Camp Meeting Devotions - Day Eighteen

Matthew 7:7-8 (NASB)
⁷  "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
⁸  "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Charles Finney was a brilliant-minded lawyer. He was not saved. He did attend religious services and prayer meetings. He listened to the prayers offered up by others for months. He was not impressed. While he heard their many words, he did not see answers to their prayers. Logically he deduced that prayers, especially their prayers, did not work. 

One day someone in the group asked his permission if they could pray for him during those meetings. His response is sobering. "No. I suppose I need to be prayed for, for I am conscious that I am a sinner, but I do not see that it will do any good for you to pray for me, for you are continually asking, what do you receive. You have been praying for revival of religion ever since I have been in Adams, NY, and yet you have it not. You have been praying for the Holy Spirit to descend upon yourselves and yet complaining of your leanness. You have prayed enough since I have been attending these meetings to have prayed the devil our of Adams, if there were any virtue in your prayers. But here you are praying on and complaining still."

Finney knew he sinned. He even knew he needed someone to pray for him. He wrestled with the fact that he was not converted for some following this incident. His words sting when he comments that he did not see that it would do any good for those people to pray for him. I wonder if it would be any different for the rest of us if we had asked Finney if we could pray for him? Would he see any difference in our prayers? Could we point out a long list of answered prayers that glorified God? 

We are scheduled to have a prayer meeting this Sunday night. Similar prayer meetings have been held in the past. Words will be offered and petitions pleaded. At the end and in the weeks that follow will we be able to point to any great work of God as a result of our praying? Do we really believe the phrases and cliches we pray? Have we conditioned ourselves to ask without expectation of receiving?

That is not what Jesus said in the passage for today. The point of asking is to receive. The point of seeking is to find. The point of knocking is to have doors opened. May we never be content to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking without any results. Do we really believe the things we pray for?

 Many factors must be considered when praying. Do we pray the will of God? What He wants to do and answer? Do we pray in faith? Are we confident that God can and will answer what we petition? Do we pray long enough? Have there been times when we lost heart and gave up praying for something too soon? Can we really take Jesus at His word in Matthew 7:7-8? 

• Read I John 5:14-15 and pray through the truths in those verses. 
• Reread Matthew 7:7-8 and consider if you are experiencing those things in your prayers. 
• Read Luke 18:1 and identify times when you gave up too soon praying about something. 
• Identify specific answers to recent prayers.