1. Be discreet in your importunity. Two parables are devoted to the
inculcation of importunity. And it is a duty to which our own
intolerable cravings drive us. But there is an importunity which
offends God. There is a spiritual instinct which warns us when we are
transgressing the bounds of propriety; a perception whereby Paul
discerned, when he had prayed thrice for the removal of the thorn in
his flesh, that it would not be removed. There are things, about
which a heavenly-minded person feels it to be unbecoming to be
over-solicitous; and there are things regarding which it is somehow
borne in upon us that we are not to attain them. There are natural
disabilities, physical or mental or social weaknesses and
embarrassments, regarding which we sometimes cannot but cry out to
God for relief, and yet as we cry we feel that they will not be
removed, and that we must learn to bear the burden cheerfully.
2. On the other hand, we must not be false in prayer. We must utter
to God our real desires in their actual intensity; while at the same
time we must learn to moderate desires which we see to be unpleasing
to God. We must learn to say with truth:
Not what we wish but what we want
Thy favouring grace supply;
The good unasked, in mercy grant,
The ill, though asked, deny.
Learn why God does not make the coveted blessing accessible to you,
and you will learn to pray freely and wisely. Try to discover whether
there is not some peculiar advantage attaching to your present
state--some more wholesome example you can furnish, some more helpful
attitude towards others; some healthier exercise of the manlier
graces of Christianity, which could not be maintained were your
request granted.
3. If your life is marred by the gift you have wrung by your
importunity from a reluctant God, be wise and humble in your dealing
with that gift. If you have suddenly and painfully learned that in
the ordinary-looking circumstances of your life God is touching you
at every point, and if you clearly see that in giving you the fruit
of your desires He is punishing you, there is one only way by which
you can advance to a favourable settlement, and that is by a real
submission to God. Perhaps in no circumstances is a man more tempted
to break with God. At first he cannot reconcile himself to the idea
that ruin should be the result of prayer, and he is inclined to say,
If this be the result of waiting on God, the better course is to
refuse His guidance. In his heart he knows he is wrong, but there is
an appearance of justice in what he says, and it is so painful to
have the heart broken, to admit we have been foolish and wrong, and
humbly to beseech God to repair the disasters our own self-will has
wrought.