A Prayer Meeting With the Prince of Preachers
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”
In our exposition of 1 Timothy, we are striving to establish leadership roles found in the New Testament. In 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Paul is urging Timothy to pray. Prayer can often seem intimidating; not knowing where to begin, what to say, or even sometimes what to even pray for. Even worse, most of us get distracted by kids, work, and our busy calendars to take time to pray. In Psalm 46, God reminds us to “Be still and know that I am God.” Taking time to be still in today’s world is no easy task, but it is essential to deepen our relationship and understand the character and will of God.
Our vision for Doxa Church is bigger than the next 10 years, which is why we are building a strong foundation so that generations to come have a strong buttress and pillar of truth to grow from. One of those pillars is biblical prayer.
Charles H. Spurgeon wrote an article titled “Prayer Meetings", where he described them as “assemblies of the people of God for that special kind of worship which consists in each one expressing their desire before the Lord.” In this article, he gave some instructions on what a prayer meeting is, and why they are profitable for us as Christians.
I. The apostolic history of meetings for prayer
In this section, Spurgeon details 5 ways that prayer meetings are useful for us as Christians. The first is that praying together is a way to encourage a discouraged people. “Beloved, let every church learn the value of its prayer-meetings in its darkest hour…then there is but one remedy for these and a thousand other evils, and that one remedy is contained in this short sentence, “Let us pray.”
Other uses for prayer meetings are that is the appointed place to receive power, the resource of the persecuted church, the means of individual deliverance, the means of suggesting missionary operations, and may it be the first step in a new work for Christ.
II. the uses of a prayer Meeting
Along with generating devotion, God has promised extraordinary and special blessings through praying together. Gathering as brothers and sisters in Christ becomes the exponent and natural outgrowth of social godliness. “We sing together and pray together, and thus our Christian brotherhood is manifested to the world, and is even more enjoyed by ourselves.”
“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.”
Matthew 18:19-20
“God asks for agreement, and, once the saints agree, he pledges himself that the prayer of his agreeing ones shall be answered.”
III. the hindrances of a prayer meeting
“We must not come merely with well-sounding words and polished English, but really to pray, and really to praise, and really to confess and seek cleansing; and if we do this, the prayer-meeting will not disappoint us.”
Spurgeon listed some hard truths that can hinder a prayer meeting. Unholiness, discord, hypocrisy are some of the first he addresses. You cannot walk contrary to God and lack true love for one another, and expect God to honor your requests. One of the reasons prayer can be intimidating is hearing others offer long prayers and little sermons. He details these by saying “long prayer and true devotion in our public assemblies seem pretty much to be divorced from one another”.
Lack of being direct, lack of real intensity, lack of faith, and inconsistency in our prayers can spoil prayer meetings. Asking but not expecting to receive, using generalizations, praying for our children, friends and neighbors, but refusing to do anything to affect an answer; if our faith is nothing, the answer will also be nothing.
IV. what is the object of the prayer meeting?
What should our focus be while praying together? First, it must be for the glory of God, or else our prayers are invalid. This seems like an obvious point, but we cannot ignore the glory of God when coming to Him in prayer. In all of our prayers, let us pray that God be glorified!
We must also pray for blessings on the Church. Spurgeon reminds us to exercise love for one another in our prayers. Our leaders, future leaders, those suffering, for the strong, the weak, the trembling, the back-sliding, the sinful; we should continually offer supplications for every part of the one body of Christ.
We need to pray for the ungodly. This should burden our hearts so much that we pray for them from the lowest depths of our soul with sympathy for them. They are dying in their sin without hope. Spurgeon said this to encourage his congregation to pray for those without Christ —“It is of no use for me to preach to the people, my dear Christian brothers and sisters, unless you pray for them.”
Our prayer for this sermon series through 1 Timothy is ultimately for God to raise up men to the offices of leadership, but we also understand that in order for that to happen, we all must come together and prioritize and focus our prayers. If we can come together and fight against distractions, our calendars, insecurities, and excuses to take time to be still before the Lord, bringing supplications and intercessions for ourselves, our families, our community and our world, we will see our vision of the Church flourishing as a buttress and pillar of truth, filling every inch with the glory of God!