prayer

Go to God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. – James 1:5

“Let him ask of God.” Now, you perceive, that the man is directed at once to God, without any intermediate object, or ceremony, or person. You are not told here to seek direction from good books; they may become very useful as auxiliary helps, but the best of human books, if followed slavishly, will mislead…When a man is really under concern of soul, he is in a condition of considerable danger. Then it is that an artful false teacher may get hold of him and cozen him into heresy and unscriptural doctrine. Hence the text does not say, “If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask his priest;” that is about the worst thing he can do; for he who sets himself up for a priest, is either a deceiver or deceived. “Let him ask of God,” that is the advice of the Scripture. We are all so ready to go to books, to go to men, to go to ceremonies, to anything except God. Man will worship God with his eyes, and his arms, and his knees, and his mouth-with anything but his heart-and we are all of us anxious, more or less, until we are renewed by grace, to get off the heart-worship of God. Juan de Valdey says, that, “Just as an ignorant man takes a crucifix and says, ‘This crucifix will help me to think of Christ,’ so he bows before it and never does think of Christ at all, but stops short at the crucifix; so,” says he, “the learned man takes his book and says, ‘This book will teach me the mysteries of the kingdom,’ but instead of giving his thoughts to the mysteries of godliness, he reads his book mechanically and stops at the book, instead of meditating and diving into the truth.” It is the action of the mind that God accepts, not the motion of the body; it is the thought communing with Him; it is the soul coming into contact with the soul of God; it is the spirit-worship which the Lord accepts. Consequently, the text does not say, “Let him ask books,” nor “ask priests,” but, “let him ask of God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0735.cfm

Ask of God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, promises Leave a comment

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. – James 1:5

When God is making you feel the burden of your guilt, you suppose that now He has forgotten to be gracious, whereas it is now that He is gracious to you in very deed and is using the best means of making you understand and value His grace. The way of life is a new road to you, poor seeking soul, and therefore you lack wisdom in it and make many mistakes about it. The text lovingly advises, “Ask of God;” “Ask of God.” 

Many lack wisdom because, in addition to all their fears and their ignorance, they are fiercely attacked by Satan. John Bunyan tells us of Apollyon, that he said, “No king will willingly lose his subjects.” Of course, he will not; and Apollyon, as he sees his subjects one after another desert him to enlist under the banner of King Jesus, howls at his loses, and he leaves no stone unturned to keep souls back from mercy. Just at that critical moment he says to himself, “It is now or never. If I do not nip these buds, they will become flowers and fruits; but if I can bring in a withering frost, I shall kill the young plant.” The great enemy makes a dead set at anxious souls…”Now,” saith he to all is servants, “shoot your arrows at that awakened soul; it is about to escape from me: empty your quivers, ye soldiers of the pit; launch your hot temptations, ye fiends of hell! Sting that soul with infidel insinuations and hideous blasphemies, for if I once lose it, I have lost it forever; therefore, hold it, ye princes of the pit, hold it fast, if ye can.” Now, in such a plight as that, with your foolish heart, and the wicked world, and the evil one, and your sins in dreadful alliance to destroy you, what could such a poor timid one as you do, if it were not for this precious word, “If any of you”-that must mean you-“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not”? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0735.cfm

Made Wise

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises 1 Comment

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”- James 1:5

Much tempted and severely tried saints are frequently at their wits’ end, and though they may be persuaded that in the end good will come out of all their afflictions, yet for the present they may be so distracted as not to know what to do. How fitly spoken and how seasonable is this word of the apostle, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God;” and such wisdom shall the Lord afford His afflicted sons, that the trying of their faith shall produce patience, and they themselves shall count it all joy that they have fallen in divers trials…The promise is not to be limited to any one particular application, for the word, “If any of you,” is so wide, so extensive, that whatever may be our necessity, whatever the dilemma which perplexes us, this text consoles us with the counsel, “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” …You cannot work long for your heavenly Lord without perceiving that you need a greater wisdom than you own. Why, even in directing an enquirer to the cross of Christ, simple work as that may seem to be, we shall often discover our own inability and folly. In rebuking the backslider, in comforting the desponding, in restoring the fallen, in guiding the ignorant, we shall need to be taught of God, or else we shall meet with more failures than successes. To every honest Christian worker this text speaks with all the soft melody of an angel’s whisper. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” Thy lips shall overflow with knowledge, and thy tongue shall drop with words of wisdom, if thou wilt but wait on God and hear Him before thou speakest to thy fellow men. Thou shalt be made wise to win souls if thou wilt learn to sit at the Master’s feet, that He may teach thee the art which He followed when on earth and follows still. ~ C.H, Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0735.cfm

The Prayer of Faith

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:26

Nothing is impossible to the man who knows how to overcome heaven by wrestling intercession. When we have seen one, two, or ten, or twenty penitents converted, and when we have sometimes been heartily thankful that a hundred have been added to this church in a month, ought we ever to have been satisfied? Should we not have felt that the prayer, which was blessed to the conversion of a hundred, had it been more earnest, might, in the divine purpose, have been answered with the conversion of a thousand? Why not? You will say, “We have not enough ministers.” But God can make them. I tell you, sirs, He could find ministers for His truth-ay, if He willed it, among the very offscourings of the earth. He can take the worst of men, the vilest of the vile, and change their hearts, and make them preach the truth if He pleases. We are not to look to what we have. The witness of the senses only confuses those who would walk by faith. See what He did for the church in the case of Saul of Tarsus. He just went up to the devil’s army, and took out a ringleader, and said to him, “Now, sir, you preach the gospel which once you despised.” And who preached it better? Why, I should not wonder if ere long in answer to prayer we see the Ritualistic clergy preaching the gospel! Who can tell-the Romish priests may yet do it and repeat the tale of Luther and Melancthon. Were not Luther, and Melancthon, and Calvin, and their comrades, brought out of Papal darkness to show light unto the people? We have heard with our ears, why may we not see with our eyes, the mighty works of God? The Lord can find His men where we know nothing about them…Let us not despair. If we will but pray for it, our heavenly Father will deny His children nothing. Come, do but come, in simplicity of heart, and according to your faith shall it be done unto you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm

By Thy Power We Rely

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. – Acts 6:7

If we pant to see the Word of God increase, multitudes added to the disciples, and a great company of those who are least likely to be saved brought in, there must be an adequate instrumentality. Nothing can avail without the operation of the Holy Spirit and the smile from heaven. Paul planteth, Apollos watereth, and God giveth the increase. We must never begin our catalogue of outward means without referring to that blessed and mysterious Potentate who abides in the church, and without whom nothing is good, nothing efficient, nothing successful.

“Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all Thy quickening powers.”

This should be our first prayer whenever we attempt to serve God, for if not, we begin with pride, and can little hope to succeed by prowess. If we go to the warfare at our own charges we must not marvel if we return stained with defeat. O Spirit of the living God, if it were not for Thy power we could not make the attempt, but when we rely upon Thee, we go forward in confidence. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm

Be Uplifted

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. – Song of Songs 4:16

“I will approach Thee-I will force
My way through obstacles to Thee:
To Thee for strength will have recourse,
To Thee for consolation flee!”

You, who are the true children of God, cannot ever come into a condition out of which the Holy Spirit cannot uplift you. You know the notable case of Laodicea, which was neither cold nor hot, and therefore so nauseous to the great Lord that He threatened to spue her out of His mouth, yet what is the message to the angel of that church? “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” This is not said to sinners, it is addressed to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Oh, matchless grace! He is sick of these lukewarm professors, yet He promises to sup with them, and that they shall sup with Him. That is the only cure for lukewarmness and decline, to renew heart-fellowship with Christ; and He stands and offers it to all His people now. “Only open the door, and I will sup with you, and you shall sup with Me.” O you whose graces are lying so sinfully dormant, who have to mourn and cry because of “the body of this death”-for death in you seems to have taken to itself a body, and to have become a substantial thing, no mere skeleton now, but a heavy, cumbrous form that bows you down,-cry still to Him who is able to deliver you from this lukewarm and sinful state! Let every one of us put up the prayer of our text, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; and blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2475.cfm

Partakers of the Divine Nature

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

…they shall not depart from Me. – Jeremiah 32:40

The fear of God is kept alive in our hearts by the hearing of the Word, for faith cometh by hearing, and holy fear cometh through faith. Be diligent, then, in hearing the Word. That fear is kept alive in our hearts by reading the Scriptures; for as we feed on the Word, it breathes within us that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. This fear of God is maintained in us by the belief of revealed truth, and meditation thereon. Study the doctrines of grace and be instructed in the analogy of the faith. Know the gospel well and thoroughly, and this will bring fuel to the fire of the fear of God in your hearts. Be much in private prayer; for that stirs up the fire, and makes it burn more brilliantly. Seek to live near to God, to abide in Him; for as you abide in Him, and His words abide in you, you shall bring forth much fruit, and so shall you be His disciples.

Does the gift of grace make us partakers of the divine nature and cause us to escape the corruption which is in the world through lust? then let us have it. I pray that some here may desire salvation because it secures a life of holiness. The sweetmeat which tempted me to Christ was this-I believed that salvation was an insurance of character. In what better way can a young man cleanse his life than by putting himself into the holy hands of the Lord Jesus, to be kept from falling? I said, “If I give myself to Christ, He will save me from my sins.” Therefore, I came to Him, and He keeps me. Oh, how musical these words, “They shall not depart from Me!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm