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One who prays not only needs to have a proper spirit, but the various parts of his soul also need to be normal. If we wish to learn to pray properly, we need to adjust our entire being. We should realize that we are fallen human beings and that not one part of our being is altogether sound. Never think that all the problems of our being have been resolved by regeneration. It is not that simple. Although regeneration has made our spirit alive, the various other parts of our being are still not exactly right, or proper. Therefore, they need to be readjusted. It is because our mind is still not proper that the Scriptures tell us a saved person still needs to be renewed in his mind. This renewing includes almost all matters related to the adjustment of the mind. However, the Bible also tells us to “rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). This is a matter concerning the adjustment of the emotion. Some do not have a proper emotion. They do not rejoice when they should be rejoicing, nor do they weep when they should be weeping. Such emotion is unsuitable if one is to be a normal Christian. If it is necessary to have an adjusted emotion for our human walk, then how much more needful it is to have an adjusted emotion for prayer.
Prayer is man coming with his whole being before God to engage in a serious matter. If there is any part in you that is improper, then you cannot be a normal, proper, and correct praying one. For example, suppose your emotion is shown to be improper because you only like exciting and noisy prayer. All the examples of prayer in the Bible show that every man of prayer had an upright spirit, a sober mind, and proper emotions. Each one’s emotions, undoubtedly, had been trained and adjusted.
Generally speaking, modern educators pay most of their attention to educating the human mind. They seldom give heed to cultivating the human emotions. Even if they do cultivate the emotions, it is often by means of varieties of perverted and rough music. Under such influence, the human emotions become even more improper. Therefore, we can say that human education with all its methods has not paid attention to the matter of properly adjusting the emotion. Human emotion is also a part within man that is very much fallen and has been very much damaged. We have to admit that many mistakes, sins, and corruptions are not necessarily works of the human mind. Instead, they are produced by the emotion, which tricks us into doing many improper things. Therefore, if we wish to be a proper Christian, as well as a man of prayer before God, not only do we need to heed the matter of the mind as mentioned in the previous chapter, but we also need to consider this matter of a correct emotion.
The emotion is a part of the soul and ranks below the mind and the will. In other words, the emotion should be under the control of the will and the mind. We often say that we should not do things according to our emotions. This means that we should not yield to our emotion but that the emotion should submit itself to the ruling of the sober mind and the proper will. If the emotion were to occupy the chief position and rule over everything, it is difficult to know how far we would be led astray. When we are happy, we can soar to the third heaven. When we are miserable, we do not even want to live any longer. But with a normal human, though he is rich in emotions, they are very much controlled by his mind. Both in the Bible and in daily life, we can see that a proper human being is one whose emotion is definitely under the control of the will and the mind; and the more it is under the control of these faculties, the more such a person is normal and proper. If one’s emotion is not under the rule of the mind and the will, it is just like a car that has no brakes. As soon as it is driven, it gets into an accident. Furthermore, since it is under no regulation, it is difficult to tell how disastrously far it may go. This is a very dangerous matter. Hence, the position of the emotion is to be under the control of the mind and the will.
We often say that someone has an abundance of emotion, but someone else does not have much emotion and therefore is cold, like a man of wood or stone. Brothers and sisters, we need to see that to be overabundant in emotions is wrong, and to be too cold in emotions is also wrong. Both are immoderate. A proper person is one who is moderate in pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy. Whether he is happy or sad, there is a fixed degree. He laughs but only to a certain extent. He weeps and is sorrowful only to a certain extent. His emotion is moderate and balanced.
Thirty years ago in a certain meeting in northern China, I saw some conditions of immoderate emotions. When the brothers and sisters prayed, the degree of excitement of some was beyond description. They shouted, clapped their hands, laughed, and trembled. They actually laughed to the point of going crazy. It is hard to find a word in the dictionary to describe that situation. I also saw one weeping in a way that was simply unimaginable. Even someone whose father or mother had died would not have cried with that kind of a voice. He wept with such great sorrow that it caused others to have a chilling sensation. These were displays of improper, excessive emotions. In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul says that we ought to be beside ourselves before God and be sober-minded before man (v. 13). This is to regulate and temper our emotion.
Without a moderate emotion you cannot pray properly. It is not right to have an immoderate emotion, nor is it right to be lacking in emotion. Some brothers and sisters who pray in the meetings are just like robots. They pray without any expression whatsoever and sound exactly like a typewriter. While the conditions that we described earlier show an excessive emotion, a condition such as this reveals a shortage of emotions. Both of these are conditions of an immoderate emotion.
Never consider this a small matter. In Bethany, when the Lord Jesus saw the condition of Mary and of the Jews and thought of the death of Lazarus, He wept. This, the shortest verse in the Bible, shows that the Lord had emotions. However, in His weeping, the Lord did not wail so as to cause those around Him to have a chilling sensation in their bones. The Scripture simply says this word: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). By reading the record, you can tell that He was One with a very moderate emotion. On another occasion, when He cleansed the temple, He made a whip out of cords, drove out all the sheep and the oxen, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers. We can say that He was thunderingly angry that day. But you cannot find any trace in the Bible indicating that on that day the Lord Jesus made a great mess in the temple by breaking everything in it. With some brothers, if they do not lose their temper, all is well; but once they become angry, they create a big mess by breaking everything — the windows, the teapot, etc. Oh, how moderate was the emotion of our Lord Jesus! If you and I wish to be normal Christians, our emotions need to be moderate. Whether we are happy or sad, it must be only to a certain degree.
Man’s emotion should be not only moderate but also sound. Moderation is a matter concerning degree, whereas soundness is a matter concerning nature. You all know what we mean by soundness. With some brothers and sisters, when they laugh, it is a wicked laugh, and when they are sorrowful, it is a crooked sorrow. Their feelings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy are not sound. Likewise, if a man can only laugh but cannot weep and never gets angry, he is most likely a false Christian. The Bible says, “Be angry, yet do not sin” (Eph. 4:26). If one sins in his anger, his anger is unsound and evil. Some weep and laugh with propriety, but others cry and laugh in an unsound, unseemly manner. All these unsound emotions are obstacles to our prayers. Hence, if we wish to be a normal praying one, we need an emotion that is both moderate and sound.
To be refined means to be gentle, fine, and polite. A Christian’s emotion should be cultured, not wild. He is polite, whether happy or sad. You can sense that he is very polite and lovable even in grief or in anger. These are areas where the emotion needs to be adjusted. Some brothers and sisters are really gracious and polite when they are on good terms with you, but once they are angry with you, they look like demons coming out of the bottomless pit. This proves that their emotion is really not refined. Some even look ugly when they are excited, because they behave in a wild, loose manner. This means that their emotion has not been adjusted. By the Lord’s life, you and I need to exercise ourselves so that even in our anger there is refinement. I repeat, the emotion needs to be refined in order to have proper prayer.
To be temperate means to be mild and respectful. To be restrained means to be able to restrict oneself. Hence, to be temperate and restrained means that your emotion must always be respectful, polite, and under self-control. Do not cry with no restraint and lose your normality. Although you cry, you must still be respectful and polite, controlling and restraining yourself. Also, do not allow yourself to be unrestrained when you are angry. When you exercise your emotions, be temperate, respectful and polite, restrained and restricted. This is not merely a matter of being moderate, sound, and refined. Refinement simply means that the emotion of such a one is very polite and nice. Temperance and self-restraint mean that, in addition to politeness, there is also a kind of self-control, self-restriction.
Why do we need to use words like these? It is because the emotion is a very delicate matter. It is necessary to cover the very fine points in order to adjust our emotion. A normal Christian is not like a wooden man. Rather, he is full of emotions, always has a joyful countenance toward others, and is moderate, sound, refined, respectful and polite, self-restrained and self-controlled.
Sometimes you may come across a brother or sister who demonstrates no emotions. He never laughs or cries. This kind of person is like a piece of ice or stone. He is neither temperate nor restrained. On other occasions you may meet a brother or sister whose emotions are disorderly and unruly, like the uncombed hair in the morning. Both his laughing and crying are a mess — neither temperate, restrained, nor cultured. Such emotions are great frustrations to our prayers. If we wish to learn to pray, we need to learn these lessons concerning the emotion.
Tranquility of emotion means that the emotion is able to remain calm. To be tranquil means to be serene; the two are almost synonymous. It is very easy for one who is emotional to be boiling in his emotions; hence, he must learn to calm his emotions. To be tranquil in this sense does not mean to be quiet; rather, it means to be calm or settled. For example, with some, once they hear some joyful news, they become too excited and can no longer pray. Not only can they no longer pray, but they cannot even sit still inside the house. This means that they do not have a calm emotion. Some are not able to pray after losing their temper or getting angry; this also indicates a disturbed emotion.
We often think that we are unable to pray because our mind has been disturbed. Actually, it is easy to overcome the disturbance of the mind. If we can maintain a tranquil emotion, we will not be affected even though someone beside us may say something. But once our emotion is stirred up, it will be very difficult for us to get into our spirit to pray. Sometimes this may continue for days before we can pray again.
A disturbed emotion will adversely affect our prayer life. When some are happy, they will cry and laugh in their prayer and even forget about eating. But when they become unhappy, they can stop praying for one week. Their prayer life is unpredictable, being entirely under the control of their emotion. Such a one whose emotion is not tranquil cannot pray. Hence, we need to exercise to be tranquil.
All the aforementioned lessons are for the purpose of controlling the emotion. To control the emotion does not mean that it becomes a pretense. It is still very real. The laugh of a diplomat is an entirely false laugh, and his sympathy for others is also not real. What we mean by a controlled emotion is not the false emotion of a diplomat. Rather, it is genuine but regulated, not raw, wild, loose, or without limitation. An emotion that is thus being controlled is restricted, regulated, and disciplined. Unless the emotion has learned these lessons, it is very difficult for our prayer life to last very long.
If your emotion has been adjusted so that it is moderate, sound, refined, temperate, restrained, tranquil, and controlled, then you will be able to bring the entire emotion into subjection to the spirit. It will then be ruled by the spirit. Your emotion will not move independently but will have its head entirely covered before the spirit, allowing the spirit to be the head. When the spirit rejoices, it rejoices. When the spirit is grieved, it is grieved. Whenever the spirit makes a move, the emotion also makes a move. It always follows the spirit. Only an emotion that is sound, moderate, refined, temperate and restrained, tranquil, and able to exercise self-control can be directed by the spirit. At this point the emotion becomes a spiritual emotion.
I believe, brothers and sisters, if you are without prejudice and are willing to calmly think over these points, you will find out that the cause of numerous problems in your spiritual life lies with the emotion. Why is it that you cannot pray for long? Why is your spiritual life before God not so normal but suddenly high and then suddenly low? It is because your emotion has not been adjusted so as to become moderate, sound, refined, temperate and restrained, tranquil, and always under control. You have not been able to make your emotion subject to the leading of the spirit. Your emotion is individualistic and is dominating the spirit. Your being is continuously being disturbed by the emotion. Hence, in order to be a proper man of prayer, the emotion must subject itself to the spirit, allowing the spirit to occupy the first place. Thus, you will be able to maintain a normal prayer life.
Here we will consider the function of the emotion and its relation to the spirit. We know that the emotion is the organ by which man expresses himself. The mind affords man a way of expression by causing him to know how to express himself, but it is man’s emotion that directly expresses the man himself. Likewise, God expresses Himself to a considerable extent from our spirit through our mind, but to an even greater extent He expresses Himself through our emotion. When one prays, it is the faculty of the emotion that directly utters the burden in the spirit. For example, the Holy Spirit may give you a feeling of sorrow and repentance, yet you are void of a sorrowful emotion and are still smiling cheerfully. How then can you utter a sorrowful prayer? By this we can see how important the emotion is to the spirit. Man’s expression lies with the emotion, and God’s expression is carried out mainly through our emotion. One who is without emotions has no way to express the spirit or God. Thus, one who lives before God and prays must have emotions, even abundant emotions. All who are as cold as ice in their emotion can never be spiritual.
This does not mean that if you have plenty of emotions you are automatically spiritual. It is possible that your abundant emotions will, on the contrary, cause you to become a mess. To be spiritual without becoming a mess, you need an emotion that is moderate, sound, refined, temperate and restrained, tranquil, controlled, spiritual, and abundant. If one would learn all these lessons, his emotion would be most useful and precious. It would also become most competent in expressing God as well as expressing the spirit. Such a one is most learned in prayer, and God can be expressed more through him.
By studying church history and reading the biographies of spiritual men, you will find that all spiritual men are full of emotions. The more spiritual a person is, the richer his emotions are. In the Bible there was a weeping prophet by the name of Jeremiah. He said, “My eye runs down with water” (Lam. 1:16), and, “My eye runs down with streams of water” (3:48). He was really a weeping prophet. The feeling to weep was very heavy in him. But when you read the book of Jeremiah, you can sense that, although he wept, his emotion had been disciplined. His sorrowful and weeping emotion had been restricted so that God could come to him and use him to express the sorrowful feelings that were in God’s heart. Although God was grieved and hurt because of His people, He had to find someone on this earth who had these feelings. Then when His Spirit came upon that particular one and put those feelings in his spirit, he would then express the sorrowful feeling of God out of his emotion. If Jeremiah had been a merry and cheerful prophet, God would not have been able to use him. Hence, in order that God may be fully expressed through you, you need a spiritual emotion.
From the above nine points we can see that only when the emotion has been exercised to the extent that it can be employed by the spirit can it be useful in prayer. Leviticus 10:6-9 mentions that when Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered strange fire and died before God, Moses told Aaron and his other two sons, “Do not dishevel the hair of your heads, and do not tear your garments,” thus prohibiting them from expressing any emotion whatever. And they did according to the word of Moses. If at that time Aaron had wept or disheveled the hair of his head, he would not have been able to be the high priest anymore. This was not an easy matter. Aaron was not without grief, but he needed to control his emotion to the extent that he could be useful to God.
If one’s emotion has been adjusted to the extent of the above ten points, his emotion is one that can cooperate with God. When the emotion has been exercised to such an extent, then he can be a man of prayer before God.
