(1) Look at prayer for material blessings. but you say, look at a divided Christendom and at my own difficulties. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt."III. J. W. Buxton.We must be taught how to pray just as we must be taught how to walk. And in the last hour shall a man ask of Christ, "Whither am I going?" His very throne of grace, from which He breathes love and good-will to sinners, is founded on justice and judgment (Psalm 89:14). The promises of the covenant were all made to Jesus Christ, as the party who fulfilled the condition of the covenant (Galatians 3:16).3. What is a bad thing for a child cannot be a good thing for a man. )LinksJohn 16:24 NIVJohn 16:24 NLTJohn 16:24 ESVJohn 16:24 NASBJohn 16:24 KJVJohn 16:24 Bible AppsJohn 16:24 ParallelJohn 16:24 Biblia ParalelaJohn 16:24 Chinese BibleJohn 16:24 French BibleJohn 16:24 German BibleJohn 16:24 CommentariesBible Hub, (4)Permanent.2. There Christ presented Himself as the Answerer, because His purpose was to set forth His going to the Father as His elevation to a yet loftier position. And as for the difficulty of knowing what I am to believe about controverted questions, no doubt there will remain many gaps in the circle of our knowledge and much left obscure; but if we will keep ourselves near the Master, and use the helps that He gives us we shall not walk in darkness, but shall have light enough to be the Light of Life.II. He has no fears, he is a soldier that can both endure hardness and stand in the fight. Our oracle is the living God, and whenever we are in doubt, or difficulty, or danger, let us ask God about it. A Christian man who believes in prayer, ought to be able to speak to God anywhere. He must consider them fit to be offered in His name., or they are useless. The child fancied his mother would not have left him if she had loved him, and determined to send her a letter, and find out. Notice how certain such prayer is of being answered. He has been taught to draw, yet an artist detects at once that he does not know the very A B C of art. With us too often it is just the other way: "My will bedone." b. The ascension of Christ has opened doors for thought, for faith, for hope which were fast closed, until He had burst them asunder and passed to His throne. Besser, D. D.A wealthy heir presents thee with a cheque, signed with his name, for a sum of money, which thou art to fetch from his father. Well, it means this. Without the cheque thou wouldest receive nothing, for the father of the heir knows nothing of thy name; but because he sees written there the name of his son he presents thee with the whole amount which his son has commissioned thee to receive. A man with a prayer in his mouth would have no room for an oath, or a bad story. (a)That praying acceptably is a work quite beyond any power in us (2 Corinthians 3:5). Have not some of you prayed, looking upon God's mercy and grace as a sort of lottery, where you may draw a prize, but where you rather expect a blank? 24). Buxton. The words "in My name" must be taken as simply and literally; for they explain the "whatsoever."1. Because the crown of Christ is as much yours as His Cross. Amen?" With us too often it is just the other way: "My will bedone." The promises of the covenant were all made to Jesus Christ, as the party who fulfilled the condition of the covenant (Galatians 3:16).3. PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT.1. Prayer is asking God to supply our need. For acceptance of our prayers (Ephesians 1:6). For my own part, I never enter a railway carriage without a prayer, and I advise you to do the like, then, come what will, we have put the matter in God's hands.(H. has long ago been distinctly answered. Have they been truly turned unto Him? On making inquiry and comparing notes, we found that, on the very day on which we had prayed for his conversion, he, being at that time on board a ship far away on the sea, stumbled most unexpectedly upon a stray copy of one of my sermons. Such faithless prayers cannot have the name of Jesus attached to them, they cannot be accepted. Sometimes when a Child comes home from school, after a long and expensive education, the parent finds that he has learnt nothing aright. Her husband had fled the country; in her sorrow she went to the house of God, and something I said in the sermon made her think I was personally familiar with her case. Are his affections set on the things which are above? They have got into a habit of using certain words, without thinking of their meaning, and so have become mere machines, like those musical boxes which reel off their fixed number of tunes, and then are silent. And here we find the infinite merit of His sacrifice (Romans 3:25), and His never-failing intercession to rely on (Hebrews 7:25). Thus there are times when to pray is the hardest of all tasks; when God appears to be far off. The flaming sword of justice, which guarded the way to the tree of life, was bathed in His blood, to procure us access to God. Sinners can have no access to God without a Mediator, and there is no other Mediator but He (Isaiah 59:2; 1 Timothy 2:5).2. A Christian man who believes in prayer, ought to be able to speak to God anywhere. NO MORE QUESTIONINGS.1. The word "whatsoever" must be taken simply and literally. To pray not with the notion of changing God's plan, but because that plan is the best. Let the people who lose their temper so easily, and say words which they bitterly repent, pray more frequently, and the bitter words would be turned into blessing.2. (2) Again, we know that God's love cannot be deepened. Is the conscience directed by Christ's Word? (2) A Divine Spirit to teach us by blessing the exercise of our own faculties, and guiding us, not, indeed, into all the intellectual aspects of Christian truth, but into the loving possession, as a power in our lives, of all the truth that we need to raise us to the likeness of Christ. Our Revised Version reads, "He will give it you in My name." There are people who have "said their prayers" all through life, and, perhaps, never really prayed once. (d)We must be united to Christ as members to the head and branches to the vine, if we would act in prayer or any other duty in the strength of Christ (John 15:5). For what have we instead? Our oracle is the living God, and whenever we are in doubt, or difficulty, or danger, let us ask God about it. But passing from that, note the limitation to the broad universality of the declaration. (2)Granting their requests (ver. W. Evans, B. D.Many were the questions which the disciples had put to their Lord in the pride and ignorance of their as yet imperfectly spiritualized hearts (see Matthew 18:1; Luke 9:54; Acts 1:6). And if we pray in Christ's name, that implies the harmony of our wills with His. Sometimes when a Child comes home from school, after a long and expensive education, the parent finds that he has learnt nothing aright. Do not you think that the disciples would be tempted to say, "Then what are we to do?" The man who could really pray in his place of business would not be able to tell a lie over the counter. "I shall see if she loves me." But if he decline this search, then assuredly instead of having an answer from Christ, who is the Truth, he will have it from the father of lies.II. (2) It prepares us to receive God's noblest gifts of love. Here He sets forth the Father as the Answerer, because His purpose is to point away from undue dependence on His own corporeal presence. Will he tempt Christ by asking twice over?4. At present even God, the Father of all, does not please you. — "If it be possible let sorrow pass from Me — nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." WHY ACCEPTABLE PRAYER MUST BE IN THE NAME OF CHRIST. One cause of these is to be found in the variations of our inner life, Our faith in the spiritual is at some moments so full of power that thoughts too large for words ascend to the Eternal in unclothed aspirations. Under the pressure of that fact, look at the cries of prayer — the utterances of the child of yesterday, whose life is but a span, who knows not what he really is, nor what he really wants! Romans 8:32 ) he will give it you.Praying in the name of Jesus Lordship Jesus! Persevere in prayer ( Leviticus 10:3 ) the Master bends lovingly over such thing! Found by direct pursuit for acceptance of our prayers ( Ephesians 2:18 ) ( c ) the of... 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