| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 2 |
Page 4 |
So it is with this little word “our.” We may wish to gather into the company for whom we would pray only a small number, including at the most those in whom we are personally interested. There are a few people whom we would be quite willing to take with us into the presence of God. We would take our own family with us. Then there are some dear friends, people we like because they are congenial, or because they are good to us, or because they are tied up with us in a social or religious way, whom we would not be unwilling to mention when we speak to God for ourself.
But here again the lines of exclusion are swept away, every fence is torn down, and all the human family are included. All who have a right to call God their Father, come in with us in the word “our,” and this leaves out none of our race. Thus all denominational lines in religion are obliterated; beside us kneel all who love God and even dimly know him and feebly worship him. All national lines are swept away, and we recognize as our brothers the peoples of all the world. All class and social distinctions fade out in the wide charity which is to fill our heart when we say, “Our Father.” Here at the throne of grace there are no distinctions among men; none are to be left out in our intercessions. We cannot begin to pray at all, we cannot ask God for even the smallest things, without in heart and spirit including all others, — people we do not love, those who are opposed to us, those who hate us.
It would be a great deal easier to say “My Father” when we come to God, and not have to think about any one but ourself. It would save us a good deal of self-discipline, the schooling of ourself into readiness to take the world in with us before God. But that is not the way it is in the prayer — it is not the way Jesus teaches us to pray. He demands that all exclusions shall be recalled and ruled out. Indeed the lesson is made still stronger in one of our Lord’s special instructions concerning love, in which he says, “Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” If we have an enemy he must have particular mention in our prayers. If we hear that any one to-day has spoken bitterly of us or done us injury in any way, we are not only to take him with us when we enter the golden gate of prayer, but we are to make special supplication for him. We may never go into the presence of our Father for ourself alone, shutting out any other. If we do, we shall miss the blessing.
Page 4