Keep Praying

When my son Zak was about seven years old, he and I ran the 6.2 miles of the Gum Tree race in Tupelo. A portion of the course took us through a shaded neighborhood where the residents sat in their lawn chairs cheering us on.

“Looking good! Keep it up!”

It’s funny how a few words from someone can stir your heart to continue. That holds true for those neighbors on Clayton Street and I’ve found that it holds true for saints of old who’ve spoken to me through their writings.

19th century believer J.C. Ryle penned this helpful exhortation to folks like you and me who sometimes become weary from years of praying for those we love.

“Let us pray for all – the worst, the hardest, and the most unbelieving.

Let us continue praying for them year after year, in spite of  their continued unbelief. God’s time of mercy may be a distant one.

Our eyes may not see an answer to our intercession. The answer may not come for ten, fifteen, or twenty years. It may not come until we have exchanged prayer for praise, and are far away from this world. But while we live, let us pray for others.

It is the greatest kindness we can do to any one, to speak for him to our Lord Jesus Christ.”

~J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Mark VII

Take comfort in the wonderful truth that God hears our every prayer and He will answer when He sees fit to do so. And He will answer in a way that’s best. We must trust in our all-wise Father. We trust and we keep praying.

Unbroken Communion

I’ve been reading a small book about prayer that my pastor has quoted from recently. It’s called The Hidden Life of Prayer and it was written by Scottish pastor David McIntyre.

Reverend McIntyre talks about believers continually communicating with God throughout the course of the day. It’s that “pray without ceasing” life that the Bible promotes.

Here are a couple nuggets – old language and all – that benefited me. Hopefully, God will use them to help you as you think about what it means to visit with your Father throughout the day.

“The soil in which the prayer of faith takes root is a life of unbroken communion with God, a life which the windows of the soul are always open towards the City of Rest.

We do not know the true potency of prayer until our hearts are so steadfastly inclined to God that our thoughts turn to Him, as by a Divine instinct, whenever they are set free from the consideration of earthly things.

The saints of the Middle Ages allowed each passing incident to summon them to intercession – the shadow of the dial, the church bell, the flight of the swallow, the rising of the sun, the falling of a leaf.

One whose life is spent in fellowship with God will constantly seek and find opportunities for swift and frequently-recurring approaches to the throne of grace.”

 ~David McIntyre, 1859-1938

What an incredible privilege it is to be able to talk with the one true God as we navigate the moments that make up each day. We ask Him for help. We acknowledge our dependence on Him. We intercede for those in need. There’s praise and thanksgiving. And that’s just our side of the conversation. Surely He will give us spiritual ears to hear all the things that He has to say to us.

Eliza Spurgeon

Eliza Spurgeon’s prayer life made a strong impression on her son Charles and her husband John.

It’s encouraging to read about and see first hand the heart of godly moms for their children – and their God.

“Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes a godly mother.

Certainly I have not the powers of speech to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed on me in making me the son of one who prayed for me, and prayed with me.

How can I ever forget her tearful eye when she warned me to escape from the wrath to come?

How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee, and with her arms about my neck, prayed, ‘Oh, that my son might live before Thee!’ ”

~Charles Spurgeon, 1834-1892

“As I came home one evening and went upstairs, I heard the voice of his mother pleading for her boy Charles, and talking to him and the others, and pouring her heart out in prayer in such a way as I never did in my life, and as I never heard before.

It is for the encouragement  of mothers that I mention this, that you may pray for your children, for God is a prayer-hearing God, and a prayer-answering God.”

~John Spurgeon, 1811-1902

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I stumbled across those thoughts on a website called The Bible Truth Chat Room. I don’t know enough about the site to recommend it. I was just encouraged by what I read there from the Spurgeons.

Silence Says a Lot

“It is natural to man, from his earliest infancy, to cry for relief when in danger or distress, if he supposes that any one able to relieve him is within hearing of his cries.

Every man then who feels his own dependence upon God, and his need of blessings which God only can bestow, will pray to Him. He will feel that prayer is not only his duty, but his highest privilege.

The man then who refuses or neglects to pray, who regards prayer not as a privilege, but as a wearisome and needless task practically says in the most unequivocal manner, I am not dependent on God; I want nothing that He can give; and therefore I will not come to Him, nor ask anything from His hand.

I will not ask Him to crown my work with success, for I am able, and determined, to be the architect of my own future.

I will not ask Him to instruct or guide me, for I am competent to be my own instructor and guide.

I will not ask Him to strengthen and support me, for I am strong in the vigor and resources of my own mind.

I will not request His protection, for I am able to protect myself.

I will not implore His pardoning mercy nor His sanctifying grace for I have need of neither the one nor the other.

I will not ask His presence and aid in the hour of death.

For I can meet and grapple, unsupported, with the king of terrors, and enter, undaunted and alone, any unknown world into which He may usher me.

Such is the language of all who neglect prayer.”

~Edward Payson, 1783-1827