Article October 3, 1914 Issue

Prayer of Faith

SAMUEL GREENWOOD

The only kind of prayer that was used or commended by the Master and his apostles was the prayer of faith, that is, a living reliance upon what they understood of God. A mere perfunctory supplication to Deity has no practical bearing upon human salvation; for until one begins actually to commune with God in his own consciousness, his devotions do not bring the things of God into his life. The real purpose of prayer is not, as some may suppose, to persude God to pass over one's shortcomings, or to win admission to an undeserved heaven, but to bring mankind to such a recognition of the divine nature and being as will transform human thought and life.

Two essentials of prayer are thus set forth in the book of Hebrews: first, "He that cometh to God must believe that he is," and second, "that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." The first may seem superfluous to the average Christian, who would naturally deny any imputation of skepticism; but from the prevalence of evil conditions, even among Christian peoples, it would seem that practical faith in God is sadly lacking, else that God is not rightly understood. This first essential might be clearer if rendered thus: He that cometh to God must believe that He is what He is. Many have been taught to believe that God is what He is not, and prayer from that standpoint could not prove permanently beneficial. Most persons believe that God is, though their beliefs as to what He is may widely differ; but unless our belief about God is true, our prayers do not bring us into communion with Him. In this case a false belief about God may be said to be the only God we have, and this false belief can do no more for us spiritually, in making us godlike, than the false belief that two and two are five can do for us mathematically.

If we come to God as one who takes cognizance of evil, and therefore believes in it, we cannot rise above our own sense of evil or be delivered from the fear of it. Misled by false teaching, some pray to God as virtually a participant in evil, believing Him to be the sender of disease and death. If we accept the teaching and works of Christ Jesus, we should know there is no such God as this, and that prayer offered on such a basis would be as vain as if offered to a wooden image. Only the true God is true; and he whose concept of God is not true has no knowledge of God at all. If there could be evil in the divine consciousness, it would establish God's imperfection, a position which is manifestly unthinkable. This word evil, which includes all the phenomena of human discord, designates not what God is, but what He is not, the suppositional opposite of infinity.

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