Prayer, Return of Prayer and the Saint's Jewel

Front Cover
Sovereign Grace Publishers,, 2007 - 84 pages
Prayer is an ordinance of God, and that to be used both in public and private; yea, such an ordinance will bring those that have the spirit of supplication into great familiarity with God; and is also so prevalent an action, that it gets of God, both for the person that prays, and for them that are prayed for, great things. It is the opener of the heart of God, and a means by which the soul, though empty, is filled. By prayer the Christian can open his heart to God, as to a friend and obtain fresh testimony of God's friendship to him - I might spend many words in distinguishing between public and private prayer as also between that in the heart, and that with the vocal voice. Something also might be spoken to distinguish between the gifts and graces of prayer; but as eschewing this method my business shall be at this time only to show you the very heart of prayer, without which, all your lifting up both of hands, and eyes, and voices, will be to no purpose at all. Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to the Word for the good of the Church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God. 1. For the first of these: it is a sincere pouring out of the soul to God. Sincerity is such a grace as runs through all the graces of God in us, and through all the actings of a Christian, and has the sway in them too, or else their actings are not anything regarded of God, and so of and in prayer, of which particularly David speaks, when he mentions prayer: "7 cried unto the Lord with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me " (Psa. 68:18). Part of the exercise of prayer is sincerity, without which God looks not upon it as prayer in a good sense. "And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). The want of this made the Lord reject their prayers in Hos. 7:14, where He says, "They have not cried to Me with their hearts (that is, in sincerity), when they howled upon their beds "! But for a pretense, for a show, in hypocrisy, to be seen of men, and applauded for the same, they pray. Sincerity was that which Christ commended in Nathaniel when he was under the fig-tree: "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile" (John 1:47). Probably this good man was pouring out of his soul to God in prayer under the fig-tree, and that in a sincere and unfeigned spirit before the Lord. The prayer that has this in it as one of the principal ingredients is the prayer that God looks at: "The prayer of the upright is His delight. " Bunyan (1628-1688) rose from an humble beginning to being a preacher to a little house church, to 12 years in jail because he would not agree to quit preaching, to a huge church in London. He wrote 66 books, nearly all while in jail. Goodwin (1600-1679) was rightly described as ''one of the twin pillars of the Puritan movement.'' His 12 volumes are filled with information not to be found in any other works. Thomas Shepard was an early New England Puritan. His work was praised at once by eminent divines, four of them being Westminster Confession participants. Jonathan Edwards quoted from Shepard more than any other.

From inside the book

Selected pages

Contents

8
6
Prayers Made for Others
12
Common Directions Helpful in Praying
18
The Effects of Mercy on the Heart
30
A Reproof for Those Who Expect No Answer to Prayer
37
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page iii - Is Ephraim my dear son ? is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still : therefore my bowels are troubled for him ; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.
Page 5 - I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
Page 45 - Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
Page 45 - For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Page ii - THE preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Page i - And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
Page ii - For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, You will not despise, Do good in your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem.

About the author (2007)

John Bunyan was born in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England, in 1628. He learned to read and write at the village school and was prepared to follow his father's trade as a brazier when the English Civil War broke out in 1644 and he was drafted into the Parliamentary army. His military service brought him into contact with Oliver Cromwell's Puritan troops. Beginning in 1648, Bunyan suffered a crisis in religious faith that lasted for several years. He turned to the Nonconformist church in Bedford to sustain him during this period. His first writings were attacks against the Quakers. Then Charles II was restored to the throne and Bunyan was arrested for conducting services not in accordance with the Church of England. He spent 12 years in jail. During this time, he wrote his autobiography, Grace Abounding, in which he described his spiritual struggle and growth. During his last years in prison, Bunyan began his most famous work, The Pilgrim's Progress, a two-part allegorical tale of the character Christian and his journey to salvation. Part I was published in 1678 and Part II in 1684. The second part deals with the spiritual journey of Christian's wife and sons, as they follow in his footsteps. With its elements of the folktale tradition, The Pilgrim's Progress became popular immediately. Well into the nineteenth century it was a book known to almost every reader in England and New England, second in importance only to the Bible. So great was the book's influence that it even plays a major role in Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott. Such expressions as "the slough of despond" and "vanity fair" have become part of the English language. Bunyan's other works include The Life and Death of Mr. Badman and The Holy War. He also wrote A Book for Boys and Girls, verses on religious faith for children. Bunyan died in London on August 31, 1688.

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