祈禱者：約翰‧諾克斯
約翰·諾克斯是一個虔誠禱告的人。
約翰·諾克斯不是對自己充滿信心的人。他深深感受到自己在使命面前的軟弱和不配。他曾經說過：「比起別人需要我，我更需要一切」。
我們通常不像諾克斯那樣感受自己的需求。尤其在特立獨行、「你能做到」的文化中，我們被教導要自視高明，並且假設「基於相信自己，我們可以成就一切」。
認識自己的軟弱和需要幫助是一回事。這雖大有必要，但如果只知道自己的軟弱，我們便會無所作為，毫無用處。
我們還需要知道從哪裡尋找力量。諾克斯知道去哪裡尋找自己缺乏的力量和權能－在他的上帝那裡。因此，他這樣為蘇格蘭教會禱告：
看我們正像一群沒有牧者的羊群，在公民政策中像暴風雨裏無舵的船，主啊，按您的意願關照我們，在危險的日子保護我們。在這邪惡的世界裡雖無人向我們伸出援手，您卻有統治的大能，管理和維護那些倚靠您的弱小羊群。
《約翰·諾克斯強大的軟弱》（The Mighty Weakness of John Knox）P38
在日內瓦跟隨加爾文幾年之後，他可能學習了《基督教要義》中關於祈禱的真理：
無論我們需要什麼，或缺乏什麼……都在我們的主耶穌基督裡……有所預備，以使我們尋求祂，並在禱告中祈求我們已知悉留存於祂的東西。
當困難和恐懼來臨，諾克斯更加強調軟弱和祈禱之間的關係。
煩惱和恐懼正是祈禱的動力；因為當人被巨大的災難包圍，並為持續不斷的憂慮而煩惱（靠人的幫助沒有拯救的希望……），在患難的深坑中向上帝呼求安慰和支持的時候，這樣的禱告抵達神的所在，便不會徒然返回。
約翰·諾克斯《祈禱論》（Treatise on Prayer）
不住地禱告
對諾克斯來說，禱告不是一項偶然而是恆常的活動。在定義中，諾克斯稱祈禱是「一種熱切而熟悉的與神交談的方式。我們向祂訴說痛苦，在逆境中懇求和渴望祂的支持與幫助，並因所得的益處而讚美和頌揚祂」（ 約翰·諾克斯《祈禱論》）。我們可能傾向於認為每天需要固定時間去禱告－這可能是真的－但諾克斯卻認真對待聖經中「不住禱告」的誡命（帖前5:17）。
我們可以從諾克斯的後代身上一窺祈禱生活的場景。諾克斯最小的女兒嫁給了一個名叫約翰·韋爾奇的男人，據說他的家中時常充滿禱告的聲音。韋爾奇是一位虔誠的祈禱者，他經常在半夜起床禱告。韋爾奇傳講基督是教會的元首而國王不是，他於是被送入監獄。因跪在監獄地板上長時間禱告，他的膝蓋後來完全失去了知覺。
鼓勵人們禱告
有時候我們可能覺得因自己的罪或不配而無法接近神。對此，諾克斯指出，「我們最好的醫生提供了兩塊膏藥以鼓勵祈禱……一塊是誡命，另一塊是應許」（ 約翰·諾克斯《祈禱論》）。
上帝命令我們禱告。因此，諾克斯認為，「不祈禱是最可憎的罪……最重要的是，我們表現出對神的輕蔑和鄙視。因為疏於祈禱，我們不能及時尋求祂仁慈的幫助」（ 約翰·諾克斯《祈禱論》）。
諾克斯繼續說：「對應祂的誡命，神在許多經文中添加了不容置疑的承諾：祈求，就會給你們；尋找，就會尋見；叩門，就會給你們開門（太7:7）」（ 約翰·諾克斯《祈禱論》）。
祈禱得到回應
約翰·諾克斯被那些親近他的人稱為「一位在祈禱中與上帝進行摔跤的佼佼者」（《約翰·諾克斯強大的軟弱》第35頁）。諾克斯當然期望上帝回應他的禱告。
諾克斯使用聖經的例子和個人見證指出，上帝確實聆聽祂子民懇切的祈禱並回應他們。他談及大衛在逼迫的考驗中禱告時指出，「在這些痛苦之中，上帝的良善支撐著他，[因此]當下的苦難變得可以忍受，上帝準確無誤的應許讓大衛安心等候搭救，使[他的]恐懼部分減輕和消失」 （ 約翰·諾克斯《祈禱論》）。
諾克斯認為上帝並非立即回應禱告並施行拯救。上帝可能支持基督徒度過苦難並保證日後的救贖。然而，諾克斯並沒有因此止步。他禱告起來像一位確信神會應允祂子民的人一樣。
他的人生中有確鑿的例證。據説信仰羅馬天主教的蘇格蘭女王瑪麗·斯圖爾特曾說過：「比起歐洲集結的所有軍隊，我更害怕約翰·諾克斯的祈禱」。當諾克斯第一次逃離蘇格蘭前往歐洲時，蘇格蘭似乎深陷絕境，他祈禱：「主啊，請在我死之前保守蘇格蘭。」在生命的盡頭，經過多年努力和祈禱，靠著上帝恩典的力量，諾克斯獲得了蘇格蘭。
願我們都向約翰·諾克斯學習祈禱。
John Knox: A Man of Prayer
John Knox was a man of prayer.
John Knox was not a self-confident man. He deeply sensed his own weakness and unfitness to his task. He once said, "I have rather need of all than that any hath need of me."
Often, we do not sense our own need like Knox did. Particularly in our independent, "you-can-do-it" culture, we are taught to think highly of ourselves and to assume that 'we can do all things through my own belief in myself'.
Knowing that we are weak and needy is one thing. It is a necessary thing, but if we only have a sense of our weakness, we will be left paralysed and useless.
We also need to know where to go to find strength. Knox knew where to find the strength and power that he sensed he lacked – in His God. This is why he could pray this regarding the church in Scotland:
"Seeing that we are now left as a flock without a pastor, in civil policy, and as a ship without a rudder in the midst of the storm, let Thy providence watch, Lord, and defend us in these dangerous days, that the wicked of the world may see that as well without the help of man, as with it, Thou art able to rule, maintain and defend the little flock that dependeth upon Thee."
AS QUOTED IN THE MIGHTY WEAKNESS OF JOHN KNOX, P38
Having learned from Calvin for several years in Geneva, he probably knew the truths that Calvin taught regarding prayer in his Institutes:
"Whatever we need and whatever we lack is … in our Lord Jesus Christ … it remains for us to seek in Him, and in prayers to ask of Him, what we have learned to be in Him."
This relationship between weakness and prayer was heightened for Knox when it came to trouble and fear.
"Trouble and fear are the very spurs to prayer; for when man, compassed about with vehement calamities, and vexed with continual solicitude (having, by help of man, no hope of deliverance …), does call to God for comfort and support from the deep pit of tribulation, such a prayer ascends into God's presence, and returns not in vain."
TREATISE ON PRAYER, JOHN KNOX
Pray Without Ceasing
For Knox, prayer was not an occasional activity. It was to be constant. In his definition of prayer, Knox calls prayer "an earnest and familiar talking with God, to whom we declare our miseries, whose support and help we implore and desire in our adversities, and whom we laud and praise for our benefits received" (Treatise on Prayer, John Knox). We can be tempted to think of prayer as something we need to spend a set time doing each day – and that may be true – but Knox took the command in scripture to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17) seriously.
We can see something of Knox' prayer life in his descendants. Knox' youngest daughter married a man named John Welch whose home was reportedly filled with constant audible prayer. Welch was such a prayer that he would often get up in the middle of the night and pray. After being sent to prison for preaching that Christ, not the king, is the head of the church, Welch's knees lost all feeling because of how much time he spent in prayer on the prison floor.
Encouragements to Pray
At times we may feel like we can't approach God because of our sin or our unworthiness. To this Knox points out that "our most prudent Physician has provided two plasters to give us encouragement to pray… that is, a precept and a promise." (Treatise on Prayer, John Knox)
God commands us to pray and so, Knox argues, "not to pray is a sin most odious… Above all our iniquities, we work manifest contempt and despising of him, when, by negligence, we delay to call for his gracious support" (Treatise on Prayer, John Knox)
Knox continues: "To his commandment, he adds his most undoubted promise in many places: "Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find" (Matt. 7:7)." (Treatise on Prayer, John Knox)
Prayers Answered
John Knox was known by those close to him as "an eminent wrestler with God in prayer" (as quoted in The Mighty Weakness of John Knox, p35) and Knox certainly expected God to answer his prayers.
Using scriptural examples and personal testimony, Knox argues that God does hear the earnest prayers of His people and will answer them. Pointing to David's prayers when he faced the trial of persecution, Knox notes that "in the midst of these anguishes the goodness of God sustained him, [so] that the present tribulation was tolerable, and the infallible promises of God so assured him of deliverance, that [his] fear was partly mitigated and gone." (Treatise on Prayer, John Knox)
For Knox, God's answer to prayer will not always be immediate deliverance. God's answer may include sustaining the Christian through suffering and assurance of future deliverance. However, Knox did not stop there. He prayed as one who knew that God does act on the prayers of His people.
This is evident from his life. Mary Stuart, the Roman Catholic Queen of Scotland is reported to have said, "I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe." When Knox first fled Scotland to Europe, when all seemed hopeless for Scotland, he prayed "Lord, give me Scotland ere I die." By the end of his life, after many more years of labour and prayers and by the power of God's grace, Knox was given Scotland.
May we all learn to pray like John Knox.
- Tom Eglinton, translation by Sonia Liang
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