And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of
their many words. Matthew 6:7
Prayer
is lost because of a lack of genuine expectation – it is mere form.
The
only thing which gives prayer its value with God and makes it a thing really
relishable upon the part of the offerer, is the element of faith – expecting to win by its use.
While
praying people are few as compared to the population of a given community,
still people who pray (taking for instance an entire nation as a whole) make an
immense number. To count heads is to
find masses of many who—more or less often and more or less sincerely—pray. Then to count up the number of prayers
offered in a given space of time, is to see that that number would be vast.
I
do not want to be found, or to find myself, taking a least hopeful view of
things, but I must respect facts and not close my eyes to situations that
actually exist; for how else could one with intelligent sincerity seek to
better them? The facts are: little is being
done in the presence of all this prayer I have mentioned – little done in
evangelizing the community at large, or in upbuilding the character of the
individual who is himself doing the praying.
These
findings force me to the conclusion that the prayers are largely forms – a sort of perfunctory exercise
to keep up religion and endeavor to satisfy one’s conscience. I do not mean to say that any hypocrisy is
intended; by no means would I intimate this; but the real life is gone out on the altar of the soul, while yet people are not
ready to give up something of the form of religion.
--Rev. Charles Fowler, 1912
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