When E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) began his mission work in India, he resolved to abide by two core principles. First, Stanley would endeavor to preach Christ and not disparage other religions. Unlike other missionaries of his day who saw other religions as enemies and rivals, he treated them with respect. He embraced the unique identity of Jesus as Messiah while showing honor to eastern religions. Second, he would endeavor to preach Christ without the trappings of western civilization. He sought to dispel the common misconception among Indian people that Christianity was a western religion. Christ belongs to all cultures.
Over time, Stanley won people’s admiration the world over as a reconciling force for peace. He often said, “If reconciliation is God’s chief business, it must be ours.” During his thirty-five-year ministry in India, he was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King, Jr. credited Stanley’s biography of Gandhi as the book that influenced him to adopt nonviolent methods in the civil rights movement.
Jones wrote a book on How to Pray. “If I throw a boathook (anchor) from the boat, catch hold of the shore, and pull, do I pull the shore to me or do I pull myself to shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will but aligning my will with the will of God.” Did you catch that? Prayer is aligning our will with God’s will.
A portion of Stanley’s prayer follows here: