AP

‘Camel Knees’ in Prayer

In church history I have only heard of two Christians who were known to have ‘camel knees’. One was James the Just, the brother of Jesus who according to Eusebius prayed so much on his knees that they became so calloused they looked like the knees of camels. The second was Edward Payson, nicknamed ‘Praying Payson’ of Portland, who on his death, was found to have knees that were equally calloused. Payson had prayed so much on his knees to the LORD that the wooden floor panels beside his bed had been worn away into two deep groves. Is it any wonder that these two men were so mightily used by God?

In the annals of church history there have been other great prayer warriors, who should be remembered and imitated. One is the 16^th Scottish reformer John Knox who prayed: “Give me Scotland or I die”. Another is the fiery Scottish pastor John Welsh who incidentally married one of Knox’s daughters.

Welsh thought the day ill-spent if he had not prayed for 8 to 10 hours. He would often get up in the wee hours of the morning and pray outside for Scotland and his church. Once his wife woke up late at night to find him outside on the grass praying. When she urged him to return to bed he replied: “O Woman, I have souls of three thousand to answer for, and I know not how it is with many of them!”

Martin Luther is believed to have spent two to three hours in prayer per day. In a sermon by Spurgeon, he records: ‘I like that saying of Martin Luther, when he says, “I have so much business to do to-day, that I shall not be able to get through it with less than three hours’ prayer.” Now, most people would say, “I have so much business to do to-day, that I have only three minutes for prayer; I cannot afford the time.” But Luther thought that the more he had to do, the more he must pray, or else he could not get through it. That is a blessed kind of logic: may we understand it!’ Luther was naturally a very busy man, but he understood that long periods in prayer were essential to his Christian life.

America’s first overseas missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson, conducted a prayer life that almost beggars belief. Judson advised Christians: “Arrange thy affairs, if possible, so that thou canst leisurely devote two or three hours every day, not merely to devotional exercises, but to the very act of secret prayer and communion with God. Endeavor, seven times a day, to withdraw from business and company, and lift up thy soul to God in private retirement. Begin the day by rising after midnight and devoting some time, amid the silence and darkness of the night, to this sacred work. Let the hour of opening dawn find thee at the same work; let the hours of nine, twelve, three, six, and nine at night witness the same. Be resolute in this course. Make all practicable sacrifices to maintain it. Consider that thy time is short, and that business and company must not be allowed to rob thee of thy God. At least, remember the morning, noon, and night seasons, and the season after midnight, if not detrimental to thy health.

Not many will have Judson’s great stamina and determination, but his reliance on prayer is an example that our churches can follow. The church will go nowhere in Australia if we do not strengthen our own prayer lives and the prayer life of the church.

Prayer. Reading the word. Holiness. Evangelism. These are the 4 ventricles of a healthy Christian. The church will die without prayer. Our pastors need to be soaked in prayer. God’s people need to pray and to be copiously prayed for.

James Packer, in observing the western church, commented that it was riddled with praylessness. Many people who attend church are prayerless either because they have never been discipled on its utmost importance in their Christian walk or, worse, they are goats masquerading as sheep.

The times we live in are bleak. Evil saturates the world. The times are urgent. But Satan has lulled the church into a deep sleep. God’s people consume opiate amounts of time on trivial matters. Satan’s current scheme is to distract us from prayer into spending insane hours behind a screen until our eyelids are so heavy that we have no capacity to pray.

John Piper was right to say: ‘One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.’

We must urge the congregation to pray both before and after the worship service. Encourage each person to pray daily. We may not have the capacity to pray like the camel-kneed Payson or have the stamina of a Judson, but let us urge ourselves to emulate these great saints in their determination to pray often and well.

– Troy Appleton