On looking at the text, again, you will see that the same blessed logic is carried a step farther, for you read, "You will," and then, again, "You will"–"You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear." Faith, first of all, concludes that God will bless because of former blessings. And then she is so sure of her conclusion that upon it she is prepared to build up a further confidence. This is a noble faith, worthy of imitation–but it is by no means common–not a hundredth part as common as it ought to be! To doubtful minds it is difficult, even, to infer the future from a present fact immediately before their eyes, but to the believing heart it is an easy thing to do something more than that! Namely, to draw an inference of hope from a former inference of hope.
By such language we praise God for mercy not yet received. And our text suggests another practical use of "things not seen as yet," namely, to make them, as apprehended by our faith, the basis of a still higher confidence in God. This is to be built up on our most holy faith. Rest assured that this is not constructing castles in the air, for our faith is no delusion! It is made of solid, substantial stuff, before which even the supposed infallibilities of science are trifles light as air.
Because our Good Shepherd has made us to lie down in green pastures, we argue that there is no cause for fear though we walk through the valley of death-shade–and from that we surely gather that goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. Such reasoning is as accurate as the demonstrations of geometry! The Lord will never leave us to be ashamed of our hope. Learn this logic and it will keep you in good stead in times of distress, when nothing but certainty will sustain you. The Lord is good and, therefore, He will be good! He will keep the feet of His saints and because He will do this, we shall enter His palace with joy.
Apply this logic to prayer. God has answered prayer and, therefore, He will answer it! Of this first statement many of us are witnesses. The evidences of that Truth of God are with us in daily experience–we have proofs of the power of prayer as innumerable as the stars of Heaven. Because the Lord has heard us out of His holy place, we infer that He will still hear us and, therefore, as long as we live, we will we call upon Him. This is no casual thing, but it is Jehovah's perpetual name and standing memorial–the God Who Hears Prayer! Never while the earth endures will He forsake the Throne of Grace and turn a deaf ear to the cries of His suppliant Israel!
The subject of this morning is thus introduced to you. It is necessary that you pray, for the needy must cry to their helper. And it is profitable that you pray, for the bosoms of suppliants are filled with benedictions. It is not a vain thing to wait upon God–it is your comfort, your strength, your life! If you seek honor, it should be your delight to pray, for nothing is more ennobling than to win the ear of the Lord of All! A man admitted to audience with the Most High is honored in an unspeakable degree. We shall speak, this morning, in the way of five observations drawn from our text. May each one be made profitable to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our first observation is written upon the surface of the Scripture before us–THE LOWLIEST FORM OF PRAYER MAY BE MOST TRUE AND ACCEPTABLE. And what is that lowliest form of prayer? Is it not described in the text? "The desire of the humble." It is not the prayer of the serene faith of Abraham, nor the wrestling of energetic Jacob, nor the intercession of prevailing Moses, nor the pleading of holy Samuel, nor the commanding cry of Elijah shutting and opening Heaven–it is only a desire–a motion of the heart towards good things! And yet the Lord hears it. Indeed, the lowliest form of prayer may be the truest, for the essence of all real prayer is desire. Words are but the habitation of prayer, the living tenant is desire.
Observe, it is only a desire–"the desire of the humble." A desire may be altogether unattended by speech. The suppliant may not be able to put his desire into words at all. He may be too sorrowful; his emotions may choke his utterances. He may be too quiet and so may be quite unversed in the use of speech. He may be only able to pour forth groans that cannot be uttered and tears whose eloquence is silent–yet God is pleased to hear the desire which lacks expression! Many prayers are very prettily expressed. In fact, they are expressed so grandly that their tawdry fineries will not be tolerated in Heaven! Those prayers will never enter Heaven's gate which are meant to catch the applause of man! God will say, "They were meant for men, so let men have them." He does not stoop to accept man's leftovers and if a prayer is meant to be a feast for man, God will not be a second-rate guest at its table!
On the other hand, many sincere persons condemn themselves because they cannot offer public prayer as their Brethren do–they even tremble, perhaps, to pray before their families–and this is a grief to them. I think, if they are men, they should prove their manhood by overcoming such diffidence. I would urge them to make the attempt with much resolution and perseverance–and should they fail in it through positive inability, there will be cause for regret–but no reason for self-condemnation. There may be more prayer in the silent than in the fluent. God has heard prayers which nobody else could possibly have heard because there was no vocal sound about them. So quick is the ear of God that He hears that which is not properly the subject of hearing–the true prayer which abides in silence shall not meet with a silent God!
This desire may not be recommended by any conscious attainments on the part of the offerer. The man may reach far in his desire, but he may have attained to little beyond. He may have a wealth of desire and a poverty of everything else and yet he may be heard of the Lord. Possibly his confession may run thus–"I desire to be humble, but I lament my pride. I desire to be strong in faith, but I mourn my unbelief. I desire to be fervent, but I sigh over my lukewarmness. I desire to be holy, but I confess my transgressions. I desire my prayer should be such as God can accept, but I fear that I waver, or ask amiss." Now such a confession, if penitently presented, will not prevent our obtaining the promise, for the Lord has heard the desire of the humble.
If your heart seethes and boils with desires, the steam thereof will rise to Heaven! If your stock-in-trade is made up of empty vessels and of little else, the Lord can deal with you as He did with the Prophet's widow, "who had empty vessels not a few." Your little oil of Grace He can multiply till every vessel is filled to the brim! Have you desires?–great, hungry, thirsty desires? Then bring them to the Lord! Are your desires as insatiable as the horseleech, which is always sucking, but which always craves for more, crying always, "Give, give, give"? Then say with David, "All my desires are before You," and be assured that the Lord satisfies the desire of every living thing! Be comforted if your desires are awake. You are praying and your cry is being heard! You shall yet say, "This poor man cried and the Lord heard him." Your desires have voices of their own–they knock hard at Heaven's door and it shall be opened unto them.
Note, again, that this desire may be unaccompanied by any confident expectation. When you pray you ought to believe the promise and expect its fulfillment. It is the duty and the privilege of every suppliant to believe that when he prays in the name of Jesus, he must and shall be heard. But sometimes humility, which is a good thing, is attended by a lack of faith–which is an evil thing–and this much hinders prayer. Humility is deceived by unbelief and so it gives way to the dark thought that its poor feeble prayer will not speed with God. I fear that in some cases this lack of expectancy is an effectual barrier to prayer and prevents its being answered. But it is forgiven to naturally despondent, heavily-laden spirits whose fears are not so much doubts of God as a deeply humiliating judgment of themselves.
It is not so much the case that their faith is sinfully defective as that they have a painfully acute sense of their own unworthiness–and so when they cry they hope that the Lord will hear them and they mean to wait upon Him till He does–but they are sorely afraid. They will go nowhere else, for they have no other hope but that which lies in the Free Grace and sovereign mercy of God. But they do not exercise that happy expectancy which the sure promise warrants their enjoying. My Brothers and Sisters, I would chide your unbelief, but I would still encourage your desires, for that desire which God hears is not to be despised! The text says, "Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble," and the Lord will yet hear your humble sighs and groans! And you shall be surprised to find the Lord doing for you exceeding abundantly above what you asked or even thought! May your faith grow exceedingly, being fed upon the heavenly food which the Lord deals out to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
This leads me to observe that this commencing form of prayer which the Lord nevertheless hears, is here further described as, "the desire of the humble." It has this advantage about it, that it is free from pride! Some men's prayers, if they were to pray them as their foolish hearts really desire, would be requests that they might be made famous. Be not startled when I say it–I fear that many men proudly ask to be humble! They desire to be humble in order that they may be admired for it! I have no doubt, whatever, that some professors seek great Grace that they may be highly thought of and greatly set by in the market of the Church. Have we not all found that in the rushing stream of our earnest zeal there will be some backwater which runs not towards God but towards ourselves? Have we not even strived to win souls that we might be notable as soul-winners?
If you do not choose to be humble you will have to be humbled–and that is not at all a desirable thing. To be humbled is to be sorely smitten and made to suffer shame in the estimation of your fellow men, both ungodly and godly. Certain persons who have carried their heads very high have struck them against the beam and have had to go with bruised foreheads for the rest of their lives! God resists the proud, but gives Grace to the humble. Therefore may God help us to is acceptable with the God of all Grace! Pride seems born of the Law, though I scarcely know why it should be, for the Law censures and condemns. Humility is the child of the Gospel and is brought up upon the knees of Grace. If you would be a child of God, you must be lowly in your own esteem. If you would be heard in prayer, you must come to God as needy and empty. Low thoughts of ourselves are the companions of prevailing prayers. No man may expect to receive out of the fullness that is treasured up in Christ Jesus until he is willing to confess his own poverty. Grace for Grace will be given only to those who feel need upon need–all successful pleading must find their argument in Free Grace!
You had better pray according to God's command–and that runs thus–"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." The truest humility is that which is immediately obedient to the gracious precept and accepts, without question, that which the Lord so freely gives. We have a natural right to nothing–but when the Lord commands us to open our mouth wide, He thereby gives us a Covenant right to all things! Yet, dear Brothers and Sisters, if your humility should cramp your desire. If you feel as if you would desire a great gift but dare not ask, still it is a desire. If you say, "I see the sweetness of the mercy, but it seems too good for such a soul as mine," yet I spy at the back of your humility a true and strong desire and I pray that the Lord may hear that desire and answer you for His mercy's sake. Forget not this first Truth of God–that what seems to be the lowliest form of prayer is, nevertheless, true prayer.
II. Our second point is full of comfort to those who have begun to pray. GOD IS QUICK TO HEAR THE LOWLIEST PRAYER–"You have heard the desire of the humble." This must be a Divine science–this art of hearing desires. We have heard a good deal, lately, about thought reading. I give no opinion of that matter among men, but here is a wonderful instance of it with the Lord. "You have heard the desire of the humble." This kind of desire reading is the prerogative of God, alone! He knows our desires even when we do not know them, ourselves! Sitting in this Tabernacle you are desiring, but it is quite impossible for the person sitting next to you to know your wishes–and it is quite as well, perhaps, that it is so.
Certain it is that the servant of God, Eli, himself, fresh from the shrine of the Most High, could not read Hannah's desires. Her lips were moving and one would think if anything could be learned, it might be from the moving of the lips. But Eli thought her drunk and, therefore, chattering to herself, and so he rebuked her. Was it not a mercy for Hannah that God heard her humble desire and knew all about it? Beloved, the Lord is reading your thoughts now! My dear Sister, your groaning out of the very deeps has ascended to the heights! You would not like to tell your inward feelings–perhaps your secret is too painful to be told–never mind, God's ear is so quick that He can hear your desires! Wonderful art! We would be very glad if the Lord had promised to hear us when we speak, but He has gone far beyond that–He hears the unspeakable and unutterable!
Was there ever power and pity like this? Be comforted, you that are full of desires, this morning, and are sitting here with hearts ready to break, crying in your spirit, "Oh that the Lord would hear me! Oh that He would give me peace! Oh that the days of my mourning were ended! Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat!" Do not sink in despair! There is no reason for fear–your case is among the most hopeful–for it is the way of the Lord to hear the desire of the humble.
Today let this be told! It ought not to be buried in ungrateful silence. It is mentioned in the text, let it be mentioned in your conversation. If some here present had the opportunity, we could tell you how God has heard our desires and how, at times, before the desire has actually been formed in the soul the answer has come, according to that Word of God, "Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." We had a desire laid upon our heart which we never communicated to any living person except the living God–and we carried that desire in our heart for weeks and months, constantly allowing it to burn in our bosom, and frequently letting it break out in groans and broken cries–and in due time our sighs reached the heart of God! As surely as we have sown in prayer, we have, in due season reaped a harvest of blessing!
Our Lord, even in Gethsemane, was heard in that He feared–sure pledge to all His redeemed that they shall be heard in their hour of darkness! Happy are they who dwell in God, for they may have what they please at the Mercy Seat. Is it not written, "Delight yourself, also, in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of yours heart"? Has it not been so with you, O you who abide under the shadow of the Almighty? I charge you, then, to abundantly utter the memory of His great goodness! Fail not to tell your experience of the Lord's faithfulness–for God loses much glory and poor sinners and saints, too, lose much encouragement to pray–when children of God are silent about their success at the Throne of Grace.
Oh, I wish I could be the means of stirring some, this morning, to pray the prayer of faith while sitting here! You may say, "I will pray when I get home." You may do so, if you please, but I am urging you to something more speedy! Remember the publican? It was in God's house that he prayed and though he did not dare to lift his eyes to Heaven, yet He sighed in his soul this prayer–"God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" And he went down to his house justified rather than the other! I do not ask you to withhold that prayer till you reach home, but would it not be a grand thing to be saved here, and to go home justified? You shall have that unspeakable blessing, now, if your desire is a true one and you pour it out at once, believingly, before the Lord! He has heard the same many times and is prepared to hear you in the same manner.
III. Thirdly, we will remark that THE HEART IS THE MAIN MATTER IN PRAYER. That is clearly shown in the text–"Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble." Desires are the fruit of the heart. "You will prepare their heart." When God comes to deal with men in a way of Grace, His first business is to prepare their heart so that, most assuredly, the state of the heart is of prime importance. The heart is the source, the seat and the essence of supplication. Prayer with the heart is the heart of prayer–the cry of our soul is the soul of our cry.
Without the heart, prayer is a wretched mockery. There is as much Divine Grace in the bark of a dog or the grunt of a swine as in a form of prayer if the heart is absent. And God is as likely, no, more likely, to hear the cry of ravens and young lions, than to regard prayers uttered in Chapels, Churches, Meeting Houses or Cathedrals, if the mind is not in earnest. Do not say, "I read my collect this morning"–you may read 50 collects and be none the better! Do not say, "I went through the prayers which I learned from a godly mother"–you may go through them 20,000 times and yet never pray once! Unless the heart speaks with God, you have done nothing for your own good with all your "Pater Nosters" or other goodly words–no, you may have done something to your own hurt in all this pretence of praying!
I fear that much so-called public prayer is nothing better than presumptuous sin. If your child should come to you and ask a favor in an affected voice, would you notice him? If, instead of saying, "Dear Father, I want such-and-such," he great affection, will give unto me such-and-such things," you would not regard his nonsense! You would say, "Come, boy, what do you want? Tell me plainly!" And if he continued to intone, you would drive him out of the room, perhaps, with the aid of your foot! I fear that this praying in sing-song is the most fearful mockery God ever hears. Fancy Peter, when he was beginning to sink, intoning, "Lord, save me!" When the heart really gets to speak with God, it cannot talk in affected tones–it throws such rubbish overboard!
But cannot a man pray with his heart and yet use a written prayer? Certainly he can! Many have done so for years. If you cannot walk without your crutches, I would sooner you walked with them than not at all. Still, it is not the best words put together by the most devout men that ever lived, nor the holiest language composed extemporaneously by yourself, that can make up prayer if the heart is gone. Words are seldom more than the baggage of prayer. Language, at best, is but the flesh in which prayer is embodied. The desire of the heart is the life of the prayer! See you to your heart, for God sees to it–"You will prepare their heart." Sometimes the Lord puts words into men's mouths. He says, "Take with you words, and come unto Me," and thus He prepares words for their use. But in general, the main concern with God is that the heart is prepared to plead with Him.
Without the heart, prayer is a nullity and when there is but little heart, prayer is a failure. He that prays with little desire asks God to refuse him. If you go through your prayer and your mind is wandering up and down about a thousand vanities, your desires are feeble and your supplication will have little effect. Prayer must be fervent to be effectual. It must be ardent to be acceptable. If the utter failure of your prayer would not greatly grieve you and if its success would not much gratify you, then depend upon it, you will have to wait long at Mercy's wicket before it will admit you. "The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force." Importunity is indispensable! Our Lord has given us many parables to that effect. To play at praying will never do–your heart and soul must be fully awake, for no sleepy prayer can enter Heaven. We must praise God with our whole heart and we must pray in the same manner. If doubleminded man may not expect to receive anything of the Lord, neither may a half-hearted man. Above all things, keep yours heart with all diligence if you would speed at the Throne of God.
Success comes to the prayer of a glowing heart. When the soul grows warm, the spirit is fervent and desires are strong, then, Brothers and Sisters, do not spare your prayers! We are not always in that condition–let us pray much when we are. We are bound to prepare ourselves for prayer, but I believe the best qualifications are strong desires and intense longings. No preparation for food is equal to intense hunger. You have the best sauce with your meat when you are hungry. It will be your wisdom, when your desires are sharp, to pray more than you ordinarily do. You cannot always pray alike, but when good times come, use them! When a fair mind fills the sails of desire, then make all possible headway. Set apart a longer season for private devotion when the soul is all alive and active in it. At another time you may have to try very hard and make but small progress, for the chariot wheels may be taken off–let it not, at such a time, be a source of regret that you wasted a happier season. Cease not to obtain blessings beyond number both for yourself, for the Church and for a perishing world–but take heed that your heart is found greatly exercised with longings of soul before God.
IV. Fourthly, GOD HIMSELF PREPARES THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE. "You will prepare their heart." I am greatly rejoiced by this statement that God will prepare our hearts to pray, because it is a most important business on which so much depends. On the heart, the whole machinery of life depends and it needs preparing, especially for devotion. You cannot spring out of bed and, on every occasion, pray in a moment without thought or reflection. You cannot say to yourself, "I have just been listening to ungodly talk and now I am going to pray." It will be poor, pitiful praying which springs up from the barren soil of thoughtlessness. We need preparation in coming into the courts of the Lord's house–the soul has to take her shoes off her feet because the place is holy.
But this preparation is often as difficult as it is necessary and, therefore, it is a great mercy that our God undertakes to work it in us. Surely none but the Lord can prepare a heart for prayer! One old writer says it is far harder work to raise the big bell into the steeple than to ring it afterwards. This witness is true. When the bell is well hung you can ring it readily enough–but in that uplifting of the heart lies the work and the labor. Before musicians begin to play, they attend to their strings and see that their instruments are in order–you wish, perhaps, that the operation could be dispensed with, but it cannot be–it is one of the most necessary parts of the musician's work. Until he has learned to tune his instrument, what does he know? Until he has tuned it, what can he do? I wish we were all made ready, as a people prepared for the Lord.
These processes by which the heart is prepared may have commenced far back. Our gracious God may have prepared the heart of a man to pray today by a work which He worked upon him, or for him, 20 years ago. The Lord may be working a man up to a certain prayer by years of sorrow or joy. The poet who composes a sonnet may not be able to tell you why the inspiration came to him at that particular moment, for it may have been the outcome of his soul throughout the whole of his life. That which the songster threw into words, today, may have lain hidden in his soul from his boyhood. He was not prepared for penning his stanzas, then, but his later life trained him to speak in numbers and to clothe noble thoughts in the dress of attractive language. So may it be with our prayers–they may be the juice of a life-vintage, the ripened harvest of youth and manhood. In any case, God prepares the heart to be blessed when He is prepared to bless it.
One of the most difficult things in preparation for prayer is the restraining of loose and wandering thoughts. I do not know how perfect Brothers and Sisters keep themselves free from every evil thought, for I find myself defeated often when I would shut out these vile intruders! Honestly, I may express my belief that these carnal boasters have as many vain thoughts as other people. The ravenous birds will come down upon the sacrifice even when Abraham offers it–and it costs infinite pains to drive them away. Intruding thoughts surround us like a plague of flies–they are here, there, and everywhere! It is well, indeed, that God should prepare our hearts, for in this one point our weakness is complete. Egypt suffered from a plague of flies which all Pharaoh's armies could not drive away, but when the Lord heard the prayer of Moses, it is said, "The Lord removed the swarms of flies: there remained not one." That was a deliverance, indeed–truly this was the finger of God!
Next, the Lord prepares His people's hearts by giving them a deep sense of what they need. I know your grief, your temptation, your misery and the crying out of your spirit under the lashes of conscience, but all this is right, thus you are instructed in the art and mystery of supplication. Nobody cries to Christ so well as the man who is beginning to sink. Jonah's cry in the whale's belly was the most intense prayer he ever prayed. When the iron enters into your soul, then you cry unto the Lord in your trouble! A sentence of death in your own soul is a mighty quickener of supplication. When your spirit is overwhelmed with sorrow, then look up to Christ, the Savior, and find Him to be your soul's joy! Our desires are apt to sleep, but when the Lord, by His Spirit, reveals to us our spiritual poverty, we long, pine and sigh for spiritual blessings.
When a man, out of the anguish of his heart cries for mercy, then he begins to search out and lay hold upon the promise. To bring the promise to remembrance is a part of the Holy Spirit's work–He takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us. Oh, how blessedly a man can pray when he gets hold of a promise, when he is sure that God has a blessing in store for him, when he is positive that the Lord is faithful to His covenant and will not withhold any good thing from him! The Lord also works in us strong faith, holy perseverance and high expectancy. And in all these ways He prepares our hearts to pray.
Nor is this all. The text does not say that God will only prepare the heart to pray, but it says, "You will prepare the heart," and this is a wider work, making ready for other matters besides prayer. He will prepare the heart to receive the answer, for many of us are not as yet ready to enjoy what God is ready to bestow. Do you need anything which Jesus can give you? Give your heart up to the Holy Spirit, that He may prepare you to seek the blessing and prepare you to receive the blessing when the time comes for the Lord to grant it. "You will prepare their heart"–this is wonderful condescension on God's part–and on our part we ought to feel the utmost encouragement to prepare our own hearts for earnest supplication.
Lastly, PRAYER FROM PREPARED HEARTS MUST BE HEARD. "You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear." I wish you would join these two sentences together in your minds and carry them home with you. Let the two bells ring in harmony–"You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear." Ring them over and over, again, and let their blended music linger in your ears.
First, if God has had love enough to prepare your heart to pray, He has Grace enough to give you the blessing. The more difficult thing of the two is not to give the blessing, but to prepare your heart to cry for it! If He has done the one, He will certainly do the other. Consider the truthfulness, the faithfulness and the goodness of God–and you will see that it is not possible that He should teach a man to pray for a blessing which He will not give! I cannot imagine any of you tantalizing your child by exciting in him a desire that you do not intend to gratify. It were a very ungenerous thing to offer alms to the poor and then, when they hold out their hand for it, to mock their poverty with a denial. It were a cruel addition to the miseries of the sick if they were taken to the hospital and left there to die untended and uncared for.
Where God leads you to pray, He means you to receive. You find a holy desire in your heart? The Lord put that desire into your heart and, for the honor of His infinite majesty, lest He stain His goodness and dishonor His great name, He must hear you! With what comfort would I address those here who are beginning to pray. I know I speak to some who are uneasy, unrestful. You tell us you are seeking peace, that day and night a desire for salvation occupies the entire chamber of your soul. Well, this did not come from your own nature–neither the devil nor the old Adam has taught you to pray!
Dear Hearer, you can be sure that the great Father who is moving you to cry to Him is hearing you! He is inclining His ear to catch the faintest moan of your spirit. Believe that He is hearing you. Cast yourself at the feet of His dear Son. Behold the wounds of Jesus–let them invite you to draw near to God. I know of no such eloquent mouths as the wounds of the dying Lord! Let them persuade you to come to Jesus–to trust, to rest at His dear feet–for since He has inclined your heart to pray, He is about to hear you and bless you! The Lord be with you for Jesus' sake. Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 102.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–34 (VERSION II), 998, 86.