Order and Argument in Prayer

In the third chapter of his book The Power in Prayer, Charles Spurgeon explains two aspects of prayer which seem to me to be lacking in many Christians' prayer life, including my own. He suggests first that we, as Christians should order ourselves before prayer and secondly, that we should have proper arguments for our cause.

Order in Prayer

First and foremost, when we approach God we must realize that we are coming before an infinitely holy, powerful, and just King of all Creation. By all rights, we should never be permitted to come before God at all. It is only by sheer grace that God would allow us to come before Him. It is only because He has taken us (wretched, arrogant, sinners dead to all that is holy) and made us alive through the blood of His perfect Son.

This is the very same God who made the universe with the breath of His mouth and holds in being at all times. He ordains the sun to rise and fall and rains to fall. This is the God whom we approach when we pray.

Because of this, we need to prepare our hearts -to humble ourselves and consider just how unworthy we are and, more importantly, how merciful God is in letting us come before Him. And not only does God allow us to come before Him, but He invites us to approach the throne of grace confidently (Hebrews 4:16) and with the expectation that our prayers will be heard. With this in mind, we prepare our hearts before God -reverent of His great power, and gratefully awed by His grace.

Arguments in Prayer

Once our hearts are in order, we then may approach God with arguments, not against God, but for what we are presenting before Him in prayer. Argument must not be mistaken for complaints, for complaints are made unaware of the true nature of God and not out of a grateful and trusting heart. In particular, he outlines six arguments in prayer that one can use:

1. God's Attributes: We must use what we know about God to be true from Scripture. We know that God is just and merciful. If you cannot lay hold on God's justice rightly, lay hold on his mercy. We also know that God is faithful and holy and that He will do what is right in all circumstances. It is with who God is that we begin to for our arguments.

2. God's Promises: Whether it's Romans 8:28 or Philippians 4:19, the Bible is filled with the promises of what God will do for His children. What God has said He will never go back on.

3. The Great Name of God: God will not be dishonored for long. He will always vindicate His name. We can trust that if what we ask is for God's glory then it is a worthy argument to bring before Him.

4. The Sufferings of His People: "Nothing is more eloquent with a father than his child's cry. Yes, there is one thing more mighty still, and that is a moan -when the child is so sick that he is past crying a lies moaning with the kind of moan that indicates extreme suffering and immense weakness. Who can resist that moan? Ah, and when God's Israel will be brought very low so that they can scarcely cry but only their moans are heard, then comes the Lord's time of deliverance, and He is sure to show that He loves His people."

5. The Past: If God has begun a work, He will complete it. He is faithful to us and will not grow weary or tired of what He has set out to do. God is unchanging and will do in the future what He has done in the past.

6. The Sufferings of Christ: God will not deny His own Son's name. "When you plead the name of Christ, you plead that which shakes the gates of hell and that which the hosts of heaven obey, and God Himself feels the sacred power of that divine plea."

A Godly Vision

(This is a guest post from my wonderful girlfriend Mollie.)

This past month, I found my mind drifting to the idea of “vision”. I questioned: What does God have to say about vision? From where do visions come? How do we know if an idea I have latched onto is a self-centered dream or a God-given vision?

One evening, Daniel and I discussed this idea and decided to search Scripture regarding the subject. Two passages that he noted, in particular, piqued my curiosity:

Where there is no revelation*, the people cast off restraint;
but blessed is he who keeps the law. - Proverbs 29:18, emphases mine
*some versions use the word “vision”

Thus says the LORD of hosts,
"Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you
They are leading you into futility;
They speak a vision of their own imagination,
Not from the mouth of the LORD. - Jeremiah 23:16, emphases mine

Aha! God told his people through Jeremiah that prophecies or visions from the mouth of the LORD were reliable, but that those from human imagination were not. We can be sure God has a plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11) and that it stands aligned with the law (Proverbs 29:18 above. See also Deuteronomy 11:18-25). Over and over again while reading passages about vision Daniel and I discovered that vision, or “revelation”, was aligned to the law – in other words, God’s Word – in this way. Could it really be that simple? Do we discover and test vision through the reading of the Word?

While meeting to pray with friends after returning to school earlier this month, I shared this idea of vision. Rather than brainstorming to create personal goals or (i.e., those from our own imagination) we searched Scripture for prayers of the Bible, noted that which was lacking in our own prayer lives, and wrote what we called “What if?” statements on which to focus this coming year.

Here is part of my “What if?” statement, or if you prefer, my Prayer Vision:

"What if I let go of myself and set my eyes on God in prayer? What if I trusted him to do abundantly more than I could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), even though my prayers were "imperfect" every time? What if I prayed prayers of thanksgiving when I was enduring challenges and difficulty and truly learned to rely on God for my everything (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)? What if, not just in my mind but in my heart, I deemed nothing impossible for God, even that which I knew was humanly impossible (Luke 1:37)?"

There it was – a God-given vision for my prayer life. It wasn’t accompanied by flashes of lightning. It didn’t make me giddy with excitement. And it certainly wasn’t original or creative. But it was biblical and, because I believe that the Bible is “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), I knew it was trustworthy.

Lesson learned? Don’t “dream big” because you follow the world’s doctrine that tells you to “believe in yourself.” “Live big” and “pray big” because you follow a God who is strong in your weaknesses and glorifies Himself despite your failures! Immerse yourself in “the law” and you will be immersed in God’s vision. I have discovered that my failures and those areas in which I am lacking are precisely the places where God extends the most grace and where He begins to show me His vision.

Judging People Rightly

Justin Taylor shares a prayer that we all should take to heart:


Help Me to Judge Rightly
Lord, help me to judge others
as I want them to judge me:
Charitably, not critically,
Privately, not publicly,
Gently, not harshly,
In humility, not pride.
Help me to believe the best about others,
until facts prove otherwise—
To assume nothing,
to seek all sides of the story,
And to judge no one until I’ve removed
the log from my own eye.

May I never bring only the Law,
to find fault and condemn.
Help me always to bring the Gospel,
to give hope and deliverance,
As you, my Judge and Friend,
have so graciously done for me.

AIDS Day

Today is AIDS Day- a day of sober rememberance of all those throughout the world suffering with this hideous disease. Please pray for the AIDS victims throughout the world.

To get a realistic look at AIDS, World Vision has posted these stories.

Let those of us in health remember those in sickness.