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The miracles of Jesus were generally miracles of mercy. There are a few exceptions. Conspicuous amongst these is the withering of the fig tree with a word. When the disciples marvelled Jesus expounded to them his astonishing doctrine of the power of faith. We learn -

I. THAT BELIEVING IS ESSENTIAL TO PREVAILING PRAYER.

1. There can be no prayer without faith in a personal God.

(1) The atheist cannot pray. The reason is obvious. He has no God to pray to. His is a melancholy orphanage.

(2) The pantheist cannot pray. His god is an infinite It, unsusceptible to prayer. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is" (Hebrews 11:6).

(3) The Christian can pray. He believes in a personal God, who created us after his image. As a man can intelligently speak to his friend, so, etc. (see Exodus 33:11).

2. There can be no prayer without faith in a Person susceptible to human appeals.

(1) The deist cannot pray. His god is too far removed from his works to notice the specks upon a tiny planet.

(2) The Christian can pray. For he has loftier views of God. He is so great that nothing can escape him. While he rules firmaments of suns and systems of worlds, he feeds the animalculae.

(3) The Christian, moreover, is encouraged to pray by his faith in the mediation of Christ. Without such mediation the sinner might shrink from approaching the infinitely Holy. In it mercy in harmony with justice is assured.

3. Faith is active in successful prayer.

(1) The power of faith is like that of water, impotent in quiescence, but efficient when in motion. It is like heat, impotent when latent, but whose energy when molecules are in motion is tremendous.

(2) It is the active faith of saints that alarms Satan. It stirs three worlds, viz. heaven, earth, and hell.

II. THAT BELIEVING PRAYER IS INFALLIBLY EFFECTIVE.

1. Because God has pledged himself to it.

(1) He is able to do whatever he will. The power of the Promiser was exemplified in the withering of the fig tree. The moral is drawn from this example: "If ye have faith, and doubt not," etc. (vers. 21, 22).

(2) He is willing to do whatever he promises. He cannot deny himself. "Heaven and earth may pass away." The Creator may reverse his act of creation. But the Uncreate cannot annihilate himself. But to falsify would be to annihilate Infinite Truth.

2. But how is the infallible effectiveness of believing prayer reconciled with the wisdom of God?

(1) If omnipotence is pledged to faith, may not omnipotence be put into commission to folly; for man is confessedly fallible?

(2) Faith, in the nature of the case, presupposes a promise. Where has the God of wisdom promised a foolish thing?

(3) But is there not here an open cheque: "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive"? The particular promise is still implied in the term "believing;" for faith itself is the gift of God. The God of wisdom cannot inspire faith in the interests of folly.

3. But how can efficacy in prayer comport with the uniformity of nature's processes?

(1) So undeviating is the order in the revolutions of the spheres that eclipses, occultations, conjunctions, epacts, and other matters may be calculated with certainty. In like manner, chemical changes never vary when the conditions are the same. Can prayer disturb these things?

(2) Who wants it to do so? There is no need to disturb matter when prayer is made for spiritual blessings. What relation is there to eclipses and epacts in answering the cry for mercy? A whole millennium of spiritual glory may flood this earth in answer to prayer, without touching the properties of a molecule of matter.

(3) But how does the argument stand in relation to providence? There is a sphere in nature for human providence. The farmer does not violate the order of nature when he grows corn in response to the cry of a nation for food. By draining and tillage he can alter the climate of his country and alter its flora and fauna, and all this without altering the properties of a single molecule of matter. In like manner, on a far grander scale, God also has reserved to himself a sphere for his providence in nature, within which he can answer every prayer he pleases to inspire.

III. THAT PRAYER FAILS THROUGH THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS INIMICAL TO ACTIVE FAITH.

1. As when the matter of the suit is unwise.

(1) "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss" (James 4:3). In such a case God will in mercy withhold his gift of faith.

(2) Or he may honour the sincerity of the prayer by conferring an equivalent to that which his grace withholds. So he dealt with Paul when he sought the removal of his "thorn in the flesh."

(3) Honest prayer is never vain. Its very exercise ennobles. As the domestic animal is ennobled by his conversation with man, infinitely more is man ennobled by conversing with his Maker.

2. As when the motive is unworthy of the suit.

(1) Is our prayer for business prosperity? But is the motive good? Else the answer may come in anger. To how many is the accession of material wealth the wasting of the infinitely more precious moral properties!

(2) Is our prayer for the spiritual conversion of a child? The end here is undoubtedly good. But what is the motive? Is it that his consequent dutifulness may increase the comfort of the home, rather than bring glory to God and save a soul from death? Feather the arrows of prayer with the very best motives.

3. As when the disposition of the suppliant is inconsistent with sincerity.

(1) Such is the case when the lazy pray for a revival. Work for it while you pray.

(2) When the impenitent seek salvation. This is like a rebel suing to his sovereign for pardon with a leaded revolver in his hand. The salvation of the gospel is a salvation from sin. Repentance is therefore indispensible (see Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 1:15-20; Matthew 5:23-26). There is no mercy for the implacable (see Matthew 6:12-15). - J.A.M.

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KJV: Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.

WEB: Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.