Quiet Talks on Prayer by S. D. Gordon

Author:S. D. Gordon [GORDON, S. D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-63058-127-5
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

III.

How to Pray

1

THE “HOW” OF RELATIONSHIP

God’s Ambassadors

If I had an ambition to be an ambassador to England, there would be two essential things involved. The first essential would be to receive the appointment. I would need to have a relationship with our president, possess certain qualifications considered essential by him, and secure from his hand the appointment and the official credentials of my appointment. That would establish my relationship to the foreign court as the representative of my own country, and my right to transact business in her name.

But having gotten that far I might go over there and make bad mistakes. I might get our diplomatic relations tangled up, requiring many explanations and maybe apologies, and leaving unpleasant memories for a long time to come. Such incidents have not been infrequent. Nations are very sensitive. Governmental affairs must be handled with great diplomacy. There would be a second thing that, if I were a wise enough man to be an ambassador, I would likely do. I would go to see several experienced ambassadors and have as many interviews with them as possible, learning all I possibly could from them of London official life, court etiquette, personages to be dealt with, things to do, and things to avoid. How to be a successful diplomat and further the good feeling between the two governments and win friends for our country among the sturdy Britons would be my one absorbing thought. And having gotten all I could in that way I would be constantly on the alert with all the mental keenness I could command to practice being a successful ambassador.

The first of these would make me technically an ambassador. The second would tend toward giving me some skill as an ambassador. Now there are the same two hows in praying. First the relationship must be established before any business can be transacted. Then skill must be acquired in the transacting of the business at hand.

Right now let’s talk about the first of these, the how of relationship in prayer. The basis of prayer is right relationship with God. Prayer is representing God in the spirit realm of this world. It is insisting upon His rights down in this sphere of action. It is standing for Him with full powers from Him. Clearly the only basis of such relationship to God is Jesus. We have been outlawed by sin. We were in touch with God. We broke with Him. The break could not be repaired by us. Jesus came. He was God and Man. He touches both. We get back only through Him. The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer. Through it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only as I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only as I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life, can I practice prayer.

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