While skimming through some of those books that showed up last week (see yesterday’s post) I came across some great information about Robert Murray McCheyne. This is drawn from Mike Sarkissian’s book Before God and really challenged me as I prepared to preach today in Sarnia, Ontario. It shamed me with my own lack of preparation, my own (relative) prayerlessness in approaching the pulpit. I need to be more like McCheyne!

The time McCheyne spent before the Lord gave him a better perspective of the high calling God had placed upon him as a shepherd of God’s people. He was known for saying, “I have no desire but the salvation of my people, by whatever instrument.” Little did he know, McCheyne would be an instrument God would use for centuries to come. His time with God in prayer and meditation manifested itself in a passion for souls and effective preaching.

Dr. Estrada explained the depth of McCheyne’s personal holiness in relation to bringing forth the Word of God to his congregation:

His preaching and all other activities were preceded by long periods of prayer. He kept by this rule: ‘that he must first see the face of God before he could undertake any duty.’ ‘I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into any corner.’ Both in his preaching and teaching he was very much concerned with feeding the congregation with the ‘whole counsel of God.’

McCheyne preached the Word of God with a certain gravity and solemnity. He sought after the unction of the Holy Spirit and spoke intently to his congregation. His pulpit was said to have been wet with his tears as he urged people to commit their lives to Christ. This seriousness to the calling of God would bring forth much fruit for the Kingdom.

It is the Lord’s delight to grant us what we ask of him in prayer. Like David, we all ought to pray, “O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth” (Psalm 54:2). If Christians did not believe in the effectiveness of prayer, there would be no reason for us to ask anything of God. He is the one who tells us that we can have confidence that our prayers ascend to him. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14,15). While as Christians we pay lip-service to the superlatives in that sentence (“whatever” and “anything”), how often do we really believe it?

The fact is that our prayers are often hindered. There are times when it feels like our prayers are reaching the ceiling and going no further; times when we are lying face-down on the floor and feel that our prayers are rising no higher than the fibers of the carpet. While we can be sure that God does hear our prayers, there are times when he chooses not to heed or answer them. The Bible gives us at least six reasons God may not heed our prayers.

It is important to know from the outset that I am the only one who can hinder my prayers. You are the only one who can hinder your prayers. I cannot hinder your prayers anymore than you can hinder mine. And while we may have done much to hinder our prayers, we are not necessarily even aware of this. So let’s look at these as six warnings from Scripture.

After a while I start to feel lazy when posting quotes and prayers from other people. But this prayer from Scotty Smith is a good one. I love his prayers for their humanness. I like The Valley of Vision as much as the next guy, but somewhere along the way the prayers take on a kind of formality, presumably in the antiquated language. But here in Scotty Smith’s prayers there is something I can identify with much more. There an informality, a hesitation (check out all those ellipses) that seems just like the way I pray.

This prayer is premised on Isaiah 26:3-4: “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.”

Most kind and trustworthy Father, you haven’t promised me a storm-less, hassle-free disappointment-empty life. You offer me no formulas for decreasing the probability of sad things happening around me or disillusioning things happening to me. But you have promised me something that transcends the chaos and fear of uncertainty.

Keep Reading →

Here is another prayer from pastor Scotty Smith. This one deals with Christ’s active advocacy as he sits (or stands) at the right hand of the Father.

Most loving Lord Jesus, this scene in Stephen’s costly discipleship profoundly underscores what a wonderful, merciful and engaged Savior you really are. At the climax of his stoning he sees you standing at the right hand of the Father—rising for the very occasion of his greatest challenge, and soon to be realized death. Oh indeed, you are the Good Shepherd who cares, not the wicked hireling who disregards the plight of your lambs…

May this image supplant every wrong notion I’ve ever had about you “sitting at the right hand of the Father.” Your “sitting” doesn’t speak of passivity or inactivity. On the contrary, you are “sitting” as one in session—as the One already enthroned as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. When you completed your work of redemption for us on the cross, then and only then, did you take your seat at the right hand of God the Father, celebrating the victory of your cry, “It is finished!” And since that time all of your enemies are becoming your footstool, as your kingdom advances in time and space (Hebrews 10:12-13, John 19:30).

Jesus, forgive me for ever thinking that you’ve forgotten about me… don’t really care about me… or have even abandoned me. I confess that sometimes, especially when life seems the hardest… most unfair… most alone… most broken, in those times I entertain these foolish, unfounded, disbelieving notions.

So, God the Holy Spirit, continue to work in my life as you did in Stephen’s. Open the eyes of my heart to see more and more of the glory and grace of Jesus. Let me always be seeing “heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God,” no matter if the sky is filled with the most foreboding, dark, threatening clouds imaginable, or if the sky is totally cloudless and is as Carolina blue as it is capable of being… just let me see Jesus, and it is enough.

And as I pray this for myself, I also include friends and family who are in the midst of very hard providences or the seductions of ease and prosperity. Glancing at Jesus will never be enough for us… ever keep us gazing. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ most glorious and grace-full name.

My friend Tim Kerr, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Toronto has given me permission to post the manual for prayer he has titled Take Words With You. It is a small book that contains 1600+ scripture promises & prayers to help God’s people pray more effectively. The promises are arranged around the cross—it’s purposes & rewards.

It is ideal for printing and using during times of private or corporate prayer. In fact, you’ll see that you can easily print it in 8.5” x 6.5” format and spiral bind it if you so desire. Here is how Tim introduces this little book:

Many years ago I discovered a precious truth regarding prayer: God loves to hear his own words prayed back to him! When a small child crawls up on the lap of their father and says, “Daddy when are you going to take us to the zoo like you promised?” the father smiles and assures his child he has not forgotten and is very much looking forward to doing what he promised (when the time is right). In the same way, our heavenly Father delights to hear us remind him of his promises to us. The Bible is in fact a great big prayer manual that should fill and guide our prayers each and every day.

It is hoped that the many promises of God written here will be prayed back to God in prayer as we seek to enter into God’s purposes accomplished for us through Christ’s cross. Sometimes we remember the gist of a promise but cannot remember what was said or where it is found in Scripture. This manual has been written to make that process easier by organizing the promises of God by categories and themes.

Click below if you’d like to download it for your own use. Feel free to pass it around or print it as you see fit.

Scotty Smith recently moved his blog to the Gospel Coalition web site. I’ve long regarded his site as a bit of a hidden treasure but I suppose it’s now less so having moved to a more public location. Nevertheless, his most recent prayer caught my eye as, through it, he reflects on a simple question. This is a worthwhile prayer for any of us, I think.

Dear Lord Jesus, driving into my home state recently, I came upon a billboard that pushed some buttons before it raised my palms. Just through the mountains of North Carolina, there is was, bold and in big red letters, Are You Saved? I’ll be honest, my first response was, “What an un-cool, cost-ineffective, out-of-date, impersonal way to do evangelism.” Then I ruminated, “People that put up highway signs like that are clueless about the gospel. They’re usually legalists and moralists, and have no idea about a theology of imputed righteousness. They’re culturally out-of-touch and don’t realize what a turn-off that kind of signage is.”

But after my momentary-arrogance and billboard-pontification, your Spirit gently disrupted my “cool” with this thought, “You completely avoided the question, Are You Saved?”

I continued driving, but that’s when one palm went up anyway, for indeed, I am saved, Jesus, unabashedly and unashamedly so. And there’s only one reason and there’s only one basis… I have come to God through you. You are the permanent priest who offered the perfect sacrifice for me, once and for all. You completed your work on the cross and you will complete your work in me. You live forever and you forever live to thoroughly save me, and your whole pan-national trans-generational Bride. You were my substitute by your life and your death, and now you’re my righteousness and intercessor before the Father. Am I saved? Most definitely and most delightfully!

I don’t have to like highway billboards, but may I never ever tire of responding to the question, Are You Saved?, for there’s no question more humbling to me and honoring of you. So very Amen, I pray, Jesus, in your merciful and mighty-to-save name.

This morning I came across a prayer by Pastor Scotty Smith, one he wrote just recently that focuses on his life in light of the words of Psalm 27. “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). Here is what he prays on that basis:

Dear Lord Jesus, if you would say "Yes!" to just one of my prayers... if you would fulfill a single desire and intense longing of my heart, how could I possibly choose wiser than King David? Though I were to assemble a catalogue of commendable requests and redemptive petitions, there is nothing more to be desired than to gaze upon your unmitigated, unfiltered, unabridged beauty.

For on that Day all will be made right. Indeed, Lord Jesus, when you are finally and fully in sight, everything will be made right. Every prayer I've ever offered in concert with the heartbeat of heaven will be answered. Every quest and question will either be dissolved or resolved. All wrestling with providence and interceding over circumstance will be done with.

I will shout on that Day what I sometimes only half-heartedly whisper in this day, "My God has done all things well!" There will be no more praying in part... no more knowing in part... no more hoping in part. We shall see you as you are, Jesus, and we shall be like you. (1 John 3:2)

Until that Day, Jesus, please show us... show me, more and more of your beauty. Reveal as much of your beauty to me as I can entertain. For by the light of your beauty my sin becomes much more reprehensible... the gospel becomes much more commendable... your kingdom becomes much more visible... but above all, you become so much more desirable.

Jesus, no matter what I oftentimes think, feel, pout, demand or say... it is you I want more than anything or anyone else. Keep me restless until my heart more fully rests in you. So very Amen, I pray, in the beauty and bounty of your great name.

Every now and again I like to post a prayer here. This one is drawn from Pastor Scotty Smith. He titles it “A Prayer About Heart Care.” It seems an appropriate prayer for the beginning of a new year.

*****

Heavenly Father,

The YMCA’s, health clubs and fitness centers are presently burgeoning with post-holiday-feasting traffic. We’re ready to leave the sugar/butter/carbohydrate binge of the past six weeks for the purge of cardio-care and sweat. Indeed, the beginning of a new year usually brings all kinds of resolutions including ones related to getting into shape and taking care of our “ticker.” Certainly, this is a good thing, for stewardship of our hearts and health does bring you glory.

Yet I’ve never been more aware that spiritual formation based on the “binge and purge” cycle simply will not do. My heart needs to be strengthened by the grace of the gospel all year long. I cannot afford periods of “cruise control” when I leave the banquet of your love for the buffet of wanna-be “comfort foods”. Just like the physical heart you’ve given me, the muscle of my “spiritual” heart will atrophy if I do not steward it well.

Here’s my thanksgiving. I praise you for the “means of grace”—the good gifts you’ve freely given us to help us grow in grace. Thank you for the Bible, your very Word, through which you reveal yourself. Thank you for prayer, meditation and corporate worship, by which you meet with us and commune with us. Thank you for the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, these tangible expressions of your covenant love. I praise you that I do not need to take out any kind of membership or join a club to take advantage of these and other wonderful “means of grace.”

Here’s my prayer. Because you love me, let me feel like the moron I am when I avoid the means of grace—when I simply do not take advantage of the primary ways my heart can be strengthened by your grace. By the convicting work of your Holy Spirit, let me far be more concerned about a flabby graceless-heart than bigger love handles. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ name.

You know that every now and again I like to post a prayer here. Sometimes it is a prayer from long ago, sometimes it is a prayer that is much more recent. This week I was looking at pastor Scotty Smith’s blog and came across a great prayer—one I could fully identify with and one I so badly needed to pray, too. Smith based it on this passage: “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:16-19).

Here is his prayer:

*****

Dear Lord Jesus, I’m very much convicted by and drawn to Mary’s response, early in her journey of nursing you and knowing you—the very God who created all things, sustains all things and makes all things new. She “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

“Hurrying off” like a shepherd to tell others about you has always been easier for me than sitting still… and letting you tell me about yourself.

It’s always been easier for me to talk than to listen, to stay busy than to relax, to be “productive” than to be meditative… I confess this as sin, Lord Jesus. This isn’t okay. It can be explained, but not justified. For knowing about you is not the same thing as knowing you. An informed mind is not the same thing as an enflamed heart.

To know you IS eternal life, and I DO want to know you, Lord Jesus, so much better than I already do. Lead me in the way of treasuring you in my heart and pondering who you are… and pondering everything you’ve already accomplished through your life, death and resurrection… and everything you’re presently doing as the King of kings and Lord of lords… and everything you’ll be about forever in the new heaven and new earth, as the Bridegroom of your beloved Bride. There’s so much to treasure and so much to ponder…

It’s not as though I’m a stranger to treasuring and pondering, for I treasure and ponder a whole lot of things, Lord Jesus—things, however, that lead to a bankrupt spirit and an impoverished heart.

May the gospel slow me, settle me and center me that I might be able to say with the Psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And being with you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Ps 73:25-26).” So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ name.

Last week I posted a prayer by pastor Scotty Smith. Today it seemed like it would be good to post another one. This one stood out to me as one I needed to pray—a prayer about impossibilities. It is based on these words: “Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’” (Luke 18:27)

*****

Merciful and mighty, Lord Jesus, how I need to wrestle with this hope this day. First of all, I want to thank you for the freedom the Scriptures give me to be honest about situations which are impossible to me. It’s so good to know that the gospel calls us to hope, not to hype… to believe, not to make believe… to intercession, not to presumption.

The disciples were vexed over a camel making it through the eye of a needle with greater ease than a rich man making it through the door into your kingdom. Sarah laughed at the thought of having a baby in her nineties. Mary was shocked at the thought of giving birth to you, as a virgin, and understandably so.

But because you did come to us, Jesus, in a most improbable, impossible-to-mere-man way, I am more inclined to say with Mary, “I am the Lord’s servant… may it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). And because you did overcome death and evil through your resurrection, I am more ready to say with Paul, “this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9). And because “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18-19), I will flee today to take hold of the hope offered to me in the gospel—a firm and secure anchor for my soul, which is floating on a sea of seeming impossibilities.

Lord Jesus, I’m asking you to breathe new life into the hearts of some of my friends who are in the paralyzing lockdown of shame, guilt, contempt and utter despair. Bring your resurrection power to marriages of friends that are, at best on life support, and others that are about to be rolled into the morgue.

For my friends who have spent everything they have on a multitude of doctors and cures, but are not better at all, have mercy Jesus, have mercy, I ask. For me, Jesus, please give me the assurance that you really are at work in my life—freeing me from the idols of my heart for the passions of your heart and kingdom. Whatever is impossible with me, is more than possible with you. So very Amen, I pray, in your anchor-for-my-soul, Name.