What Prayer Is

 

Prayer is to the Christian what breathing is to a healthy person. Without prayer a Christian dies.  Breathing is spontaneous; in many ways so is prayer. 

Prayer is like a river that returns to its source, for prayer has its power in the Spirit of Christ working life in the heart of God's child; that life returns again in prayer to God who gave it. It is the expression of the thirst for God that makes a stag panting after the water brooks an apt simile (Ps. 42:1).

Prayer is lovers' talk, for it is a holy conversation between the living and eternal God and the redeemed child of God in which both speak to each other in the most intimate relationship of love. 

Prayer is a child coming to his Father, knowing that his Father loves him and will provide for him in every need. We must begin our prayers, the Lord says, with "Our Father who art in heaven."

In prayer the believer enters consciously into God's presence. There is an earthly element in prayer, for in heaven we will not pray any longer, at least not in the sense in which we usually speak of it. We shall see Christ face-to-face (1 Cor. 13:12) and be consciously in Christ's presence every moment. But here on earth we are preoccupied with many things, and God is often far from our thoughts. Prayer is the pause in our often busy and hectic lives that brings us face-to-face with God through Jesus Christ. Prayer is also heavenly, for it takes us out of this world and carries us soaring on the wings of prayer into God's own dwelling place.

Usually we think of prayer as those moments when we fold our hands and close our eyes and it is usually necessary for us to do this, because we are easily distracted and our minds are easily turned away from being in God's presence. But folding our hands and closing our eyes are not essential to prayer, nor do these actions guarantee prayer. A mother, while all but overwhelmed with the cares and duties of tending to the needs of her family, may offer a silent prayer to God as she has her hands immersed in dishwater. A child, taunted by cruel classmates, may seek grace from God to retaliate against his tormentors. A father, forced to listen to foul language in the shop, may, while operating his press, seek strength to witness properly to those who take the name of his God in vain.

To remember that prayer is consciously to be in the presence of God in order to carry on a holy conversation with Him will help us to understand how Scripture can admonish us to pray continuously. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul literally says, "Pray without ceasing." There are no qualifications, no limitations, no explanations that would ease the force of the command, but only this: "Pray without ceasing." The same admonition is repeated in Paul's letter to the Ephesians: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (6:18). In Colossians 4:2 the members of the church at Colosse are urged to "continue in prayer," and to the church at Rome Paul writes that they should continue "instant in prayer" (12:12). This is the high calling to which we are called, the goal of sanctification in our lives. To walk every moment in the consciousness of being in the presence of God is that for which we strive here in the world, but which shall be ours only in glory.

Herman Hanko 

When You Pray, pp. 1-2 

https://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-herman-hanko/products/when-you-pray

Trees Marked For the Axe

"To fix our confidence upon a dying world is folly. It is as if we were building our nests when the tree is being cut down, or decorating our cabin when the ship is likely to be dashed in pieces or is already sinking." 

Is it a time to drive a trade for ourselves when we are just leaving earth, and hope soon to be in heaven? Yet too many among professors are doing this. Their hearts are set upon their money, they build their nest in the golden grove; or they are wrapt up in their children, and, as it were, nestle down among those who spring up as willows by the watercourses. The axe is laid at the root of all earthly comforts, and, therefore, those who are taught of God soar aloft, and make their eyries on the Rock of Ages. What is our friend doing whose eyes are now scanning the page? Where is your heart? What is its dear delight and joy? Is it of earth? Then be sure that to earth it will return. Is your joy a thing of heaven? Then alone is it stable and sure. My soul, the world is passing away, set not thy love upon it. The ship is sinking, care little about the little luxuries of the berth which thou hast for a while occupied in it. Up and away! This is not thy rest. See, before thine eyes the fashion of this world passeth away; look to eternity and to thy God, for there alone is solid bliss. 

Charles H. Spurgeon 

Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, "Trees Marked for the Axe," p. 73

THE TRAITOR WITHIN

 "A garrison is not free from danger while it hath an enemy lodged within." 

You may bolt all your doors, and fasten all your windows, but if the thieves have placed even a little child within doors, who can draw the bolts for them, the house is still unprotected. All the sea outside a ship cannot do it damage till the water enters within and fills the hold. Hence, it is clear, our greatest danger is from within. All the devils in hell and tempters on earth could do us no injury if there were no corruption in our nature. The sparks will fall harmlessly if there is no tinder. Alas, our heart is our greatest enemy: this is the little home-born thief. Lord, save me from that evil man, myself. 

Charles H. Spurgeon 

Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, pp. 62-63

C. H. Spurgeon on Weeping for Jesus

Often peoples' responses to "The Passion of The Christ" movie, involves weeping over Jesus' sufferings. Billy Graham wept, the pope wept, well nigh everyone wept over Jesus and His suffering.

This is no new thing. When Jesus journeyed to the cross "there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him" (Luke 23:27). How did Christ react to this? Did He encourage it as genuine piety? "Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children" (Luke 23:28).

Spurgeon speaks of "weeping for Jesus" in a sermon on Luke 23:27-31:

You need not weep because Christ died one-tenth so much as because your sins rendered it necessary that He should die. You need not weep over the crucifixion, but weep over your transgression, for your sins nailed the Redeemer to the accursed tree. To weep over a dying Saviour is to lament the remedy; it were wiser to bewail the disease. To weep over the dying Saviour is to wet the surgeon's knife with tears; it were better to bewail the spreading polyps which that knife must cut away. To weep over the Lord Jesus as He goes to the cross is to weep over that which is the subject of the highest joy that ever heaven and earth have known; your tears are scarcely needed there; they are unnatural, but a deeper wisdom will make you brush them all away and chant with joy His victory over death and the grave. If we must continue our sad emotions, let us lament that we should have broken the law which He thus painfully vindicated; let us mourn that we should have incurred the penalty which He even to the death was made to endure ... O brethren and sisters, this is the reason why we souls weep: because we have broken the divine law and rendered it impossible that we should be saved except Jesus Christ should die.

Source:  http://www.cprf.co.uk/articles/passionchrist5.htm
                http://www.cprf.co.uk/

Wagons not Moved by Wind, Nor Ships Drawn By Horses

“The wise use right means, such as will bring them to their desired end. We do not use to draw ships in the sea with horses, nor draw wagons with the wind. We must not use contrary means, nor insufficient means. We cannot go to the bottom of a well that is thirty foot deep with a line that is but ten foot.”

Why, then, do men try to win heaven by their own merits? This short line will never reach so far. Why do they endeavor to save souls by noise and carnal excitement instead of crying for the Spirit of God? What is this but refusing to spread the sail for the heavenly breeze, and relying upon the tramp of horses, and the strength of flesh and blood? How is it that so many look to obtain blessing through ceremonies of man’s invention? This is an endeavor to move a mountain by dancing before it.

If the means must be adequate to the end, then nothing short of the merits of Jesus can cause a sinner to enter heaven, and nothing but the power of the Holy Ghost can make them new creatures in Christ Jesus. If the means must be adapted to the end, then we must have mercy to comfort misery, love to rescue lost sinners, divine goodness for despairing hearts, and power from on high for souls dead in trespasses and sin.

Next time we hear a man try to convert people by fine language, we shall remember Manton’s saying, that wagons are not moved by wind.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Flowers From A Puritan’s Garden, “Wagons Not Moved by Wind, Nor Ships Drawn By Horses,” p. 196

Life Proved by Growth

"Where there is life there will be growth, and if grace be true, it will surely increase. A painted flower keepeth always at the same pitch and stature; the artist may bestow beauty upon it, but he cannot bestow life. A painted child will be as little ten years hence as it is now."

What need there is to observe the wise distinction between the picture and the living-thing! Of painted likenesses of Christians we have more than enough; nor is the manufacture of portraits a difficult operation: what we want is the real thing and not the artistic imitation. Manton saith well that growth is the test. Many professors must be forever beginning again: they stick where they were, or thought they were. They were anxious about their souls, and are so still. They were trying and wishing, and with tries and wishes they are resting contented. If they were saved and knew it, they would find themselves making some measure of advance: not always advancing at the same rate, for all life is not equally rapid in its growth, but still progressing somewhat, forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth to that which is beyond.

Reader, how do you stand under this test? Come, search yourself, and see whether you are adding to your faith courage; and to courage, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. If there be no growth, it may be, nay, surely it must be, that you are not a child born into the family of God, but a pretty picture, which may adorn a room, but which cannot perform any of the actions of life. It is a sad thing if such be your case, for heaven is not a portrait-gallery; it is the home of loving, living souls, whom grace has quickened with eternal life.

Charles H. Spurgeon 

Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, "Life Proved by Growth," pp. 126-127

The Thief and The Candle

"A thief is always desirous to have the candles put out."

His trade is best carried on in the dark. This is the reason why Satan is so dead set against faithful preachers and teachers: he can rob the church, and plunder souls so much better when the light of the gospel is withdrawn. How much better could the Pope pick our purses with his purgatory, indulgences, and relics, if the gospel light were quenched among us! The old-fashioned doctrines of grace are the candles of the Lord, and we must keep these well alight among the people, or we shall soon find the Romish thieves busy among us. 

This is one reason why creeds and catechisms are so much detested by men of the modern school: these candles are not to their mind, for they prevent their robbing us of the treasures of divine truth.

Lord, I bless Thee for the light, and I pray that I may not quench even the tiniest taper by which Thou dost enlighten me.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, pp. 66-67

Praying for Others

It is a very great privilege to be permitted to pray for our fellowmen. Prayer in each man's case must necessarily begin with personal petition, for until the man is himself accepted with God, he cannot act as an intercessor for others; and herein lies part of the excellence of intercessory prayer, for it is to the man who exercises it aright a mark of inward grace, and a token for good from the Lord. You may be sure that your King loves you when he will permit you to speak a word to him on behalf of your friend. When the heart is enlarged in believing supplication for others, all doubts about personal acceptance with God may cease; He who prompts us to love has certainly has certainly given us that love, and what better proof of His favor do we desire? It is a great advance upon anxiety for our own salvation when we have risen out of the narrowness of dread about ourselves into the broader region of care for a brother's soul. He who in answer to his intercession has seen others blessed and saved many take it as a pledge of divine love, and rejoice in the condescending grace of God. Such prayer rises higher than any petition for ourselves, for only he who is in favor with the Lord can venture upon pleading for others.

Intercessory prayer is an act of communion with Christ, for Jesus pleads for the sons of men. It is a part of His priestly office to make intercession for His people. He has ascended up on high to this end, and exercises this office continually within the veil. When we pray for our fellow sinners we are in sympathy with our divine Savior, who made intercession for the transgressors.

Such prayers are often of unspeakable value to those for whom they are offered. Many of us trace our conversion, if we go to the root of it, to the prayers of certain godly persons. In innumerable instances the prayers of parents have availed to bring young people to Christ. Many more will have to bless God for praying teachers, praying friends, praying pastors. Obscure persons confined to their beds are often the means of saving hundreds by their continual pleadings with God. The book of remembrance will reveal the value of these hidden ones, of whom so little is thought by the mass of Christians. As the body is knit together by bands and sinews, and interlacing nerves and veins, so is the whole body of Christ converted into a living unity by mutual prayers; we were prayed for, and now in turn we pray for others. Not only the conversion of sinners, but the welfare, preservation, growth, comfort, and usefulness of saints are abundantly promoted by the prayers of their brethren; hence apostolic men cried, "Brethren, pray for us"; he who was the personification of love said, "Pray for one another that ye may be healed," and our great Lord and Head ended His earthly career by a matchless prayer for those whom the Father had given Him.

Intercessory prayer is a benefit to the man who exercises it, and is often a better channel of comfort than any other means of grace. The Lord turned again the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Even where such prayer does not avail for its precise object, it has its results. David tells us that he prayed for his enemies: he says, in PSALM 35:13, "As for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting." And he adds, "my prayer returned into mine own bosom." He sent forth his intercession, like Noah's dove, but as it found no rest for the sole of its foot, and no blessing came of it, it returned to him who sent it, and brought back with it an olive leaf plucked off, a sense of peace to his own spirit; for nothing is more restful to the heart than to have prayed for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. Prayers for others are pleasing to God and profitable to ourselves; they are no waste of breath, but have a result guaranteed by the faithful Promiser.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Delivered on Lord's Day morning, May 9, 1880, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, No. 1537

Sermons on Men of the Bible, "Samuel: An Example of Intercession", pp. 110-111

How Would You Like to Have Your Inner Biography Sketched?

The LORD was with Joseph. – Genesis 39:2

Scripture frequently sums up a man’s life in a single sentence. Here is the biography of Joseph sketched by inspiration- “God was with him,” so Stephen testified in his famous speech recorded in Acts 7:9. Here is the life story of Abraham: “Abraham believed God.” Of Moses we read, “The man Moses was very meek.” Take a New Testament life, such as that of John the Baptist, and you have it in a line: “John did no miracle: but all things that he spoke concerning Jesus were true.” The mere name of John- “that disciple whom Jesus loved”- would serve for all an epitaph of him: it pictures both the man and his history. Holy Scripture excels in this kind of full-length miniature painting. As Michaelangelo is said to have drawn a portrait with a single stroke of his crayon, so the Spirit of God sketches a man to the life in a single sentence. “The LORD was with Joseph.”

Observe, however, that the portraits of Scripture give us not only the outer, but the inner life of the man. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart; and so the scriptural descriptions of men are not of their visible life alone, but of their spiritual life. Here we have Joseph as God saw him, the real Joseph. Externally it did not always appear that God was with him, for he did not always seem to be a prosperous man; but when you come to look into the inmost soul of this servant of God, you see his true likeness- he lived in communion with the Most High, and Go blessed him: “The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man.” Dear friends, how would you like to have your inner biography sketched? How would your soul appear if set out in detail before all the world as to its desires, affections, and thoughts? Many lives have looked well on paper, but beneath their surface the biographer never dared to live, or, perhaps, could not have dived had he been anxious to do so. It is often thought wise in writing man’s life to suppress certain matters: this may be prudent if the design be to guard a reputation, but it is scarcely truthful. The Spirit of God does not suppress the faults even of those whom we most admire, but writes them fully, like the Spirit of truth, as He is. The man who above others was “a man after God’s own heart” was yet in some points exceedingly faulty, and he committed one foul deed which will remain through all time as a blemish upon his character. There was in David so firm and undeviating an attachment to the Lord God, and so sincere a desire to do right, and so deep a repentance when he had erred, that the Lord still regarded him as after his own heart, although He smote him heavily for his transgressions. David was a truly sincere man despite the faults into which he fell, and it is the heart of David which is sketched. So here, the Spirit is not looking so much at Joseph as a favorite child or an Egyptian prime minister, as at the innermost and truest Joseph, and therefore He thus describes him: “The LORD was with Joseph.

This striking likeness of Joseph strongly reminds us of our Master and Lord, that greater Joseph, who is Lord over all the world for the sake of Israel. Peter, in his sermon to the household of Cornelius, said of our Lord that He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” Exactly what had been said of Joseph. It is wonderful that the same words should describe both Jesus and Joseph, the perfect Savior and the imperfect patriarch. When you and I are perfected in grace, we shall wear the image of Christ, and that which will describe Christ will also describe us. Those who live with Jesus will be transformed by His fellowship till they become like Him. To my mind, it is very beautiful to see the resemblance between the firstborn and the rest of the family, between the great typical man, the Second Adam, and all those men who are quickened into His life, and are one with Him.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Sermons on Men of the Bible, “Joseph: A Miniature Portrait”, pp. 54-55

Far Off Looks Small

 

"Look, as the stars, those vast globes of light, by reason of its distance between us and them, do seem but as so many spangles; so we have but a weak sight of things which are set at a great distance, and their operation on us is usually but small."

Hence the need of faith, by which things are brought near to us, and made to stand out in their reality. A far-off hell is the dread of no man, and a far-off heaven is scarce desired by any one. God Himself, while thought of as far away, is not feared or reverenced as he should be. If we did but use our thoughts upon the matter we should soon see that a mere span of time divides us from the eternal world, while the Lord our God is nearer to us than our souls are to our bodies. Strange that the brief time which intervenes between us and eternity should appear to the most of men to be so important, while eternity itself they regard as a trifling matter. They use the microscope to magnify the small concerns of time; O that they would use the telescope upon the vast matters of eternity! How differently would they order their lives with judgment felt to be at their doors!

How would they seek to escape from infinite wrath, if they felt it to be nigh!

Lord, arouse me, and all around me, to a due estimate of eternal matters. Enable me to project my soul into the infinite. Break me free of this narrow present, and launch my soul upon the wide and open sea of the ages to come. Thou art in eternity, and let my soul even now dwell with Thee.

Charles H. Spurgeon 

Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, "FAR OFF LOOKS SMALL", pp. 60-61

The Paper-Stainer and The Artist

Our author means that the maker of wall-papers gets over a great deal of ground as compared with the artist who is producing a masterly painting. Of rough daubing there is plenty to be had, and there is a great market for it; and yet, though thoroughly fine art is scarce, it is infinitely more precious than daubing. That religion which needs no care, and takes no trouble, is in great demand in the world; it is produced by the acre, and may be seen spread over the surface everywhere. Not so the religion of grace; it costs many a tear, and a world of anxious thought, and solemn heart-searching, and it is but slow work at the best; but then it is of great price, and is not only acceptable with God, but even men perceive that there is a something about it to which the common religious daubers never attain. If we let the boat drift with the stream, and leave our religion to random influences, without care or thought, what can we look for but slovenliness and worthlessness? If we would please God we must watch every stroke and touch upon the canvas of our lives, and we may not think that we can lay it on with a trowel and yet succeed. We ought to live as miniature-painters work, for they watch every line and tint. O for more careful work, more heart work! Otherwise we shall lose that which we have wrought.

Charles H. Spurgeon
Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, "The Paper-stainer and the Artist, pp. 46-47

The Bright Counterfeit

And in the same manner a base professor may for a while seem to be brighter than a true Christian. He is not downcast, for he has none of those inward strivings which cause sincere believers so much anguish of soul. He is not sad, for he has no penitence of heart at the remembrance of those shortcomings which humble the living child of God. Doubts and fears he has none, for these are the moss which grows upon faith, and of this grace he is quite destitute. Failures in holiness, loss of communion, non-success in prayer, smitings of conscience, all of which happen to the elect of God, come not near to him, for he is a stranger to the inward, sensitive principle of which these are the tokens.
Sad sons of God, be not utterly dispirited by these men's equable tempers and quiet assurances, for they will be troubled indeed when the testing hour shall come. As for you, your gracious disquietudes and holy anxieties are a proof of the reality of your spiritual life, and evidences of grace which ought to afford you comfort. Dead men do not suffer from changes of weather, and mere imitations of life, such as paintings and statues, know nothing of the aches and pains of living men. Pity those who are never in soul trouble, and bless the Lord that He has not left you to their vainglorious peace. Better be dim gold than shining brass. Do you not think so?

Charles H. Spurgeon
Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, "The Bright Counterfeit", p.10