Leighton on First Peter
Here's Leighton's comment on verse 7 of the same chapter: be sober, and watch unto prayer. He says first that prayer is a real means of receiving what you ask, and then he goes on:
"... it is for this reason that our Saviour, and according to his example the Apostles, recommend prayer much. Watch and pray, says the Saviour, and Paul says, Pray continually, and our apostle here particularly specifies the grand means of attaining that conformity with Christ which he expresses: Be sober, and watch unto prayer. Those who are much in prayer, will grow rich in grace. It is he who is busiest in this, our actual trading with heaven, who will thrive and increase the most, and fetch in the most precious commodities ...
But the true skill of this trading is very rare. Every trade has something which demands a special skill; but this is deep and supernatural, and it is not reached by human industriousness or diligence. Diligence is to be used in it, but we must realise that the aptitude for it comes from above, that is, that spirit of prayer without which our learning and intelligence and religious breeding can do nothing. Therefore, our most frequent prayer, our greatest petition, should be for the spirit of prayer - so that we may speak the language of the children of God, by the Spirit of God, who is the only one who teaches the heart to pronounce things rightly ...
For making progress in this, and growing more skilful in it, prayer, with continual dependence on the Holy Spirit, is to be much used. In much praying you will be blessed with much aptitude for praying. So then, you ask, What should I do, so that I may learn to pray? For the time being, take this, and chiefly this: By praying, you will learn to pray. ... Both for advantaging all other graces and for promoting the grace of prayer itself, frequency and abounding in prayer is very clearly intended here, in that the apostle makes the main part of the work we have to do, and wants us to keep our hearts in a constant aptness for it: Be sober, and watch - for what purpose? - unto prayer." [from p414-415]
"... it is for this reason that our Saviour, and according to his example the Apostles, recommend prayer much. Watch and pray, says the Saviour, and Paul says, Pray continually, and our apostle here particularly specifies the grand means of attaining that conformity with Christ which he expresses: Be sober, and watch unto prayer. Those who are much in prayer, will grow rich in grace. It is he who is busiest in this, our actual trading with heaven, who will thrive and increase the most, and fetch in the most precious commodities ...
But the true skill of this trading is very rare. Every trade has something which demands a special skill; but this is deep and supernatural, and it is not reached by human industriousness or diligence. Diligence is to be used in it, but we must realise that the aptitude for it comes from above, that is, that spirit of prayer without which our learning and intelligence and religious breeding can do nothing. Therefore, our most frequent prayer, our greatest petition, should be for the spirit of prayer - so that we may speak the language of the children of God, by the Spirit of God, who is the only one who teaches the heart to pronounce things rightly ...
For making progress in this, and growing more skilful in it, prayer, with continual dependence on the Holy Spirit, is to be much used. In much praying you will be blessed with much aptitude for praying. So then, you ask, What should I do, so that I may learn to pray? For the time being, take this, and chiefly this: By praying, you will learn to pray. ... Both for advantaging all other graces and for promoting the grace of prayer itself, frequency and abounding in prayer is very clearly intended here, in that the apostle makes the main part of the work we have to do, and wants us to keep our hearts in a constant aptness for it: Be sober, and watch - for what purpose? - unto prayer." [from p414-415]
posted by cath at
10:03 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home