A High View of Prayer
Probably the most famous quote by William Carey is “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” This was the title of a message he preached that played a role in launching the Baptist Missionary Society. It has been used endlessly ever since, sometimes to regrettable effect.
I remember years ago sitting in a meeting of pastors where a representative of a Bible school gave a rousing talk based on Carey’s quote. He was announcing a new project he hoped the attendees would support financially. He built up the suspense masterfully. I have to say, however, that when he told us the project was to fix the stairs on the married students dorm, the effect was sort of anticlimactic.
“Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”
William Carey
As wonderful as Carey’s quote it is, it can be misinterpreted as much as it can be misused. It can be taken as a motivational poster for a very man-centered approach to life and ministry—as if Carey was some sort of 18th century prosperity gospel preacher. It all depends on where we think the accent falls.
It helps to understand that Carey came from a Baptist tradition that placed a heavy emphasis on God’s sovereignty. Even good things can be distorted, and many Baptists in Carey’s day had fallen into hyper-Calvinism. They went to the extreme of teaching that the gospel should not be offered freely to sinners. Revival came as a circle of young pastors who were friends of Carey read books by Jonathan Edwards and others—especially the Bible. Their conclusion was that, yes, God is great and absolutely sovereign. And this great God commands that preachers plead fervently with the lost so that they might be saved.
What these friends of Carey recovered was a balanced view of the character of God. God is sovereign and all powerful. He is righteous. And he is also merciful and gracious. A failure to take all of these aspects of God’s character into account produces a lopsided message. It will also produce a lopsided approach to prayer.
Our view of God’s character has a lot to do with our prayer life. When we see God’s character as defined by both sovereignty and grace, we can begin to sing the first notes of the true melody of prayer. It is the tune Jesus taught us. The melody begins with these notes, “Our Father, who art in heaven…” And there is a line of harmony that joins perfectly with the melody, “Give us this day…”
William Carey’s sister, Mary, recalled after his death the great concern he had had for her soul before he had gone to India. She stated that God had enabled William to see that “he was a prayer-hearing and answering God, though he long called him to wait. O what a privilege to have praying relations; and what a mercy to have a God that waits to be gracious.”
There is a young man in our church in Córdoba named Germán. From the time he was an early teen he was involved with a pretty rough crowd. He says he always had a pistol with him and he was involved the kind of things that could have easily gotten him killed. One day he reached such a low point of despair that he went into his bedroom and put the gun to his temple. When he pulled the trigger the gun misfired. He said at that point he fell on the floor and called out, “God, if you are there, help me.”
And God did.
He came to Christ by listening to the local Christian radio station (BBN). When he asked them about a good church to attend, they sent him in our direction. He is finishing his high school GED so that he can study with us at Seminario Carey.
God answers prayers like the one Germán prayed. Do you remember the leper in Matthew 8 who came to Jesus and said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” (ESV) Jesus said very simply, “I will. Be clean.”
A high view of prayer rests on a high view of God’s character. He can. And he will. He is both great and gracious.