Friday Prayer / With the Prince of Preachers

Today we pray with one of the greatest preachers of all time: Charles Spurgeon. 

The primary way we learn to pray is by praying. But it helps to pray in the company of the great saints who have gone before us. 

The prayer below is modeled on one of Spurgeon’s pastoral prayers. It was prayed before a sermon entitled: Help From on High. 

Use the outline to shape how you pray today. 

Spurgeon:  Help From On High

O Lord help us! Open up your word to us and draw us in.

O Lord your nearness is our good; your forgiveness is our hope;

• for we are very weak and frail; weak in body; weak in spirit; the siren song of this world is wooing us to the destructive shores; overwhelm us with a superior song.
• Give your children rest now; you have washed us with your blood so that we are clean; now wash us with water so that we can be refreshed.

O Lord remove everything that would hinder our closest communion with you.

• any wish or desire that hinders our prayers.
• any memory or sorrow or care that hinders our fixing our affection wholly on You—take it away now.
• Any idol that is stealing our love and loyalty for we can only dare come into that holy place because he rent the veil and the curtain has been torn and by his blood he has bidden us enter.

Now we come near to You:

• You are our God and we are your people.
• Your business is our business; Your battle is our battle.

Help us!

• For we are weak, and not only that, if left to ourselves we are wicked and we will fall prey to the enemy.

Help us!

• We confess that even when we are at our very best, at prayer, some wicked thoughts or desires will come to us. Lord help us! We would come closer to thee; be lost in thee; hide under the shadow of your wings;

O Lord, sanctify us:

• saturate every faculty
• subdue every passion
• use every power of our nature for obedience to you.

Come Holy Spirit

• Take our heart, our head, our hands, our feet, and use all for thee.
• Take our substance, let us not hoard it for ourselves;
• Take our talents, may we not educate ourselves so that we would be thought wise in the world’s eyes.
• May every breath be for thee; every minute be spent for thee; Help us to live while we live, and sanctify all our work for your service. May we be salt in our world;
• May our spirit and manner and conversations be heavenly;
• May we make everywhere we go better for having been there.

Prayer of Intercession:

• We pray for this poor world. Following the footsteps of Abraham, our father in the faith, we pray for our great cities.
  • Let thy kingdom come. Send out thy light and thy truth; Chase the old dragon from his throne. Oh that the day may come when the son of man may rule the nations—full of mercy, full of power, full of grace, but yet irresistible.
  • Until then—Lord, gird us up for the fight. Make us like those who have overcome through the blood the lamb, and through the word of their testimony.
• We also pray for our dear ones.
  • the sick: the strength to bear up and endure what they have to bear
  • the weak:
  • trembling:
  • Help us to sit very loose to all the things here below.
  • May we live like strangers knowing that this world is not our home; strangers and pilgrims;
• We pray for the unconverted:
  • May your church be built up by many who have believed and confess your name.
  • For those who have turned their back:

Prayer for encouragement:

O Lord rebuke Satan, the accuser of the brethren; the tempter who is dedicated to destroying your work; May all the tempted, the tried, the troubled souls be given special help–the grace they need in their time of need; Let them be confident that in due time they will rejoice in your salvation; and even though you slay them, they will keep trusting in you.

When all your waves and billows engulf us and we feel we are drowning command your lovingkindness to walk with us throughout the day; Let your song be with us in the night; for it is to you and you alone that we direct our prayers. Even though our souls are downcast and deeply disturbed within us, enable us to continually hope in you. Let our experience teach us that you are the source of all our good.

O Lord refresh my life and renew an upright spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and never take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and put in me a willing Spirit to be lead by you. Pull me out of the pit, out of this mire and muck. Set me feet on the rock. Steady my steps and put a new song in my mouth.