The Duty, Nature, and Blessings of Prayer
R. P. Buddicom, M. A. 1 Kings 3:5-15 In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give you.… I. THE DUTY OF PRAYER. It is a fundamental law of our nature, on the mere supposition that there is a God in heaven, to ask His help. It is the plain, practical demonstration of our manifold obligations to God, of our own impotence, misery, and dependence; of Him as the source of all our hopes, and the one open, all-sufficient fountain of every blessing of peace and purity and power. II. THE NATURE OF PRAYER. 1. It must be the utterance and the feeling of earnestness and fervour, under the sense of helplessness, misery, and sin, under the persuasion that if God help us not, there is no store whence shall man help us. 2. True supplication, to which God hath linked a blessing, is patient, abiding, persevering. 3. Confidence in God is an essential element in gracious and acceptable prayer. It does no honour to Him to adopt us into His family, that we should be unwilling on the one hand, or afraid on the other, to lay our wants, our wishes, nay our sins, freely before Him. As we have a new and living way into the Holiest, by the blood of Jesus, we may be sure that our entrance thither must be acceptable unto God. III. THE BLESSINGS OF PRAYER. Answers shall be returned. When God said to Solomon, "Ask what I shall give thee," He never meant to mock the youthful monarch.s petition. The words of Truth Eternal are fully and for ever pledged. "Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Prayer, truly, fervently, and faithfully made, is like the bow of Jonathan, it never returns empty. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. WEB: In Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I shall give you."