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Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing
This idea of prayer is an outworking of the principle of self-expiation
which lies at the foundation of all systems of false religion. The
Pharisees had adopted this pagan idea of prayer, and it is by no means
extinct in our day, even among those who profess to be Christians. The
repetition of set, customary phrases, when the heart feels no need of
God, is of the same character as the “vain repetitions” of the heathen.
Prayer is not an expiation for sin; it has no virtue or merit of
itself. All the flowery words at our command are not equivalent to
one holy desire. The most eloquent prayers are but idle words if they
do not express the true sentiments of the heart. But the prayer that
comes from an earnest heart, when the simple wants of the soul are
expressed, as we would ask an earthly friend for a favor, expecting
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it to be granted—this is the prayer of faith. God does not desire our
ceremonial compliments, but the unspoken cry of the heart broken and
subdued with a sense of its sin and utter weakness finds its way to the
Father of all mercy.
“When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites.”—Matthew 6:16.
The fasting which the word of God enjoins is something more
than a form. It does not consist merely in refusing food, in wearing
sackcloth, in sprinkling ashes upon the head. He who fasts in real
sorrow for sin will never court display.
The object of the fast which God calls upon us to keep is not to
afflict the body for the sin of the soul, but to aid us in perceiving
the grievous character of sin, in humbling the heart before God and
receiving His pardoning grace. His command to Israel was, “Rend
your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.”
Joel 2:13
.
It will avail nothing for us to do penance or to flatter ourselves that
by our own works we shall merit or purchase an inheritance among
the saints. When the question was asked Christ, “What shall we do,
that we might work the works of God?” He answered, “This is the
work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”
John 6:28,
29
. Repentance is turning from self to Christ; and when we receive
Christ so that through faith He can live His life in us, good works will
be manifest.
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