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Chapter 3: The Conditions of Prayer
3. The confidence with which we should pray
Foundation of our confidence
But on what, a man will say, am I, a miserable sinner, to found
this certain confidence of obtaining what I ask? On what? On the
promise made by Jesus Christ: "Ask, and you shall receive."
[John 16: 24] "Who will fear to be deceived, when the truth
promises?" says St. Augustine. How can we doubt that we shall be
heard, when God, Who is truth itself, promises to give us that
which we ask of Him in prayer? "We should not be exhorted to
ask," says the same Father, "unless He meant to give."
Certainly God would not have exhorted us to ask Him for favours,
if He had not determined to grant them; but this is the very
thing to which He exhorts us so strongly, and which is repeated
so often in the Scriptures-----pray, ask, seek, and you shall
obtain what you desire: "Whatever you will, seek and it shall be
done to you." [John 15: 7] And in order that we may pray to Him
with due confidence, our Saviour has taught us, in the "Our
Father," that when we have recourse to Him for the graces
necessary to salvation [all of which are included in the
petitions of the Lord's Prayer] we should call Him, not Lord,
but Father-----"Our Father"-----because it is His will that we
should ask God for grace with the same confidence with which a
son, when in want or sick, asks food or medicine from his own
father.
If a son is dying of hunger, he has only to make his case known
to his father, and his father will forthwith provide him with
food; and if he has received a bite from a venomous serpent, he
has only to show his father the wound, and the father will
immediately apply whatever remedy he has.
Trusting, therefore, in God's promises, let us always pray with
confidence; not vacillating, but stable and firm, as the Apostle
says: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without
wavering; for He is faithful that hath promised." [Heb. 10: 23]
As it is perfectly certain that God is faithful in His promises,
so ought our faith also to be perfectly certain that He will
hear us when we pray. And although sometimes, when we are in a
state of aridity, or disturbed by some fault we have committed,
we perhaps do not feel while praying that sensible confidence
which we would wish to experience, yet, for all this, let us
force ourselves to pray, and to pray without ceasing; for God
will not neglect to hear us. Nay, rather He will hear us more
readily; because we shall then pray with more distrust of
ourselves; and confiding only in the goodness and faithfulness
of God, Who has promised to hear the man who prays to Him. Oh,
how God is pleased in the time of our tribulations, of our
fears, and of our temptations, to see us hope against hope; that
is, in spite of the feeling of diffidence which we then
experience because of our desolation! This is that for which the
Apostle praises the patriarch Abraham, "who against hope,
believed in hope." [Rom. 4: 18]
St. John says that he who reposes a sure trust in God certainly
will become a Saint: "And every one that hath this hope in Him
sanctifieth himself, as he also is holy." [1 John 3: 3] For God
gives abundant graces to them that trust in Him. By this
confidence the host of Martyrs, of Virgins, even of children, in
spite of the dread of the torments which their persecutors
prepared for them, overcame both their tortures and their
persecutors. Sometimes, I say, we pray, but it seems to us that
God will not hear us. Alas!
Let us not then neglect to persevere in prayer and in hope; let
us then say, with Job, "Although He should kill me, I will trust
in Him." [Job 13: 15] O my God! Though Thou hast driven me from
Thy presence, I will not cease to pray, and to hope in Thy
mercy. Let us do so, and we shall obtain what we want from God.
So did the Canaanite woman, and she obtained all that she wished
from Jesus Christ. This woman had a daughter possessed by a
devil, and prayed our Saviour to deliver her: "Have mercy on me,
my daughter is grievously tormented by a devil." [Matt. 15: 22]
Our Lord answered her, that He was not sent for the Gentiles, of
whom she was one, but for the Jews. She, however, did not lose
heart, but renewed her prayer with confidence: Lord, Thou canst
console me! Thou must console me: "Lord, help me!" Jesus
answered, but as to the bread of the children, it is not good to
give it to the dogs: "It is not good to take the children's
bread, and to cast it to the dogs." But, my Lord, she answered,
even the dogs are allowed to have the fragments of bread which
fall from the table: "Yea, Lord; for the whelps eat of the
crumbs that fall from the tables of their masters."
Then our Saviour, seeing the great confidence of this woman,
praised her, and did what she asked, saying: "O woman, great is
thy faith; be it done to thee as thou wilt." For who, says
Ecclesiasticus, has ever called on God for aid, and has been
neglected and left unaided by Him? "Or who hath called upon Him,
and He hath despised him?" [Ecclus. 2: 12]
St. Augustine says that prayer is a key which opens Heaven to
us; the same moment in which our prayer ascends to God, the
grace which we ask for descends to us: "The prayer of the just
is the key of Heaven; the petition ascends, and the mercy of God
descends." [Serm. 47. E.B. app.] The royal prophet writes that
our supplications and God's mercy are united together: "Blessed
is God, Who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy for
me." [Ps. 65: 20] And hence the same St. Augustine says that
when we are praying to God, we ought to be certain that God is
hearing us: "When you see that your prayer is not removed from
you, be sure that His mercy is not removed from you." [In Ps.
65]
And for myself, I speak the truth, I never feel greater
consolation, nor a greater confidence of my salvation, than when
I am praying to God, and recommending myself to Him. And I think
that the same thing happens to all other believers; for the
other signs of our salvation are uncertain and unstable; but
that God hears the man who prays to Him with confidence is an
infallible truth, as it is infallible that God cannot fail in
His promises.
When we find ourselves weak, and unable to overcome any passion,
or any great difficulty, so as to fulfill that which God
requires of us, let us take courage and say, with the Apostle,
"I can do all things in Him, Who strengtheneth me." [Phil. 4:
13] Let us not say, as some do, I cannot; I distrust myself.
With our own strength certainly we can do nothing; but with
God's help we can do everything. If God said to anyone, take
this mountain on your back and carry it, for I am helping you,
would not the man be a mistrustful fool if he answered, I will
not take it; for I have not strength to carry it? And thus, when
we know how miserable and weak we are, and when we find
ourselves most encompassed with temptations, let us not lose
heart; but let us lift up our eyes to God; and say, with David,
"The Lord is my helper; and I will despise my enemies." [Ps.
117: 7]
With the help of my Lord, I shall overcome and laugh to scorn all
the assaults of my foes, And when we find ourselves in danger of
offending God, or in any other critical position, and are too
confused to know what is best to be done, let us recommend
ourselves to God, saying, "The Lord is my light and my
salvation; whom shall I fear?" [Ps. 26: 1] And let us be sure
that God will then certainly give us light, and will save us
from every evil.
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