Pious and elaborate treatise concerning prayer and the answer of prayer by John Brown of Wemphrey We're up to chapter 14 how we should pray to God as a father Brown Set before us John 14 verses 13 and 14 Whatsoever you shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it So in the previous chapter, we spent a couple of weeks going over that. It was a longer chapter. And Brown set forth a number of points about the right manner of prayer and what he wants to do in this chapter. continue that but with particular reference to the person prayed to which is God. So we want to look at a particular relation and this is going to explain why ordinarily we pray to God as Father. We're going to talk about that in this chapter. Why there's good reason for, in a sense, prioritizing the first person in the Trinity when we're praying without at the same time losing sight of the fact, as he's pointed out, that we We need to keep in mind we're praying to God and that that entails Yeah, that entails praying to the Son and the Spirit so We don't want Yes Yes Yeah, there's one will in God and so there's there's one mind in God So we're appealing to the same mind and will in three persons. This mind and will are being carried out through the working of the three persons. There is a sense in which the working of God, God is working in concert, but at the same time, and we see this in the catechisms, there are particular persons, well there are particular persons that we see in the Bible are given first consideration. when discussing this or that thing. For example, you know, effectual calling, the Catechism says is a work of God's Spirit. Does that mean that it's not the work of the Father or the Son? No, but it's peculiarly the work of the Spirit because the Spirit's working in us effectually to draw us to God. Yeah. So every every person, you know, the Apostles' Creed, that in the course of that, the Nicene Creed follows this. The idea that the Father is the Creator, the Son is the Redeemer, the Spirit is the life giver. Right? Does that mean that the Son and the Spirit are not involved in creation? No. Does that mean the Father and the Spirit are not involved in redemption? No. Does that mean that the Father and the Son have nothing to do with giving life to the creature, you know, whether natural or spiritual? And the answer is no. Yeah. But there are three persons working and we understand that there are certain works which are more properly attributed to this person rather than that person. Well, when we're talking about working, we're talking about economy. But economy, I think we need to keep in mind economy in some sense, economy tends to reflect things that have to do with ontology, with the very being of God. Because God is a most simple being and not a compounded being, there can only be one God. The substance, ousia, that is God is indivisible, inseparable, you can't divide it, you know, you can't distinguish that which is God. What you can distinguish, what we can distinguish in God are certain personal properties. And these certain personal properties have a bearing in relation to the economy or the working of God in creation, providence, and redemption. So that's what we're going to, we're actually going to be looking at that a little bit in this chapter. So we're going to be looking at several things concerning, it's really one matter here that he wants to address about right manner of prayer. And then it is a series of considerations on this point. So question 296, what is to be further cleared in the manner of right prayer? And this is really our subject. As I said, chapter 14 is how we should pray to God as Father. And so what is to be cleared is the right manner of prayer, in order for us to engage in prayer in the right manner, we need to consider the object of our invocation, which is particularly this, God as standing under the relation of a father. Now there's a reason why, or there's several reasons why, we want to think upon God as Father when we're praying. And that's really what the remainder of this chapter is going to cover. But there is, at 297, there's a particular restriction Brown wants to study in this chapter, and that is, he wants to consider God not as father of the great family of heaven and earth, right? There's a sense in which God is to be considered the father of all mankind. by reason of creation, but he wants to consider, and he wants to restrict our discussion to contemplating God as the father of his adopted children. That is, as he stands in relation to the covenant of grace. And as we stand related to him in that covenant of grace. So there's a sense in which everybody in the world can and should refer to God as Father. Yes. But what they don't have, when they refer to God as Father, their reference is to creation and not so much to redemption. Christianity is saying, no, we need to learn that God is not only the father of our creation, but he is the father of our redemption. And that, for fallen creatures, that's a much more important consideration now. So Brown wants to focus our attention on this point or this aspect of the fatherhood of God. You know, there's a lot of talk. There has been really for, since the early part of the 20th century, there's been this movement to emphasize the universal fatherhood of God. Maybe even in the 19th century you start to find some of this thinking, but it really takes off in the 20th century and in various movements. One is called the Social Gospel Movement. It is emphasizing God as Father Creator. That's behind all that we would call liberal theology. That universalizing tendency where Christianity starts to see itself and treat itself as sort of one among many religions, right? And so then you see these big ecumenical meetings where you have, you know, Jewish rabbis and Islamic imams and Hindu priests, and people like Billy Graham all hanging out. Those kinds of events are the result of this emphasizing of God, Father, Creator, and downplaying the doctrine of redemption. And that is really to eradicate Christianity, you know, the need for Christianity, the rationale for Christianity, and any particular emphasis on what Christianity presents and why Christianity is not, quite frankly, like any other religion in the world. When you start to consider this idea of adoption, we have to get into then this idea of Christ, and we need to start talking then about the exclusive claims of Christianity, which a lot of people find highly offensive now. You know, and it's funny how many people who find the exclusive claims of Christianity troubling or problematic, but they want to tell us, oh, don't worry. Don't, you know, we're not going to sideline Jesus. We want to be like Jesus. Well, you know, if you read what Jesus says and you see what Jesus did, Jesus is again and again emphasizing the exclusivist, the exclusivity, the exclusiveness of Christianity. You know, when he says things like, I am the truth, you know, the way, the truth, the life. He doesn't say, I'm a way, I'm a truth, I'm a life, as if I'm one of many. He's claiming to himself something very exclusive. And it's a claim that we You can't really say, well, I accept Jesus, but I don't accept what he says. It makes no sense. He's left us in a position where we have to either accept him at face value, telling us what he's told us, or we reject Christianity. So, you know, toleration this toleration and freedom of religion that we see is really it's freedom of every religion except for that religion which is by its very nature intolerant and exclusive, which is Christianity. Every other religion to some extent can afford to be more inclusive because they're not actually making the kinds of claims that Christianity is making at this point. Right? I mean, even Islam has some kind of hope that they hold out for observant Jews and observant Christians. People of the book. Romans believed that for a long time. Yeah. And they've practiced that for a long time. I can see it culminating now with the current pope. Well, the current pope signed some sort of covenant with some Islamic leader. And I basically, you know, sort of recognizing this Islamic leader as being on the same plane, which if we were if we were talking antichrist, I would agree. They are, you know, both equally antichrist, but They meant something else altogether, I'm sure. All right, let's move into some of these questions. 298, what's the first thing remembered about God as Father? And then we want to consider why, and then in the third place, what confidence should we derive from this? So, first of all, he says We should remember God is Father so that we are confident to approach God in prayer with a filial, sweet, heartsome boldness and confidence. In other words, we want to approach God in a way with childlike faith. Right? With hopeful expectation. Like, you know, like children do their fathers. Right? You come with a hope, a want. We're not to be approaching God as a malefactor would a judge. That's really what he's getting at here. Okay, because a malefactor comes before a judge thinking, you know, I'm guilty and there's sort of this pleading and the begging and all of the things that go along with that. And quite frankly, you know, when we talk about non-Christian religion, that's the way they pray to God. They pray as guilty people seeking mercy from the great judge of the earth. Right? I'm not saying that we should not be seeking mercy, but we're talking about the attitude of the approach. This is why in in heathen religions, they had all of these animal sacrifices and they still, a lot of these animistic tribal religions around the world, still practice forms of animal sacrifice and other very unpleasant things that are meant to address this idea of atonement. When God, when the people of God are doing this, God is instructing them that these things are types and shadows looking forward to Christ in the Old Testament. But these people are looking at their relation to God in what we would call a legalistic way. And their approach to God is in terms of the law and in those terms you can only approach God, you know, as a malefactor knowing that you are justly going to be condemned. And so this is really why these people, and Romanism instills this too. This is a paganism of Romanism. You know, they've got people jumping through hoops and you know, going on pilgrimages and doing all kinds of things to try to placate the judge. And I think there's part of that view is why they don't want to pray directly to God. They want to pray through the mediation of saints and Mary. They have this idea that God is just sort of this big mean spirit in the sky. But we shouldn't do that. We should be approaching with this childlike faith and childlike devotion. Because in this work of redemption that's held forth in Christ, God is the Father of Jesus. He's brought us into a state of reconciliation. We see Jesus in the place of sonship. And we're told that in and through what he's done, we too now occupy that place. So the confidence that we should derive from this is is the kind of confidence that the prodigal son has when he starts to return home. It shouldn't be the kind of confidence that would make us proud, but the kind of confidence that you know, he could confess that he doesn't really, doesn't really deserve to be called a son anymore. And yet knowing that he will be received into a better position with the father than he would with anybody else, right? So if he treated anyone else like that, he couldn't expect there to be any way back. But there's a confidence that comes from knowing what Christ has done and knowing that he has made this possible for us. Right now, 299, this confidence is in opposition to three things. The first thing he says, 299a, confidence is in opposition to that sinful, predominating and prevailing discouragement that can cause people to become despondent and hopeless and even despair of, you know, coming to any resolve, right? We have this confidence that when we pray, He'll hear us. When we approach Him, He'll receive us. So we don't have to... We don't have to come despondent or despair or, you know, in any way find ourselves spiritually marginalized, thinking God is not going to hear, not going to take any kind of notice of our supplicating. All right, a second thing, this confidence, this opposition, this second thing here, and that is a slavish fear that would keep the soul back from God as an enemy, that bears no good will but hates it. So there's some people, what he's saying is, in the first instance, there's some people who despair that God would ever hear of them. They just don't have confidence because they know they're sinners. There are other people who actually view God and are held back in this matter of prayer because they know they're guilty and they have a sense that, you know, what, like, why would God listen to me? Why would, you know, I'm, I, like, I know I'm an enemy of God and why, if I came to him, would he bother with me? Not necessarily. No, because to have a legal view of your situation without any view of the gospel is not a good place. The law is of use when the gospel is next to it, but when there is no gospel, The law is just going to be this condemning this awful condemning thing, which is why you know the heathen they don't want to hear They don't want to hear anything about you know, what's right and wrong They don't want to they don't want to consider the righteous demands of the law And you see you can see this You know if you ever talked to someone and And gotten on to the discussion of you know, things which have to do with moral absolutes, right? Very quickly people will become uncomfortable when they are really just sort of standing there having the law hit them and they have little or no knowledge of the gospel. All right, third, C, 299C, third thing, confidence in opposition to, this third thing and that is to ground the suspicion and jealousies of God as if he wouldn't be so good and gentle and gracious as he's declared himself to be. That's sort of a... I guess that's... the kinds of doubts that fill the minds of men before they're really convinced of the grace of God and the gospel, right? Yeah, the Bible says that, but I'm really a bad person. They have the understanding of it, but they don't have the true faith. Yeah, what they have, they tend to have a pretty good sense of their own badness. And it's sort of coupled with the idea that I'm so bad even God couldn't possibly forgive me, right? God couldn't possibly take up my cause. Yeah, I know he said this sort of thing in the Bible, but that's not for people like me. So in contrast to that is the confidence that you would have by reason of being adopted into the family of God. We have this confidence. We know that when we pray, God will hear us. We have this confidence that when we approach unto him, he's not gonna draw back. We have this confidence that he's going to do what he said he will do. The point is, unbelievers, And those who are faced with the claims of the law of God, they're conflicted all over the place. You know, until you have embraced Jesus as he's presented in the gospel, you're going to be conflicted about God. You know, any right idea about God. And of course, you're going to be like so many who try to create God in their own image. You know, it's the ultimate idolatry. And I've mentioned that a number of times, but you know, the first, I mean, the quickest way you know you're dealing with that in a person is when they start saying, well, my God wouldn't do X, Y, or Z. And what they then proceed to tell you God wouldn't do, or couldn't do, or isn't like, Something where you immediately in your mind you say we'll put the Bible says he is like that. He would do that He has done that right Which should you believe the Conception that someone has that they've conceived very sinfully because they don't like the implications of The God of the Bible right which is what that they're going to come into judgment that they're not going to be excused, right? God isn't going to excuse them, they're guilty. And, you know, so you have that on the one side, you have what the Bible says on the other. So the confidence of the adoption of sons, being adopted in the family of God, to be able to call God by the Spirit, to be able to say, Abba, Father, to know that He's your Father, because Jesus is your brother, your elder brother in the faith. That presents in the believer a confidence that should be there in all of our prayerful endeavors. That's the first thing he wants you to keep in mind in considering God as Father. We should come before God, you know, in childlike, the simplicity of childlike faith, you know, believing that God will be ever so happy to receive us in his presence and grant all of our lawful desires, right? There's a second thing, 300. The second thing to be remembered about God is Father. And then we want to again consider why, and then in the third place, what answer does this give to sin and unworthiness staring us in the face? We should approach God, he says, in prayer with faith in his gracious nature. He's a gracious God. We should know he's a gracious God and know that he is, in fact, ready to receive coming and praying sinners. And the reason why is, he says, genuine filial confidence, which we talked about in the previous point, is always going to be accompanied with this kind of faith, that God is gracious, right? Not that I'm going to get what I deserve, but that God is gracious. And the answer this gives to sin and unworthiness, which is staring us in the face, is this. You know, we are sinners saved by grace. And Brown says, when we come before God with this filial confidence and faith, What we have is faith that God will be to us a father and faith that his fatherly affection will preside over his granting of these things which are promised. God doesn't deal with us, again, according to what we deserve. Psalm 103.10 quotes here, He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. But rather, as verse 8 of Psalm 103 says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plentiful in mercy. All right, 301, the third thing to be remembered about God as Father. Why and what does this faith bring with it? So the third thing is we should approach God not only with hope of acceptance, but with hope of getting what we're going to ask, or at least something as good, if not better, right? Sometimes you ask for something of God, and this is the point, you ask in faith, and you ask, but you don't really You may not really understand what it is you're actually asking God to do or to give, and God gives you something else than what you thought you were asking for. You should have confidence that what God is giving you, if it's something lawful, that what he's giving you is as good and sometimes even better. The reason why is, consider what Christ said, you know, if a son should ask bread of any of you that is a father, is he going to give him a stone? If he asks a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? If he asks an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Jesus says, you know, your earthly father who is by nature Corrupt, right? Everyone has an evil nature, but he's gonna give you good things How much more is God gonna give you good things when you ask? And then what faith brings with it Faith, the faith is fatherly and tender affections and dispositions brings along with it this faith of receiving what we ask, which is necessary and good for us. Let's move on to the fourth thing, then, to be remembered about God as Father, 302. Why and what does this lead? Fourth thing he says is that, you know, although we should come to God with this filial confidence and faith and so on, he says we should also come to God by prayer in a humble, self-abasing manner. And the reason why is He says even though we're his children, he's our father, the fact is that we are unworthy and sinful children and we can't plead anything of our own merit. There's nothing we have done which we can plead as being the ground for God being gracious to us. So he's saying when you come before God in prayer, Don't think you are wiser or better or in any way more virtuous than other people. It's not you. It's not about you. It has to do with the fact that, and this is the third point, What we're pleading, what this pleads, when we plead that we're humble and so on, is that we have an interest in relation to Him as Father. And we expect what we expect from Him from free fatherly pity and compassion. We don't have anything to give. There's nothing more maddening, nothing more off-putting than having someone who is completely unworthy trying to assert some sort of merit. And upon the basis of that merit demanding, you know, attention, affection and all the things that we're demanding of God. We're doing it simply out of relation. And that relation is, you know, a covenant relation. The fifth thing remembered about God is Father. 3 of 3. And then why and what this should instill in us. Does this instill in us? So the fifth thing, he says, thinking about God as father in this respect teaches us to draw near to God with holy fear and reverence as children approaching their father. The reason that he gives is, you know, children who know their own state and condition by nature, they will study to maintain a certain amount of honor, reverence, and respect because they owe it to their father. And he's saying, likewise, this is what we owe to God. on a much broader, deeper, and majestic scale. Nonetheless, we have to be very careful that we remember we are not, by any stretch of the imagination, we are not the superiors in this relation. the inferiors, and from what we saw in the previous point, our inferiority is not just a matter of creator-creature, but it's the holiness of God versus the sinfulness of mankind. So what does this instill in us? 303 C. This would, if we had this view, it would instill in us all due reverence and fear. This proper knowledge of how children should approach their fathers. And there is, to some extent, there's a direct relation in most people's lives between how they interact with their fathers and how they conceive of God. It's very difficult when you, and this is a problem in our modern culture with all these broken and blended and mixed up families, It makes it very hard for people to conceive a right of God and their relation to God. So, you know, sometimes what we have to do, because we live in such a broken time, we need to learn how to approach God and then derive lessons from that that we can apply retroactively, in a sense, in our sanctification. Because we didn't learn it the other way, but there's there is you know in in the nature of things when people are doing Just civilly speaking they're doing more of what they're supposed to be doing There's an order and there is a certain pedagogy in that order that is instructing us and preparing us for our interaction with the divine It's it's I mean there there's certainly structure, but you know there's Along with that structure. I think we have to understand that there's There's an ordering That is in particular this superior and inferior Relation you know people have trouble with that You know, it's it's a matter of pride. We don't want to be by nature we resist Submitting to authority lawful authority And that you know that's made more difficult When we're dealing with Situations which are More out of the norm of nature if you will, right? All right 304 where in does this reverence consist It says reverence that we're talking about This is consistent three things three or four a first thing It says in having all high and respectful thoughts of God I want you to keep this in mind. You know, the mindset he's talking about with God is really the mindset that you are to have with respect to your parents. And all lawful authority, correct? And all lawful authority. Right? So, that's all lawful authority in church and state. When we're dealing with unlawful authorities or unlawful exercises of authority. That tends to taint this and it makes it harder for us to think about this. But in order to clear our minds we need to fix upon what honor and reverence really looks like and Brown says look the first thing is it's going to have all high and respectful thoughts of God. The second thing, B, is it consists in having humble and low thoughts of ourselves. As long as you are in a relation, you're thinking to yourself along these lines, you're thinking, well, I could do better, I'm smarter, I could accomplish this, you know, in a more efficient way, whatever, whatever the proposition is, long as you're thinking like that, you're not thinking properly. Right? In that relation. And that is, it doesn't just go double it, it's, you know, exponentially infinite. When we're talking about God. And I know there's no such thing as exponentially infinite, it's hyperbole. Right. 304C, the third thing in which this consists is in carrying in all their deportment, our deportment, very submissively and circumspectly. Lest we say or do anything to provoke the eyes of God's jealousy. So in other words, Brown is saying, look, if you have high thoughts of God, low thoughts of yourself, in the third place, it should be reflected in the way you think about other things and your behavior in general. If it's not, God's going to see it. Now, that's not always the case with earthly or human authorities. your life. They don't always see. But God does, and that's exactly why, you know, whatsoever we do, whether we eat or drink, whatever we're thinking, whatever we're trying to achieve, we're to do it to the glory of God. Okay, 305. The sixth thing remembered about God is Father. And what should this encourage? Why and what should this encourage? So the sixth thing is that this would teach us to approach with a holy importunity when we're pressed to speak what is necessary and useful for us. Now what he means is, let me tell you why, and this will help explain what he means by this. The reason why is, he says, a child will be importunate with the parent for meat when he's hungry, for drink when he's thirsty, for clothes when he's naked. In other words, when these are things which are necessary, when these are things which are useful for us. Just like, he's saying, just like a child can, you know, approach a parent and say, I'm really hungry. I'm really thirsty. I need something to wear. Those are the kind of things that are going to get God's immediate attention and that attention is going to be positive attention, if you will. Even though the child is importunate, that is, you're going to be persistent. You're not going to let up. You're going to keep asking. You're going to keep knocking as the verse goes. until somebody opens that door. Browsing is fine. I think necessary things, things which are useful. These are the kinds of things that you can, you can pester God. Go ahead, pester him about it. Don't feel bad. You know, he said to ask... Now, what should this encourage in us then? He said, it will encourage in us... the opportunity to plead, to plead with the Lord for whatever a child of God wants or finds necessary, particularly on account of this relation. And that, notwithstanding any discouragements that come flooding in, So for example, he quotes Isaiah 63 16 Doubtless thou art our father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledges not thou O Lord art our father So the pleading you know the pleading there is To the effect that even though We've degenerated so far that our covenanted progenitors, Abram and Israel, they should disown us and no more look upon us as covenanted posterity, yet the covenant remains. Right? And you're going to be importunate. You're going to plead that. So these are things which are necessarily useful. You've not lived up to that level of faithfulness of others, but you're not pleading your faithfulness. You're actually, your opportunity in this case is based upon God's covenant faithfulness. Your opportunity is is taking hold of the idea that God will remain faithful. God's promises are not going to fail. This is the idea. So that should encourage us. All right, 306. The seventh thing remembered about God is Father. Why and what this should What should this teach us? So the seventh thing to be remembered here is they should teach us to approach with affections warm toward God. With love and delight in Him with desire to please Him. God is God is the ultimate father of the prodigal, right, who's standing there really waiting and watching for the prodigal to return, as it were. God is in every way forward in this relation to be where we're going to be before we are. And this really, this is why, you know, we should, well, he says when, as for the why, you know, why we should have our affections warm toward God. He says that due reverence is accompanied with love. And that's what distinguishes due reverence from just fear. Children should approach their father not as approaching an enemy whom they hate, but as their father whom they love. What is it we want when we want to approach God in this way? Because he is our father. So, quote Psalm 18.1, I will love thee, O Lord. Verse 3, I will call upon the Lord. Having our affections warmed really indicates that we are that we're doing what we're doing willingly. There's a voluntariness. We're moved to take hold of God from an inward principle of heart affection toward God. Which, by the way, argues, that's something we talked about on Friday night, that this idea of the new heart, what the new heart is. You know, that part of the new heart that is a sign and seal of the covenant is to have this affection toward God. Right? We need to be rightly affected toward God. When we're unbelievers, we are wrongly affected toward God. It's one of the things that keeps us from coming to God. We're wrongly affected. We don't take delight in the things in which God takes delight. You know, God takes delight in holiness. God takes delight in the keeping of his commandments. God takes delight in the obedience of his children. You know, and believers are rebels. You know, they delight in rebellion. They delight in sin. They delight in darkness rather than light. So believers, one of the signs you are a believer is that you come to take delight. Not only in the things of God, but as Brown is pointing out here, your affections are warm toward God in prayer to Him. You delight to come to Him in this way. So what they should teach us is that those who come to Him, they need to come to Him with the purpose to cleave to Him. Not fearing that they're going to receive anything to their prejudice. And not having even the least suspicion that God is going to do them ill. Right? God is not in the business of child abuse. If your hearts are warm toward God, in that respect, you're not even, it's not even going to cross your mind. I've heard people say that they're concerned about praying to God, or that they prayed about this or that, and that they're not sure that God would be favorably disposed, and so on. That's contrary to what Brown is talking about here. When your heart is rightly affected, you're going to approach God with that, not just with that filial confidence, not just with faith, but with that filial love of a child to his father. And the last thing in this chapter, the eighth thing to be remembered about God as Father is, and this is a very important point on which he ends this chapter, That we have to come with filial submission. Not thinking that we're going to limit or prescribe what the Lord is going to do. The reason why is, you know, a child is not supposed to think that he's wiser than his father. so that he can, in a sense, dictate to him what he's going to give him, rather than allow the father to prescribe or tailor his response to the child's request in a way that is most beneficial to the child. Why is A wise father, you know, if you have a child who comes to you, you're not going to give the child something. You're not going to grant a wish or a desire, which is going to bring harm to that child or through that child to someone else, right? Then the child has to live with that. That's not what you're going to do. And so he's saying when we come to God in prayer, when there is this filial submission, you know, we're asking, but even in all things lawful, even in the promises of God, we're, in a sense, we're asking God to do this, you know, if it's his will, to do it now, you know, if it's his will, to do it in this place or this time. We need to be open, even in things where we have a promise of God, we need to be open to understanding that God has a timing. That God has, even in some of these things, a place. There's a time and a place for everything. But your time and your place may not be it. And were you to get that, it might absolutely destroy you. Not just temporally, but even sometimes spiritually. So this should teach us then that the children of God should come in prayer with that resolution to submit to Him in all particulars. We shouldn't You know, we shouldn't come in prayer. It's not filial submission to come to God and demand that this be done now, this be done in this manner, this is the only way this could possibly be answered that would satisfy me. You know, that's not filial submission. And let me just, as we wrap up this chapter, let me just point out that a lot of these prosperity churches today, these different prosperity movements, it started out a number of years ago as a word of faith movement, but there are these mega churches now that are promising all kinds of things and telling people to command God with respect to all kinds of things. with little or no appreciation for this idea of filial submission. When you start teaching people to pray in ways that are contrary to what Brown has sketched out in this chapter, you're encouraging their rebellion. You're not going to help anyone. You're certainly not going to help the true church. A lot of times these movements tend to do exactly the opposite of what Brown has told us we ought to do when we approach God as Father. They actually will engender in people low thoughts of God and high thoughts of themselves. A lot of them are into various forms of self-esteem teaching or positive thinking and all of that. The Bible doesn't think that our problem is that we have too low an opinion of ourselves. Contrary to all these modern psychologists and these modern preachers who are worried that we might be thinking too lowly, we might be too humble in our own self-assessment. The Bible has a lot more to say about pride of thought, you know, pride in your self-assessing and all of that, than in the other direction. It's true the Bible does address people who are downcast. And there are people who are, you know, sometimes dejected to a point where they need some kind of positive word from scripture to encourage them. But even with people in that condition, a lot of times people who are in that kind of extreme condition are there actually because they have views too high of themselves. And it's in a weird sort of way. Their views, and I alluded to this earlier, they have this view that they are so unworthy that they're even more unworthy than God said that he would be willing to condescend to be reconciled with that person. So, you know, this is, in a backdoor sort of way, it is a kind of spiritual pride. It's a kind of spiritual pride that is, I would say, akin to the kind of self-flagellation we saw in the Middle Ages in some of these monasteries where the monks go around beating themselves. But it's not, you know, it's not, strictly speaking, biblical humility. Biblical humility is going to be able to join all the things that we were talking about today. You know, having high thoughts of God, low thoughts of yourself, and yet having this filial confidence, having faith, having this loving disposition toward God as Father. That confidence that we can come to God as Father, not thinking that He's going to cast us off. And yet, that confidence is balanced with recognition that there's no meriting in ourselves, and that we are not in the driver's seat, right? When we come before God, when we ask Him in prayer, we're not there to dictate to Him the manner in which He's going to answer this or that prayer. All right. With all of that set before us, next time in chapter 15, we're going to talk a bit about whose name in whose name prayer is to be made. And so we'll be talking about some of the formalities regarding prayer and why.