Prayer by O. Hallsby

I seldom recommend translations from the Norwegian but will make an enthusiastic exception in this case. Years ago when I was a student I heard a fellow student recommend this book. He said it had revolutionised his prayer life. Perversely I shied away from such keenness but nearly sixty years later I reckoned I was ready to face this soul shaking book. Now I wish I had read it when I was told to!

It is a brief book barely making two hundred pages in a paperback edition. It is an old fashioned book with anecdotes sparse but expositions aplenty. Dr Hallsby was born early in the twentieth century. He wrote long before information technology took its megabyte from our lives yet his book is testimony to the power of the written word. It bears the marks of struggle. The author suffered two years in a Nazi concentration camp and the anger of secularists of his native land when he sought to defend the truths of the Gospel.

The structure of the book is unremarkable

Author's Preface
Chapter One: What Prayer Is
Chapter Two: Difficulties in Prayer
Chapter Three: Prayer As Work
Chapter Four: Wrestling in Prayer, I
Chapter Five: Wrestling in Prayer, II
Chapter Six: The Misuse of Prayer
Chapter Seven: The Meaning of Prayer
Chapter Eight: Forms of Prayer
Chapter Nine: Problems of Prayer
Chapter Ten: The School of Prayer
Chapter Eleven: The Spirit of Prayer

Within this structure great and essential themes emerge. Prayer is the opening of the heart to the Lord Jesus. It is a weapon that exists for the glory of God not the convenience of mankind. It should be deployed whenever work is attempted for Him and for the generations to come, a spiritual legacy for the future. Prayer requires humility, not telling God what to do. Before such a God total honesty is essential. When we wrestle in prayer it is not against God but ourselves and our selfishness. Prayer involves pain. The problems and queries we have about prayer often arise from our misunderstanding of what prayer is. At the centre of the universe as its focus, its reason for being, its pivot of existence is God; not us. Prayer is not the manipulation of a supernatural being to do our will. That is magic. It is of God, for God, His chosen path into the heart of man. It is a means by which He gets glory and that is its purpose.

This is a book to be read, digested and acted upon, but be warned. It could indeed revolutionise your prayer life.

Peter M. Grinham 16th June 2015

Read, Mark and Inwardly Digest            West Mersea 12^th April 2015

This is my first attempt to write a sermon I have preached. This is not easy and I do not expect the final result to resemble the original sermon too closely. Spoken English written down as literature is almost unreadable, all those pauses, asides to the congregation and a thousand discontinuities make it impossible. Preaching is a whole body activity with the voice the major player. Nuances in tone, facial expression and body language are impossible to reproduce in continuous prose. It cannot be done; so here goes.

Is Bible reading a joy or a chore, a grim struggle or a source of solutions, a dry academic exercise or a life changing experience?  It can be a joy as we hear the voice of God as we read it, it can deepen our relationship with our Saviour and it can answer the knottiest ethical problems facing us today

Much of my youth I spent in defending the Bible instead of talking about the Lord Jesus. This was a mistake on two counts. The Bible does not need me to defend it. As C.H.Spurgeon  said “Defend the Bible. I’d sooner defend a lion.” And the scripture exists to reveal the Lord Jesus.   The more liberal of my friends spoke about the problem of this and that in the Bible; but I wanted answers.

Looking at what the Bible says about itself is instructive.

 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16 (NIVUK)  

 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12(NIVUK)

 Right at the beginning of the Bible we read about God breathing. It was at the creation of humanity. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7  Does this mean that the Bible is a living being like a human? No! There are many forms of life, from the lowliest bacterium to finest man or woman. So both humanity and the Bible are God breathed and alive, but not in the same category. The breath of God is the Spirit and it is the Spirit that gives our race spiritual meaning and the Bible its spiritual dynamic

To read the Bible is not like reading any ordinary book. It is not merely an intellectual exercise or a diversion. It is a spiritual exercise. It concerns our spiritual life.  We must expect correction and development as we read. When you next read a passage from the Bible why not start with a prayer asking God to speak. Expect Him to speak and expect to be changed by the experience

The Word is alive. Read it prayerfully

 

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself .Luke 24:27

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, John 5:39

Both these texts reveal the use our Lord Jesus Christ made of Scripture. What He is describing is about Himself. Much of the Old Testament becomes more comprehensible when viewed from a messianic perspective. What we know of the Saviour we know from Scripture.  As we read scripture we must expect and look for a deeper knowledge and therefore a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus. One of the many comparisons we may make for our relationship with the Saviour is that of pen friend. As we read we look for fresh glimpses of His character, fresh hints of His love for us. As you read expect your relationship with you Saviour to intensify. Read it as you would a letter from a loved one. The Bible is the divine side of the dialogue, the correspondence between God and his child, you.

The Word is personal. Read it lovingly.

 

 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29 (NIV)

 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22-25 (NIV)

The warning is clear. If we read the Scriptures our innermost thoughts will be exposed and our morals deeply examined. It will alter our behaviour. Here is a constant point in the shifting sands of public morality for what our forefathers accepted horrifies us now and what we accept now would horrify our forefathers; but Scripture holds our lives against the timeless plumb of God’s eternal law.  The temptation is to gloss over the bits that we do not like, the bits that deal with our pet sins. Face them squarely and we will discover not only our faults but their remedies.

The Word is moral. Read it personally.