Attributes of God

The Basis of Prevalence in Prayer

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God 9 Comments

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. – James 5:16

Prayer is the shadow of the decrees of the Eternal. God has willed such a thing, and He makes His saints to will it, and express their will in prayer. It is written, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” It is not said that He will give the desire of his heart to every Jack and Tom; but you must first delight in the Lord, and when your mind finds all her joy in God then it is clear that God and you, as far as it can be, are standing on the same plane and moving in the same direction, and now you shall have the desire of your heart because the desire of your heart is the desire of God’s heart. Character, as much as faith, lies at the basis of prevalence in prayer. I do not mean in the case of the prayer of the sinner when he is seeking mercy, but I mean in the habitual prayers of the godly. There are some men who cannot pray so as to prevail, for sin has made them weak, and God walks contrary to them because they walk contrary to Him. He who has lost the light of God’s countenance has also lost much of the prevalence of his prayers. You do not suppose that every Israelite could have gone to the top of Carmel and opened the windows of heaven as Elijah did. No, he must first be Elijah, for it is the effectual, fervent prayer, not of every man, but of a righteous man, that availeth much; and when the Lord has put your heart and my heart into an agreement with Him then we shall pray and prevail. What did our Lord say, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

Have You No Thanks to Bring?

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God, The Father 4 Comments

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort – 2 Corinthians 1:3

Are we to be always receiving and never to return thanks? Aristotle rightly observes: “A return is required to preserve friendship between two persons,” and as we have nothing else to give to God except gratitude, let us abound therein. If we have no fruit of the field, let us at least render to Him the fruit of our lips. Have you no thanks to bring? How, then, can you expect further favours? Does not liberality itself close its hand when ingratitude stands in the way? What, never a word of gratitude to Him from whom all blessings flow! Then may even the ungodly despise you. It would argue great selfishness if we did not combine praise with prayer. Can it be right to think only of ourselves, to pray for benefits and never honour our Benefactor?…What, no thought for God’s glory? No idea of magnifying His great and blessed name! God forbid that we should fall into a spirit so mean and narrow. Healthy praise and thanksgiving must be cultivated, because they prevent prayer from becoming overgrown with the mildew of selfishness.

Thanksgiving also prevents prayer from becoming an exhibition of the want of faith; for indeed some prayer is rather a manifestation of the absence of faith than the exercise of confidence in God. If when I am in trouble I still bless the Lord for all I suffer, therein my faith is seen. If before I obtain the mercy, I thank God for the grace which I have not yet tasted, therein my faith is manifest. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

Still He is So Good, So Supremely Good

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 10 Comments

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. – Habakkuk 3:17

Brethren, if the Lord does not answer the prayer which we are offering, yet still He is so good, so supremely good, that we will bless Him whether or no. We ought even to praise Him when He does not answer us, ay, and bless Him for refusing our desires. How devoutly might some of us thank Him that He did not answer our prayers when we sought for evil things in the ignorance of our childish minds. We asked for flesh, and He might have sent us quails in His anger, and while the flesh was yet in our mouths His wrath might have come upon us; but in love He would not hear us. Blessed be His name for closing His ear in pity! Let us adore Him when He keeps us waiting at His doors; thank Him for rebuffs, and bless Him for refusals…Ralph Erskine spoke the truth when he said:

“I’m heard when answered soon or late,
Yea, heard when I no answer get:
Yea, kindly answered when refused,
And treated well when harshly used.”

Faith glorifies the love of God, for she knows that the Lord’s roughest usage is only love in disguise…Though He slay us we will trust in Him, much more if He decline our requests. We ask Him for our daily bread, and if He withhold it we will praise Him. Our praises are not suspended upon His answers to our prayers. If the labour of the olive should fail, and the field should yield no fruit; if the flock should be cut off from the fold, and the herd from the stall, yet still would we rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation. Blessed Spirit, raise us to this state of grace and keep us there. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

Believe That Ye Have It

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 6 Comments

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. – Mark 11:24

When I was conversing lately with our dear friend George Miller, he frequently astonished me with the way in which he mentioned that he had for so many months and years asked for such and such a mercy, and praised the Lord for it. He praised the Lord for it as though he had actually obtained it. Even in praying for the conversion of a person, as soon as he had begun to intercede he began also to praise God for the conversion of that person. Though I think he told us he had in one instance already prayed for thirty years and the work was not yet done, yet all the while he had gone on thanking God, because he knew the prayer would be answered. He believed that he had his petition, and commenced to magnify the Giver of it. Is this unreasonable? How often do we antedate our gratitude among the sons of men! If you were to promise some poor person that you would pay his rent when it came due, he would thank you directly, though not a farthing had left your pocket. We have enough faith in our fellow-men to thank them beforehand, and surely we may do the same with our Lord. Shall we not be willing to trust God for a few months ahead, ay, and for years beforehand, if His wisdom bids us wait. This is the way to win with Him. When ye pray, believe that ye receive the boons ye ask, and ye shall have them. “Believe that ye have it,” says the Scripture, “and ye shall have it.” As a man’s note of hand stands for the money, so let God’s promise be accounted as the performance. Shall not heaven’s bank-notes pass as cash? Yea, verily, they shall have unquestioned currency among believers. We will bless the Lord for giving us what we have sought, since our having it is a matter of absolute certainty. We shall never thank God by faith and then find that we were befooled. He has said, “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” And therefore we may rest assured that the thanksgiving of faith shall never bring shame into the face of the man who offers it.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

A Royal Way of Praying

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God 10 Comments

And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9

When we come before God in the hour of trouble, remembering His great goodness to us in the past, and therefore thanking Him, we ought to have faith enough to believe that the present trouble, about which we are praying, is sent in love. You will win with God in prayer if you can look at your trials in this light:-“Lord, I have this thorn in the flesh. I beseech Thee, deliver me from it, but meanwhile I bless Thee for it; for though I do not understand the why or the wherefore of it, I am persuaded there is love within it; therefore, while I ask Thee to remove it, so far as it seemeth evil to me, yet wherein it may to Thy better knowledge work my good, I bless Thee for it, and I am content to endure it so long as Thou seest fit.” Is not that a sweet way of praying? “Lord, I am in want, be pleased to supply me; but, meanwhile, if Thou do not, I believe it is better for me to be in need, and so I praise Thee for my necessity while I ask Thee to supply it. I glory in mine infirmity, even while I ask Thee to overcome it. I triumph before Thee in my affliction, and bless Thee for it even while I ask Thee to help me in it and to rescue me out of it.” This is a royal way of praying: such an amalgam of prayer and thanksgiving is more precious than the gold of Ophir.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

Recollect His Great Goodness

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father 8 Comments

He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? – Romans 8:32

Beloved, beyond the fact of prayer and our power to exercise it, there is a further ground of thanksgiving that we have already received great mercy at God’s hands. We are not coming to God to ask favours and receive them for the first time in our lives. Why, blessed be His name, if He never granted me another favour, I have enough for which to thank Him as long as I have any being. And this, moreover, is to be recollected, that whatever great things we are about to ask, we cannot possibly be seeking for blessings one-half so great as those which we have already received if we are indeed His children. If thou art a Christian, thou hast life in Christ. Art thou about to ask for meat and raiment? The life is more than these. Thou hast already obtained Christ Jesus to be thine, and He that spared Him not will deny thee nothing. Is there, I was about to say, anything to compare with the infinite riches which are already ours in Christ Jesus? Let us perpetually thank our Benefactor for what we have while we make request for something more. Should it not be so? Shall not the abundant utterances of the memory of His great goodness run over into our requests, till our petitions are baptized in gratitude. While we come before God, in one aspect, empty handed to receive of His goodness, on the other hand we should never appear before Him empty, but come with the fat of our sacrifices, offering praise and glorifying God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

Bless God for Prayer

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God 6 Comments

It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. -Lamentations 3:22

Let us praise His name, dear friends, also especially that you and I are still spared to pray and permitted to pray. What if we are greatly afflicted, yet it is of the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed. If we had received our deserts we should not now have been on praying ground and pleading terms with Him. But let it be for our comfort and to God’s praise that still we may stand with bowed head and cry each one, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Still may we cry like sinking Peter, “Lord save, or I perish.” Like David, we may be unable to go up to the temple, but we can still go to our God in prayer. The prodigal has lost his substance, but he has not lost his power to supplicate. He has been feeding swine, but as yet he is still a man, and has not lost the faculty of desire and entreaty. He may have forgotten his father, but his father has not forgotten him; he may arise and he may go to him, and he may pour out his soul in his father’s bosom. Therefore, let us give thanks unto God that He has nowhere said unto us, “Seek ye My face in vain.” If we find a desire to pray trembling within our soul, and if though almost extinct we feel some hope in the promise of our gracious God, if our heart still groans after holiness and after God, though she hath lost her power to pray with joyful confidence as once she did, yet let us be thankful that we can pray even if it be but a little. In the will and power to pray there lies the capacity for infinite blessedness: he who hath the key of prayer can open heaven, yea, he hath access to the heart of God; therefore, bless God for prayer.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm