| The Hidden Life |
Chapter 9 |
Page 5 |
Samuel said it would be a sin against the Lord for him to cease praying for the people. It would be failing in a duty, and that is always a sin against God. We are to represent God in this world. He never ceases to love and care for his children. He is kind to the unthankful and the evil. He wants us to have the same spirit toward others that he has, — to be always interest in them. For us to be indifferent to the good of any human being is ungodlike. To cease to pray for any one is to fail in part of our duty.
Then, God has ordained that many of his blessings shall come to his children through prayer. He is ready to bestow upon them the favors of his love; but he would be inquired to do it for them. He says, “Ask, and ye shall receive.” That is, the gifts are within our reach, but they must be claimed; they wait to be sought. This is true of good things, both for ourselves and for others. We do not know how much we miss of the grace and help and fullness of life which God has in store for us, simply because we do not ask more largely. When we cease to pray for ourselves, or when we ask only little things, we impoverish our life.
The same is true of prayer for others. God has blessings manifold for our children, — blessings which he is eager to put into the lives; but we must ask him for them. If we do not, the blessing will not be bestowed, and the responsibility for their missing it will be ours. We have illustrations of this in the stores of Christ’s healings. Fathers and mothers came with their sick children, and at first they could not be cured because the parents had not faith. No doubt in many homes today children fail at least of fullest, richest blessing because of their parents’ unbelief or small faith. Then, what shall we say of the altogether prayerless homes, where fathers and mothers love their children deeply and tenderly, and yet bow no knee in supplication for them? What a sad, irreparable wrong they inflict upon their children’s lives! For the world is very full of peril for young lives. We grieve when a child dies; but we should remember that it is our living children who are really in danger, not our dead, who are safe with God.
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