Vel. 19, No. 6
Why Should We Pray? Does God
Answer Prayer?
(Program for Week Ending June 11}
BY GORDON IH. SMITH
Notes 10 LEADERS: Quiet Thought: (To be followed by a
few moments of silent prayer and then a few sentence prayers.)
“Jesus, the carpenter, hallow our daily work;
Jesus, the Christ, deliver the world that waits in
need of Theo;
Jesus, the Saviour, save us from ourselves;
Jesus, the Life-giver, make us living men.”
Hymns Suggested: “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” “The Larger
Prayer.”
Scripture Reading : Mark 1: 21-42.
Poem: “A Prayer,” opposite June in the Morning Watch
Calendar,
Bible Doctrines: Gifts of the Spirit
1. When Christ ascended, what gifts did He give to men
and for what purpose? Eph, 4: 8-15,
2, How are these gifts elsewhere spoken of? Enumerate
them. 1 Cor. 12: 27-30,
3. What special gift is ntentioned as desirable above all
. others? 1 Cor. 14:1, 3, 4.
4. What is the purpose of the gift of prophcey? Hosea 12:
10; 2 Peter 1: 21,
5. How fully does God recognize the gift of propheey and
how does He reveal Himself to the prophets Amos 3:7;
Num. 12: 6.
6. This gift was manifested in the New Testament church.
Acts 11: 27, 28.
7. What will characterize the last or remnant church? Rev,
12:17; 19: 10. D. A. OcHs.
Opening Talk: If We Had Been There
(The Bible references need not be read, bub rather the story of
each incident be told briefly, graphically in earnest conversalional
language, and a moment of guiet meditation allowed.)
Read Luke 11: 1. )
A Moment of Great Danger—ILuke 4:28-30, Can we see
Him in this turbulent mob eager for His life, yet without fear
or confusion, Master of the situation and passing quietly on His
way?
Touching o¢ Leper—Mark 1: 40-42, Actually touching the
dreaded, loathsome flesh of the leper, The marvelous result.
Can you sce the others draw back in horror? Can you see Him
in the fearless compassionate certainty of Ilis power?
Master of the Storm.—Mark 4: 36-39. Seasoned men of the
sea, accustomed to its storms, yet in this one fearful of their
lives. This Man securely unafraid, conscious of His safety.
Help to All Who Came—Mark 1: 32-34, Surrounded by the
mass of helpless suffering humanity, giving to all, possessing
that help which each scemed most to need, Was it really sof
In a real community among real people? Do we believe it?
Now read Mark 1: 35, “a great while before day,” in His place
of prayer. How mueh do you think His prayer habits had
to ‘do with His strength and power and fearless mastery of
all occasions? Co
If, as one of His disciples, you had seen these and countless
other evidences of wonderful daily living, of power, of assur-
anee under all circumstances; if you had with half-wakeful
eyes seen Him slip away from the resting place ef the group,
morning after morning, to go to His place of prayer; if you
with them had seen and heard, do you think you would have
gensed the value of those prayer hours, and one day have asked,
with them, “Lord, teach us to pray”?! G. H. 8,
Round Table Discussion: Four Reasons for Prayer
(Appoint individuals to lead ont in each topic.)
I. Tae Furinity oF OUR Owy EFFORTS. .
Key Thought: “Sooner or later everybody comes to some
erizls or emergency where he desperately needs to know how
to pray.”
Romans 7:18, 19. Is Paul’s problem general te all men?
Read “Messages,” p. 247, first sentence, Cite instances of
individuals whose good intentions have failed in their efferts
toward better lives. Is ‘this quotation really true? and if so,
can the sitvation be met without prayer? “No man can froly
say he has made a success of life imtil he has written at the
top of his jeurnal, ‘Enter God’?
THE CHURCH OFFICERS’ GAZETTE 9
IT. EvipgNcEs oF SPIRITUAL Forces Waiting 10 AD Us,
Hey Thought:
“Couldst thon in vigion see
Thyself the man God meant,
Thou nevermore couldst be
The man thou art—econtent.”
Prayer is not an easy formula for magic results. Prayer
is not asking God to change His mind. Prayer is not depend-
ent upon miraculous answers to be successful, God has a
purpose in our lives: “Higher than the highest human thought
can reach is God’s ideal for His children.” Would that state-
ment be reasonable were there not some way to commune with
God and to open our lives to Him? Cite interesting answers to
prayer, Read “Messages,” p. 247, sentence 2.
III, Our DEBT OF GRATITUDE.
Key Thought: Psalms 145: 8 9.
How many and countless are the blessings we daily receive
from God¢ What privileges are ours today because of the work-
ing of God’s Spirit in the lives and upon the hearts of men in
ages past? For Him they toiled; endured persecution, priva-
tion; crossed unknown seas and lands; died. For Him—but
for us too. Read Eph. 5:20; 1 Cor. 15: 57; Heb. 13: 5.
TV. PRAYER A MOLDING FORCE IN LIFE AND CHARACTER,
Key Thought: “Prayer does not bring God down fo us, but
brings us up to Him.”—*“Steps to Christ,” p. 97.
Jesus asked the diseiples to pray that laborers be sent into
the harvest; as a result of this constantly expressed interest
they gave their own lives to His cause, “Communion with God
encourages good thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions
of truth, and lofty purposes of action.’—*“Messages,” p. 247.
Read also, “Prayer Brings Power,” p. 248,
“My son, give Me thine heart,” It is the desires and am-
bitions of life that God agks us to open to Him. Through the
privilege of prayer we may open our lives to Him, Through
the habit of prayer we keep our minds conseious of God and
His purpose in us, “Prayer changes things,” G. H, S.
Reading or Talk: Does God Always Answer Prayer?
THE word of the Master in John 14: 13, 14, is positive.
“For every earncst prayer put up in faith for anything, an-
swers will be returned. They may not come just as we have
expected; but they will come—not perhaps as we have devised,
but at the very time when we most need them,” This very
positive gfatement, from “Testimonies,” Volume III, page 209,
reveals the difference between that which we may think best
and that which our Father may know to be best.
God is a God of love gs well as of infinite power. He is a
God of law and order. Hig great purpose is for the unending
happiness of the beings He has created. We call i heaven.
It will be so, not because of its material wealth, but because
of the excellence of the character of its inhabitants, The
working out of that character, the promotion of such activities
as will bring about this new condition—is His divine purpose,
in brief,
Constantly, in His ministry, the Master endeavored to em-
phasize the value of spiritual things and of character, and to
express the decidedly secondary importance, if any, of the
physical or the material, Better to lose the offending hand
or eye, by way of illustration, than to lose the soul, Surely a
discussion of the question of answered prayer can be fairly
considered only on this basis. Prayer, to be sincere, where it
deals with material things, must have unselfish relation to the
achievement of good ultimately. “In His name” —we could not
ask to the defeating of His purpose, nor to disregard the
prineiples of His laws.
Let us fellow through a few of the interesting instances that
are related to our question: Job sorely tried and miserably
comforted. A thousand reasens for personal commiseration,
for eemplaint. Satan accusing him of righteousness for profit,
God upholding his spiritual appreciation, It is written, “The
Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his
friends.”
Panl’s thorn in the flesh troubled him sorely. Tt inter-
fered with his great werk, Tt must go—Paul’s viewpoint.
A strong-willed, aggressive, almost stubborn man, whose very
will might be his undoing, He must be kept conscious of
human frailty—God’s viewpoint. Strange, the thorn was not
removed. KEven the prayer was forbidden. Answered? Im
the great wisdom ef the Father, yes, In the after testimony
of Paul, yes. A The answer sealed in the stalement of victory
won and a crown assured as Paul came to the end ef the trail
The disciples’ prayer for the casting out of an unclean gpirit
Preserve “Qualities of a Missionary,” by C. P, Crager, in July “Reviews.”