Holy Communion - 6 Jul 1958

Throughout these many centuries such prayers have been offered by Christians in many countries. Yet what do we find today? – Strife and unrest in many parts of the world. Wars and threats of wars between nations, racial hatred and rivalries within nations. People everywhere are still looking forward to the era of peace and quietness in the world. Do we then conclude that the prayers of the Church have not been answered? If so, then we must take a warning from it. Why is it that God has not granted our request? The problem of unanswered prayer is a different one, and I do not propose to deal with it this morning. I want to briefly refer to a warning we may take to ourselves whenever we feel that our requests have not been granted as we would have liked.

The Epistle of St. James speaks of the double-minded man unstable in all his ways. A double- minded man cannot have his prayers answered because he himself is not behind his prayers. He frames a petition with one half of his mind, while with the other half he clings to something quite contrary to what he has asked for. His prayers therefore go unanswered because they are not genuine prayers. St. James warns us in the same Epistle about insincere prayer: “When you ask He does not give it to you for you ask in quite the wrong spirit. You only want to satisfy your own desires.” (Phillips’ translation) Prayer cannot be answered without the full and whole hearted consent of the person offering it. A prayer is a genuine one only when a man prays to God for something and goes all out to get it with utter singleness of mind.

“Grant we beseech Thee that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by Thy governance that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in all godly quietness.” This prayer has been very much on our lips these last few weeks. Surely we cannot be accused of being double- minded with regard to this prayer. We all do earnestly desire peace. There is no doubt about it. But the searching suggestion of James is not that the double-minded does not really desire what he asks for. He is genuine in his desire for what he asks. But coupled with this desire, there is a second desire that is contrary to and cancels the first. We would like to have both, but this is impossible. St. Augustine is reported to have cried to God before his conversion, ‘Give me chastity, but not yet.’ He had the desire to lead the moral life and yet he was not quite prepared to give up his sinful ways at once.

A nation may desire peace, but fails to attain it, because it desires also certain advantages which could only be secured by war. If a nation longs for peace and prays for it, and at the same time it denies certain fundamental rights to a group of people within the nation, which can only be done by the use of weapons of warfare, the second desire cancels the first and the prayer is declared null and void. If you pray for peace, but you refuse to part with the jealousy and pride in your heart your prayer will not be answered, because jealousy and pride destroy peace. Let us make our requests to God with our whole heart and mind with no mental reservations, and having made our requests known let us cooperate with God so that He might grant our requests.