{"id":5470,"date":"2013-04-15T09:21:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T16:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/?p=5470"},"modified":"2024-03-26T12:35:29","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:35:29","slug":"f-e-marsh-what-is-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2013\/04\/15\/f-e-marsh-what-is-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"F.E. Marsh: What Is Prayer?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5471\" alt=\"20130415_prayermarsh\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/04\/20130415_prayermarsh.jpg\" width=\"545\" height=\"147\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/04\/20130415_prayermarsh.jpg 545w, https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/04\/20130415_prayermarsh-300x80.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 545px) 100vw, 545px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #808080\"><em>The following is taking from the mini-commentaries of F.E. Marsh,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/v3.blueletterbible.org\/commentaries\/marsh_fe\/\"><span style=\"color: #808080\">now available at the Blue Letter Bible<\/span><\/a>. Marsh\u2019s text commentaries were released with the new <a href=\"http:\/\/v3.blb.org\"><span style=\"color: #808080\">beta version<\/span><\/a> of the Blue Letter Bible.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">&#8220;But Simon\u2019s wife\u2019s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once.&#8221;<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: large\">(Mark 1:30 NKJV)<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui-gen33\">What is prayer? It is illustrated in this verse. Speaking to Christ is prayer. Prayer is not getting on to the stilts of word-ism, nor floating in the balloon of honeyed phrases by the aid of the gas of human eloquence, inflating the mind with self-conceit; but it is simply telling the Lord the heart&#8217;s need, or speaking to Him in a natural manner as we ask favors for others.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It is&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Telling Him the\u00a0<em>trouble<\/em>, as the disciples of John, when they went and informed Christ that their teacher was beheaded (Matthew 14:12).<\/li>\n<li>Telling Him the\u00a0<em>sorrow<\/em>, as when Mary went to Christ about her dead brother Lazarus (John 11:32).<\/li>\n<li>Telling Him the\u00a0<em>pain<\/em>, as when Paul prayed about the thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:8).<\/li>\n<li>Telling Him the\u00a0<em>grief<\/em>, as when the Syrophenician woman cried to Christ about her daughter (Matthew 15:22).<\/li>\n<li>Telling Him the\u00a0<em>joy<\/em>, as when the disciples spoke of the demons they had cast out in His name (Luke 10:17).<\/li>\n<li>Telling Him the\u00a0<em>difficulty<\/em>, as when the disciples asked to be taught how to pray (Luke 11:1).<\/li>\n<li>Telling Him the\u00a0<em>sickness<\/em>, as in the present case.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"yui-gen36\">&#8220;They <em>told Him<\/em> about her&#8230;&#8221; Jesus has made it possible for us to tell Him, for He has died for us; hence we can come boldly to the throne of grace through the consecrated way of His atonement, and speak to Him face to face. He has told us to come to Him, for He has said &#8220;Whatsoever we shall ask in prayer, believing, we shall receive&#8221; (Matthew 21:22). His promise is our plea and introduction in speaking to Him. We remember who He is, and as we do so we are drawn towards Him, as the needle is drawn to the loadstone.<\/p>\n<dl id=\"yui-gen39\">\n<dd id=\"yui-gen37\">He is the\u00a0<em>Shepherd<\/em>\u00a0who tends us, and ever looks after our interests.<\/dd>\n<dd id=\"yui-gen38\">He is the\u00a0<em>Priest<\/em>\u00a0who represents us, and succours us in the hour of temptation.<\/dd>\n<dd id=\"yui-gen40\">He is the\u00a0<em>Friend<\/em>\u00a0who thinks of us, and always sympathises with us.<\/dd>\n<dd id=\"yui-gen41\">He is the\u00a0<em>Brother<\/em>\u00a0who cares for us, and is ever ready to aid us.<\/dd>\n<dd id=\"yui-gen42\">He is the\u00a0<em>Saviour<\/em>\u00a0who delivered us, and will always keep us.<\/dd>\n<dd>He is the\u00a0<em>God<\/em>\u00a0who has blessed us, and will never leave us.<\/dd>\n<dd id=\"yui-gen43\">He is the\u00a0<em>Lover<\/em>\u00a0who loves us, and will never be unfaithful.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<p id=\"yui-gen44\">Tell Him, for He\u00a0<em>cares<\/em>. Tell Him, for He\u00a0<em>knows<\/em>. Tell Him, for He\u00a0<em>loves<\/em>. Tell Him, for He is\u00a0<em>listening<\/em>. Tell Him\u00a0<em>all<\/em>. Tell Him\u00a0<em>often<\/em>. Tell Him\u00a0<em>always<\/em>. Tell Him\u00a0<em>now<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui-gen45\">&#8220;They told Him <em>about her..<\/em>.&#8221; They were very definite in their petition and pointed in their plea. They did not vacillate or hesitate, but they went right to the mark and hit it. And methinks as they saw the once fevered patient calm and cool, as she waited upon them, they rejoiced; and if they had wanted a new name for Simon&#8217;s wife&#8217;s mother, they might have called her Answered-Prayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following is taking from the mini-commentaries of F.E. Marsh,\u00a0now available at the Blue Letter Bible. Marsh\u2019s text commentaries were released with the new beta version of the Blue Letter Bible. &#8220;But Simon\u2019s wife\u2019s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once.&#8221; (Mark 1:30 NKJV) What is prayer? It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":5472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-misc","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5470"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9113,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5470\/revisions\/9113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}