from "A Burning and a Shining Light" by Jeffrey Eerdman's Pg. 65 "from On Prayer (1715)"
from On Prayer (1715)
I. The Grace of Prayer
There is a great difference between the skill and the grace of prayer. The skill is but the outside, the shape, the carcass of our responsibility. The grace is the soul and spirit that gives it life, vigor and efficacy, that renders it acceptable to God and of real advantage to ourselves. The skill consists chiefly in a readiness of thought consistent with the various aspects of prayer, and a facility for expressing those thoughts in speaking to God. The grace consists in the inward workings of the heart and conscience toward God and our life of faith. The skill has a show and appearance of holy desires and affections, but holy affections, sincere desires, and real conversation with God belong only to the grace of prayer. The skill and grace are often separated from each other, and it has often been found that the skill of prayer has been attained in great measure by study and practice and by the common workings of the Spirit of God communicated to some persons that have known nothing of true grace. Conversely, there may be a lively exercise of the grace of prayer in some souls who have a very small measure of skillΓÇöwho hardly know how to form their thoughts and desires in a methodical or regular way, or to express those desires in tolerable language.
There are several particular graces that belong to the whole work or duty of prayer, including the following:
. Faith or belief in the being of God, his perfect knowledge, and his gracious notice of all that we speak in prayer. The Apostle offers this instruction:" He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of all the diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 9:6). We should endeavor to impress our minds frequently with a fresh and lively acknowledgment of God's existence (although He is invisible and unrecognized by physical presence), and of his just and merciful regard for all the actions of men, especially their spiritual affairs. In this way prayer may be a matter not of custom and ceremony, but performed with a design and hope of pleasing God and having some good at his hand. This exercise of a lively faith runs through every part of our duty, giving spirit and power to the whole act of worship.
. Gravity, reverence, and seriousness of spirit [should also characterize our prayer]. Let a light and trivial disposition be utterly banished when we come into the presence of God. When we speak to the great creator, who must also be our Judge, about concerns of infinite and everlasting importance, we ought to have our souls clothed with reverence, not with those attitudes which are lawful at other seasons when we are talking with our fellow creatures about lower matters. A carelessness and vanity of mind ought never to be indulged in the least degree when we come to perform any part of divine worship, especially when we who are but dust and ashes speak unto the great and awesome God.
. Spirituality and heavenly-mindedness should run through the whole of this responsibility of prayer. For prayer is a retreat from earth and from our fellow creatures to attend on God and hold correspondence with Him who dwells in heaven. If our thoughts are full of corn and wine and oil and the business of this life, we shall not seek so earnestly the favor and face of God as is proper to faithful worshippers. The things of the world therefore must be commanded to stand by for a season, to abide at the foot of the mount while we walk up higher to offer up our sacrificesΓÇöas Abraham didΓÇöand to meet our God. Our aims, ends and desires should grow more spiritual as we proceed in this responsibility. And although God invites us to converse with Him about many of our temporal affairs in prayer, let us nevertheless take care that the things of our souls and the eternal world always possess the chief room in our hearts. And whatever cares of this life enter into our prayers and are spread before the Lord, let us see that our aims in offering them are spiritual, so that our very desires of earthly comforts may be purified from all carnal ends and sanctified to divine purposesΓÇöto the glory of God, to the honor of the gospel and the salvation of souls.
. Sincerity and uprightness of heart are other graces that must run through our worship in prayer. Whether we speak to God concerning his own glory, whether we give Him thanks for his abundant goodness, confess our various iniquities before Him or express our desire of mercy at his hand, still let our hearts and lips agree. Let us not be found mockers of God, who searches the heart and examines our inward parts and can spy hypocrisy in the darkest corner of the soul.
. Holy watchfulness and an intent concentration of mind upon the responsibility in which we are engaged must run through every part of prayer. Our thoughts must not be allowed to wander among the things of this world or rove to the ends of the earth when we come to converse with the high and holy God. Without this holy attentiveness we shall be in danger of leaving God in the midst of our worship because of various and strong temptations arising from Satan and from our own hearts. Without this watchfulness our worship will degenerate into mere formality, and we shall find coldness and indifference creeping upon our spirits and spoiling the success of our efforts. "Watch unto prayer" is a constant direction of the great Apostle.
II. Prayer as Divine Correspondence
In order to direct ourselves in the spiritual performance of this duty of prayer, we must consider it as a holy conversation maintained between earth and heaven, between the great and holy God and mean and sinful creatures such as ourselves. Now the most natural directions that I can think of for carrying on this conversation are these:
. Possess your hearts with a most sensitive awareness of the respective characteristics of the two parties in this correspondence; that is, God and yourselves. (This directive is appropriate also to the skill of prayer, but it is most necessary in attaining the grace.) Let us consider who this glorious Being is who invites us to this fellowship with HimselfΓÇöhow awesome in majesty, how terrible in righteousness, how irresistible in power, how unsearchable in wisdom, how all-sufficient in blessedness, how compassionate in mercy! Let us consider who we ourselves are who are invited to this correspondence: how vile in our original fallen nature, how guilty in our hearts and lives, how needy of every blessing, how utterly incapable of helping ourselves, and how miserable forever if we are without God! And if we have sincerely obeyed the call of his gospel and have attained to some comfortable hope of his love, let us consider how infinite are our obligations to Him, how necessary and delightful it is to enjoy our conversation with Him here, with whom it will be our happiness to dwell forever. When we feel our spirits deeply impressed with such thoughts as these. We are in the best attitude for prayer, and most likely to pray with grace in our hearts.
. When you come before God, remember the nature of this correspondence, that it is all-spiritual; remember the dignity and privilege, the purpose and the importance of it. A sense of the high favor in being admitted to this privilege and honor will fill your souls with humble wonder and with heavenly joy such as becomes the worshipper of an infinite God. A due attention to the purpose and importance of this responsibility will fix your thoughts with the most immovable attention and strict watchfulness; it will overspread your spirit with seriousness, commanding all your inward powers to devotion and raising your desires to holy fervency.
. Seek earnestly a state of friendship with Him with whom you converse, and labor after a good hope and assurance of that friendship. How unspeakable is the pleasure in holding conversation with so infinite, so almighty and so compassionate a friend! And how ready will all the powers of nature be to render every honor to Him while we feel and know ourselves to be recipients of his special favor, the children of his grace!
. In order to obtain this friendship and promote this divine fellowship, live much upon and with Jesus the Mediator, by whose interest alone you can come near God and be brought into his company. Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). Through Him both Jews and Gentiles have access unto the Father (Ephesians 2:18). Live much in dependence and trust upon Him, and live much by meditation and love with Him. When a sinner under first conviction sees with horror the awesome holiness of God, and his own guilt, how fearful he is to draw near to God in prayer! But when he first beholds Christ in his great act of mediation and his glorious all-sufficiency to saveΓÇöwhen he first beholds this new and living way of access to God, consecrated by the blood of ChristΓÇöhow cheerfully does he come before the throne of God and pour out his own soul in prayer. And how lively is his nature in the exercise of every grace suited to this responsibility, how deep his humility, how fervent his desire, how importunate his pleadings, how warm and hearty his thanksgiving's! We need always to maintain within our spirits a deep sense of the evil of sin, of our desert of death, of the dreadful holiness of God and the impossibility of our conversation with Him without a Mediator, so that the name of Jesus may be ever precious to us and we may never venture into the presence of God in prepared and reverent prayer without the eye of our soul turned toward Christ our glorious Introducer.
. Maintain always a prayerful attitude, a disposition of mind ready to converse with God. This will be one way to keep all praying graces ever ready for exercise. Visit therefore often and upon all occasions the One with whom you would obtain some immediate communion at solemn season of devotion. Make the work of prayer your delight, nor rest satisfied until you find pleasure in it. Whatever advantages and opportunities you enjoy for communal prayer, do not neglect praying in secret. At lease once a day constrain the business of life to give you leave to say something to God alone. When you join with others in prayer, where you are not the speaker, let your heart be kept intent and watchful, so that you may pray so much the better when you are the mouthpiece of others to God. Take frequent occasion in the midst of your duties in the world to lift up your heart to God. He is ready to hear a sudden sentence and will answer the yearnings of a holy soul toward Him in the short intervals and spaces between your daily affairs. Thus you may pray without ceasing, as the Apostle directs, and your graces may be ever lively. For if, on the other hand, you only make your addresses to God in the morning and evening and forget Him all day, your hearts will grow indifferent in worship and you will most likely pay a salutation only with your lips and knees….Thus shall you learn the perfection of beauty in this part of worship, when the skill and grace of prayer are happily joined in the secret pleasure and success of it, appearing before all in their full loveliness and attractive power. Then shall the spiritual life look like itself, divine and heavenly, and shine in all the luster it is capable of here on earth.
