Prevailing Prayer

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. JAMES 5:17

Moody’s book Prevailing Prayer, subtitled What Hinders It?, is not a treatise. Like most of his books, it grew out of addresses, and it is full of other people’s voices: Puritans, Scottish preachers, hymn writers, and men and women he had met in the enquiry room. But its argument is his own, and it is one of the most practical books on prayer ever written for ordinary Christians. The next four chapters follow it.

Men and women of prayer

The book opens with a sweeping claim. “Those who have left the deepest impression on this sin-cursed earth have been men and women of prayer.” Moody runs through the Bible to prove it: Abraham, Jacob at Peniel, Hannah, Elijah on Carmel, Elisha at the bedside of a dead child, Daniel, Paul and Silas singing at midnight in the prison at Philippi. And he takes great comfort in the verse from James that stands at the head of this chapter. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. The people who were mighty in prayer were not a different species. They lived in darker days than ours and had the same weaknesses. Their God still lives, and we have the same access to Him.

The praying Christ

The heart of Moody’s opening chapter is Christ Himself. “Every great crisis in His life was preceded by prayer.” He prayed at His baptism, and the heavens opened. He prayed on the mount of transfiguration, and His face was changed. He spent the whole night in prayer before He chose the twelve and preached the sermon on the mount. He prayed at the grave of Lazarus before He called him out.

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. LUKE 6:12

Moody draws the lesson for preachers and workers. If our words are to reach the hearts of people, we must first get power with God. We so often fail, he says, because we try to win people without first speaking to the Father.

He notices too that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, not to preach. “I have often said that I would rather know how to pray like Daniel than to preach like Gabriel.” It was a remarkable thing for the most famous preacher of his age to say.

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. LUKE 11:1

Short in public, long in secret

Moody makes a practical observation that will be welcome to anyone who has sat through a long prayer meeting. The Lord’s public prayers were short. The longest recorded, in John 17, can be read in a few minutes. When He was alone with the Father He might pray all night. “My experience is that those who pray most in their closets generally make short prayers in public.” The publican prayed seven words; the woman of Canaan said, Lord, help me; the dying thief asked only to be remembered. Moody’s counsel: let our prayers be to the point, just telling God what we want.

Nine elements

Having shown that prayer is the great secret of spiritual power, Moody sets out what he calls the nine elements essential to true prayer. They give the book its shape, and it is worth having them in one place.

Adoration comes first, because we cannot meet God on a level. Confession follows, because sin must be put out of the way. Restitution means making good the wrong wherever we can. Thanksgiving is gratitude for what God has already done. Forgiveness is letting go of every grudge against others. Unity is love among God’s people. Faith is confidence that God hears. Petition is actually asking for something. And submission is readiness to accept God’s will, whatever the answer.

Moody did not mean these as nine steps to be taken in order every time one prays. The woman of Canaan did not work through a list. They are nine things that belong to a life of prayer, and nine places to look when prayer has gone dry. That is the force of the subtitle. If prayer seems to go unanswered, Moody wants us to ask what hinders it.

Adoration

The first element is adoration, and Moody treats it seriously. He turns to Daniel’s great prayer, which begins not with a request but with God.

And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments. DANIEL 9:4

“Daniel took his right place before God—in the dust; he put God in His right place.” So did Isaiah, when he saw the Lord high and lifted up and the seraphim covering their faces. So did Job, when God finally spoke and he laid his hand on his mouth. So did Peter, who fell at Jesus’ knees and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. “Holiness belongs to God; sinfulness belongs to us.”

Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ISAIAH 6:3

Moody saw that much prayer is selfish at the root. We come to God for what He can give us. Adoration corrects that by beginning with who He is. He quotes Newman Hall comparing selfish prayers to the raven that went out from Noah’s ark and never came back, and prayers for God’s glory to the dove that returned with an olive leaf. And he thought the irreverence of his own day a sign of evil times. He wanted Christians to hallow God’s name before they asked for anything.

Weighing the book

Prevailing Prayer is a book of conditions, and that is both its strength and its danger. Its strength is that it refuses to treat prayer as magic. Moody is right that unconfessed sin, unforgiveness and division choke prayer, and right that the Bible says so. Its danger is that an anxious reader may come away thinking that every unanswered prayer is his own fault, and that he must get all nine elements right before God will listen. Moody’s own final chapters correct that impression: God sometimes delays, sometimes says no out of love, and sometimes answers after we are dead. And the Father who taught us to pray is not an examiner. He is a Father, who hears the stammering prayer of a child. The nine elements are not a gate God keeps shut until we qualify. They are the shape of a life lived near Him.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. JAMES 5:16

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Look at the last week of your prayers. How much was asking, and how much was adoring God for who He is?

2. Before your next time of prayer, read Isaiah 6:1–8 and spend five minutes simply worshipping.

3. Moody said he would rather pray like Daniel than preach like Gabriel. What would change in your priorities if you believed that?

4. Keep your prayers in public short this month, and your prayers in private longer.

5. Read the opening chapter of Prevailing Prayer, The Prayers of the Bible, in the Ochorus library.

A PRAYER

O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping covenant and mercy with those who love You: I bow before You.

Holiness belongs to You; sinfulness belongs to me. Forgive me for coming to You so often only for what You can give.

Lord Jesus, You prayed before every great crisis of Your life. Teach me to pray as You prayed.

Make me one who prevails with You in secret before I speak to anyone in public. Hallowed be Your name. Amen.