Proverbs 15:8-9, Prayer – Delusion or Delight!
September 15, Proverbs 15:8-9
Daniel 9:1-13; Acts 10:1-4, 24-33 “Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22).
Prayer – Delusion or Delight!
Ritualism and liberalism have eaten the heart out of Protestantism. What remains of a once great testimony is now an empty shell. Many either do not know, or will admit, that such a departure has taken place within their ranks. In Proverbs 15:8 we meet the word prayer for the first time, but it is repeated twice more.
1. The Purity of Prayer: The prayer of the upright is his delight. Is prayer the answer to this spiritual deadness? We hear frequent calls to prayer rallies and prayer breakfasts today, but don’t ask about Doctrines or Distinctives. Don’t ask if the participants are Catholic or Charismatic, Muslim or Hindu, liberal or evangelical. We are all brothers and sisters, and the Holy Spirit is leading us all, or so the appeal goes. All Christians should be for prayer, shouldn’t they? Yes, but God’s Word must be the touchstone for our worship, including our prayers (15:29; 28:9). The Holy Spirit never contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture. You must “pray David’s prayer, if you would sing David’s song.”
2. The Passion of Prayer: Labore est orare! To truly pray is to labour! Our proverb today speaks of him that followeth after righteousness (v.9). Follow after is an intensive verb. It indicated the passion of one in hot pursuit of righteousness. It is such only that God hears and loves (Matt. 5:6). Vital prayer seldom, if ever, comes out of a Prayer Book! Prayer is demanding work, exhausting work, but also blessed work. Our hearts are so wayward, so cold! Prayer is hard work because it is heart work. “Prayer must not come from the roof of the mouth, but from the root of the heart.” There is peace and strength in such prayer, but there is also inexpressible sacrifice. Prayer is nothing less than submission to the will of God. Is this the reason why such prayer is rare? All the mass rallies, all the gimmicks, cannot take the place of the true passion of a soul on fire for God. “Prayer is God’s rod which brings streams of blessing from the Rock of affliction.”
3. The Person of Prayer: Those who pray reveal their hearts before God. Prayer is one of the surest tests of Christian character and conviction. It is the prayer of the upright that God delights in (Pr. 15:8, 29). He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination (Pr. 28:9). Our first concern is to be upright, to be obedient to God’s Word. Our rightness before God is more important than our renown with men. Prayer with all sorts who “profess religion”, Christian or otherwise, violates God’s Word, and cannot be upright prayer. We must neither bend one way nor the other, but stand upright for the right. The end, however worthy, can never justify the means. “If we begin to shuffle and shift, we shall be left to shift for ourselves” (CHS), and we shall find heaven shut up to us (1 Kg. 8:35). E.M. Bounds, who wrote so much on the subject of Prayer, said, “Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need.”
Thought: We must do God’s work God’s way, never man’s way.
Prayer: Lord, kindle a flame of true prayer in these cold hearts of ours.