PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

The Crucial Factor-Prayer (3)

With this issue of Parenthood, we are continuing our consideration of the essential aspects of prayer as the base and support for the nurturing and guidance of our children. Without prayer, whatever we do with our children may be very admirable from the human viewpoint, but it will come far short of the divine stewardship assigned to us and be denounced before the divine tribunal as missing of the mark of God's economy.

Watchman Nee, speaking of the fundamental place that prayer occupies in the carrying out of God's purpose on the earth, writes, "God is determined to do something, but He will do it only after man has given his consent; He will not do it immediately. When God works, He does not work only according to the fact that He has a will; He also waits until there is a response from His children before He acts." And again he affirms, "From the time that there have been children of God, everything has been done according to [and is] accomplished by the prayer of His children. We do not know God's reason for doing this. But we know that this is a fact. God is willing to place Himself in this position. He wants to carry out His will through the prayers of His children."

If we are honest, we will confess, based on our lack of prayer, that we give very little prayerful consideration to our parenting. We often act hastily and without much more than a passing utterance of hope that the Lord will have mercy on us and give us good children. But if we will pay the proper attention to what is opened to us in the fellowship of this article, we will exercise our utmost care to bring all things to the Lord in prayer. We all know the words of the apostle Paul, "In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; And the peace of God, which surpasses every man's understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). But we usually do not pray and when we do pray it is because circumstances have raised our anxiety levels to a point that we cry out in desperation for the Lord's intervention in the things that have become impossible for us to tolerate. May we experience the Lord's speaking and learn to carefully and soberly tune our hearts to His heart regarding our stewardship of the children He has placed under our care.

God works according to certain laws and principles. Although He can act as He pleases, He does not act recklessly; He acts according to His preordained laws and principles. God is above all laws and principles; He is God, and He can act as He pleases. Yet we see a wonderful thing in the Bible. Although He is so great and can act as He pleases, He acts according to laws, and it seems as if He has voluntarily placed Himself under law and is willing to be governed by law.

What are the principles of God's work? One main principle of God's work is the need for man's prayer. He wants man to cooperate with Him in prayer.

There was once a Christian who was very experienced in prayer. He said that all spiritual work consists of four steps. In the first step, God intends to do something; there is God's will. In the second step, He reveals this will to His children through the Spirit so that they know His will, His plan, His desire, and His aspiration. In the third step, God's children return His will back to Him through prayer. Prayer is the echoing of God's will. If our heart is in tune with God's heart, spontaneously we will speak forth God's will. As a result God will accomplish His work in the fourth step.

We will not look at the first and second steps now. We will pay attention to the third step, which is returning God's will back to God. Please pay attention to the word return. All worthwhile prayers are a kind of returning. If our prayer is only for the fulfillment of our plans and wishes, it will not have any value in the spiritual realm. Only the prayers that are initiated by God and that echo what He has initiated have any worth. God's work is governed by prayers. God is willing to do many things, but He will not do them when His people do not pray. He must wait for man to agree with Him before He will do them. This is a great principle of God's work, and it is also one of the most crucial principles in the Bible.

God's Will is Governed by Man's Prayer

The words in Ezekiel 36:37 are most peculiar. God said that His purpose is to "increase them with men like a flock." This is God's ordination. He will surely accomplish what He has ordained. But He has to wait; He cannot accomplish it immediately. What is God waiting for? He said, "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." God ordained that the men of the house of Israel be increased. Yet He had to wait for the Israelites to inquire of Him. Once the Israelites inquired of Him, He would fulfill it....

Another example can be found in Isaiah 62:6-7: "Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, / I have appointed watchmen; / All day and all night / They will never keep silent. / You who remind Jehovah, / Do not be dumb; / And do not give Him quiet / Until He establishes / And until He makes Jerusalem / A praise in the earth." God wants Jerusalem to become a praise in the earth. How does He accomplish it? He appointed watchmen upon the walls to remind Him. How should they remind Him? They should not be dumb, and they should not give Him quiet. We must not stop our reminding, and we must not allow God to become quiet. We have to pray until He answers and accomplishes His work. God has a will, and His intention is that Jerusalem would become a city of praise, yet He appointed watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem and charged them to pray. Only after they pray will He work. He asks them not to pray once but unceasingly. They have to pray unceasingly until God's will is accomplished. In other words, God's will is governed by man's prayer. God is waiting for us to pray. The content of God's will is determined by God alone; it is not determined by us, and we have no part in the determination of it. However, the carrying out of His will is governed by our prayer.

(continued on page 2)