John Newton is one of those saints who contended earnestly for the historical, living faith of the early church. He is most widely known for the hymn, Amazing Grace, but he was much more than a composer, author, and puritan pastor. John Newton was a man who knew a thing or two about prayer. He would pen poems and lyrics to teach his congregation biblical truths, often times giving them, and us, glimpses into his sacred times with His God. Below is but one verse that shares the simplicity and joy that he found in prayer before the face of the Savior.
BEHOLD the throne of grace!
The promise calls me near,
There Jesus shows a smiling face,
And waits to answer prayer.
Isn’t it obvious that John Newton came to discovered that prayer is far more than a plea for help or a call to God for forgiveness? For John Newton prayer was a place of love and also a holy exercise with holy implications creating a holy atmosphere. It is where the Holy One and His praying child find grace as well as mercy, find peace as well as a refreshing. And yet one of the beauties of prayer is that it is both more simplistic than we imagine and more influential than anything that we try to compare it with in this natural realm. It is not difficult to understand how all of this could be so, for what else should you expect when the Most High God, the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer, calls you into His presence, out of your glory-less mortality and into His infinite glory?
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