness and reasonable success perhaps. But measured by God's measurement, these things may not always be a blessing as I've said already, sometimes might be a hindrance. Now I don't know whether you are happier about that, verse or not, but it is a problem.

48. 27:36

    Sometimes those who have asked God to prolong the life of another have lived to thank Him that He did not. So we have to confess that standing by ourselves we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. And there is help when we are not standing by ourselves, when the new man, the spiritual new man is our aid, the new spiritual mind created and nurtured by the Spirit.

49. 28:03

    It means the development of the mind and heart to understand the wisdom of God in the realm of prayer, that is, to create in the saints the right conditions for praying rightly. It is being led by the Spirit. Remember Jesus said about the Spirit, He shall take of mine and shall show it unto you.

50. 28:22

    The revelation of the Spirit of Christ. So bit by bit, under the influence of the Spirit in God's word, we learn to pray more nearly in accordance with the Lord's will. Walking in the Spirit means walking in accordance with the things which are spiritual. So praying in the Spirit means praying in accordance with the things which are truly spiritual.

51. 28:44

    And therefore in accordance with God's will. We must never forget the place of the Advocate in heaven, in this process. We must never forget that the intercessor, the one who searches the house principally, is our Lord Jesus Christ. There is, as it appears to me, a kind of unity of intercession between the High Priest in heaven and the spiritual new man in the praying soul as it were, as though what is prayed imperfectly with groanings by the intercessor on earth is prayed again more perfectly by the intercessor in heaven.

52. 29:21

    So that in a certain sense the two become one. The imperfect groanings in our imperfect humanity with all its limitations, but that groaning finds true expression in the intercession of the High Priest at the throne of God. He ever lived to make intercession for the saints, or for them that come to God through him.

53. 29:44

    That's Hebrews 7. So the intercession in a way might be twofold. The High Priest cannot present the plea of the prayer which is dominated by an unyielded will. The pure in heart, on the other hand, may see God. The carnal mind is not in tune with the spirit. The pathway demands willing submission to the principles of prevailing prayer.

54. 30:08

    So there we are. That's all I had to say on that. Whether it's out to you or not, I know. Next problem. Something quite different. I wonder if this is a problem with you. This is with some people. People who are not in the truth seem to get answers to their prayer. Problem?

55. 30:35

    As I say, it may not be a problem with you, but it is with some people. It worries them. It worries them. Of course, one way of answering the problem is to deny it. To say that they do not get answers to their prayer. They couldn't. It's impossible. But that's not very satisfactory, is it?

56. 30:59

    Really. Really. Let me give you an example of what I mean about people getting answers to prayer. Who are not in the truth. Years ago there was a man living in Bristol by the name of George Muller. He was a Christian. Probably what Dr. Thomas would call a misbeliever. Not an unbeliever, but a misbeliever.

57. 31:30

    That's Dr. Thomas' very wise observation. Not an unbeliever, but a misbeliever. In so far as his knowledge went, he was a man of great faith. He had one compelling way of life. To be a father to 200 orphan children. That is to say, in Bristol he ran an orphanage. Now he had no sources of income for the work.

58. 31:58

    Say that which were donated by good men and women who were moved to help him in this work. He depended entirely on voluntary donations. Now of course many a time he was hard up. And at his wits end really, to know where the next meal was to come from. Now one night, when all was settled down in the orphanage, he confessed to a visitor who had come to help him in the work, that there was nothing for the next day's breakfast.

59. 32:25

    The kids had nothing for breakfast. So George Muller and his friends simply went to praying and laid their problem before the Lord earnestly. When they had done that, they went to bed. Before dawn, they were awakened by a knocking at the front door. There was a van driver hammering at the door and he had with him a van load of bread with an explanation that somehow something had gone wrong at the bakery.

60. 32:55

    Somebody had made a great bloomer. Well that's a pun isn't it when you're talking of bread. Somebody made a great bloomer. And the baking arrangements had all gone wrong that night. And they had badly miscalculated. They had a load of bread that they couldn't use and couldn't sell. And would Mr Muller like to have it for the children?

61. 33:14

    Now, I know what you're thinking. But it won't do you see. It won't do to say it never happened. Because this story is so well authenticated by reliable witnesses, people of undoubted integrity. It would be churlish to make them all foolish dreamers or at worst all liars and all deceivers. Just to get ourselves out of a difficulty.

62. 33:43

    Now for my own soul's sake, I have an explanation which keeps my spirit at peace over this. First of all, I do not know at what level or knowledge people become responsible to God. I do not know that. I do not think really responsibility is a static thing. It varies from situation to situation, from age to age.

63. 34:10

    In this present age when the Bible is available to everybody, and there is usually no impediments in getting it and reading it. Though of course in some places there is, like in Russia, although thank God that's improving. Although, those conditions today exist here. If you go back 400, 500 years it was different.

64. 34:31

    People didn't have the word of God. I have read of a situation like this. Two men arrive at a village in England. They are supposedly itinerant traders selling pots and pans. At night they gather in a house and people from the village creep in through the darkness of the night. And when they are all safely ensconced and locked in, the men bring from under their clothes two pages of the letter to the Philippians.

65. 35:03

    And they read them. And they pondered them. And they think they are greatly favoured. See what I mean? It is not a static thing. It is a valuable thing. So I do not know where responsibility begins and ends in any man's life. I dare not say that God will not answer the prayers of other people who are not in the truth as we are in the truth.

66. 35:28

    I do not know. That is no criticism of any of you who think he will not. I am not criticising you. If you believe he will not answer the prayer of anybody outside our community, okay. I accept that. Not a criticism of anybody. I do not know how responsible George Muller was with his God.

67. 35:48

    But there is something else that helps me to live with this. I believe that God is related to people on two levels. One I call related providentially. And the other I call related salvationally. Now I know the word salvationally is an awkward word, but I can't think of a better. Because he is the creator of all men, he is in a sense the father of all men.

68. 36:15

    What might be called creative fatherhood. In other words, quoted by Paul in Acts 17, we are all his offspring. Now when he said we are all his offspring, he was speaking to the Athenians. The Bible tells us that God cares providentially for his offspring. Jesus said he makes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust.

69. 36:38

    He sends rain on the good and the evil. Paul says in that one great inclusive sentence in Acts 14, about God's relationship with men. He did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness. The brotherhood of man is true in Adam because of the universal providential fatherhood of God.

70. 37:03

    Now because of this relationship, God cares for men providentially. That's what I think. On the other hand, God is related to some people and thank God it's you and me, salvationally. This is God's redemptive fatherhood that we enjoy, as distinct from his creative fatherhood which other men and women enjoy. Now the point to make now is that under the providential care of God for men, when people in faith seek his help, he answers their prayers.

71. 37:35

    He is one God and subjects his will to one law. Therefore, he is compassionate. He is a compassionate God. He is not compassionate sometimes and different on other times. He is not compassionate to some people and not to others. He is essentially a compassionate God towards his offspring. And that compassion allows him to answer the cry of the needy if they ask in faith.

72. 38:03

    Now this may account, I don't know, but this may account for the fact that people who are not in the covenant relationship, as we are in covenant relationship, sometimes receive answers to their prayers. And it may explain that strange event at Bristol, which happened to a man who, being in need on behalf of others, especially children, turned to his Creator.

73. 38:34

    And on behalf of the orphaned and the destitute, received the compassion of God. Now this is a real difficult one. Ought children who are not baptised be allowed to pray? Have you heard of it before? Mm! Yes, Ought children who are not baptised? Ought we allow them to pray? Now this is a question that has troubled many brethren and sisters over the years.

74. 39:17

    Of course, especially those who are parents. And I must tell you now, there are differing views about it. At the end of his book on prayer called Making Prayer Powerful, Brother Percy Mansfield gives some interesting information about the opinions of our early brethren on this subject. Dr. Thomas thought that in view of the scriptural conditions that are attached to acceptable worship, children should not be asked to pray.

75. 39:47

    Robert Roberts thought it permissible for them to do so, provided that they understand that their approach to God was simply that of the creature to the creator. Sister Roberts, on the other hand, had something different to say on this subject. I'm not going to quote Sister Roberts on this subject. She said, Sister Roberts would immediately cry out, We teach our children to thank any friend who gives them anything, and we should teach them to thank God who gives us everything we possess.

76. 40:48

    Sister Roberts, Percy Mansfield says, That God has neither invited prayer from any out of Christ, nor directly forbidden it. So let those who follow Brother Roberts' advice take great care to heed the qualifications that he mentions, that their children should understand that they are praying to their God as a creature to a creator.

77. 41:12

    Now I must express my opinion for what it is worth, and it is this. Personally, I am very impressed by Mark chapter 10 verse 14. Now, you might care to have a look at that. Verse 13 of Mark 10, And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuked those that brought them.

78. 41:47

    But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased. And said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not. For of such is the kingdom of God.

79. 42:04

    Now, something interesting, when the man of Nazareth was much displeased, that might be Mark's, Mark's understatement. I probably think he means, he was very angry. He was indignant. He was much displeased. Now, I am impressed by this. Anything that made the Lord of life angry, is worth looking at. And what made him angry was, that his disciples forbade the children to come to him.

80. 42:34

    And what he said was, and let's remember it well, he said, Let them come, and hinder them not. So if we are faced with making a difficult decision about children coming to Jesus, then in striking the balance, and let's admit there may well be a problem of striking the balance, you don't know what to do.

81. 42:55

    Dr. Thomas says this, Robert says this, Sister Robert says that, Percy Mansfield says that, Dennis Gillett says, You're bewildered, aren't you? So, you're faced with a problem. You've got to strike a balance. When we have to strike a balance like this, we should lean to the side, which makes it easier for children to come, rather than to the side, which makes it difficult.

82. 43:21

    And why do I say that? Because Jesus said, Hinder them not. So if we are going to do something, it's best to do something which doesn't hinder them, rather than something that does. The New Testament writers insist that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. So as he was then, so he is now.

83. 43:40

    It seems to me that a simple mind, such as mine, and yours, a simple mind, asking the question today, whether children ought to be allowed to pray, and looking to see the attitude of Jesus to children, would very much gain the impression, wouldn't they, that Jesus was glad to receive the approach, and the words of children, and that would strengthen the conviction, that the Father of Jesus also, would be willing to receive their approach, and listen to their words.

84. 44:17

    I say, of course, different people have different views, and if yours is different, I understand it perfectly well. Let's be tolerant of one another. Let's live with what we believe, and do what we think is best. We may not agree with everything, but whichever way it is, let's be tolerant, and let's try to feel for each other, in these problems of prayer.