Where True Prayer is Found

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 5, 1878,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Therefore has Your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer to
You." 2 Samuel 7:27.

DAVID had first found it in his heart to build a house for God. Sitting
in his house of cedar, he resolved that the Ark of God should no longer
abide under curtains, but should be more suitably housed. The Lord,
however, did not design that David should build His Temple, though He
accepted his pious intentions and declared that it was well that it was
in his heart. From which we may learn that our intentions to serve the
Lord in a certain manner may be thoroughly good and acceptable and yet
we may not be permitted to carry them out. We may have the will but not
the power–the aspiration but not the qualification. We may have to
stand aside and see another do the task which we had chosen for
ourselves–and yet we may be none the less pleasing to the Lord who, in
His great love, accepts the will for the deed.

It is a holy self-denial which in such cases rejoices to see the Lord
glorified by others and at the Captain's bidding cheerfully stands back
in the rear when zeal had urged it to rush to the front. It is as true
service not to do as to do when the Lord's Word prescribes it. The
reason why David was not to build the house is not stated here, but you
will find it in 1 Chronicles 28:2, 3. "Then David the king stood up
upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: for me, I
had in my heart to build an house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for
the building: but God said unto me, You shall not build an house for My
name, because you have been a man of war, and have shed blood."

David's wars had been necessary and justifiable and by them the people
of the Lord had been delivered. But the Ever Merciful One did not
delight in them and would not use for building His Temple an instrument
which had been stained with blood. The great Prince of Peace would not
have a warrior's hand to pile the palace of His worship, choosing
rather that a man whose mind had exercised itself in quieter pursuits
should be the founder of the place of rest for the Ark of His Covenant
of Peace. He is not so short of instruments as to use a sword for a
trowel, or a spear for a measuring rod, especially when these have been
dyed in the blood of His creatures.

In your own household affairs you do not use the same implement or
utensil for opposite purposes. If David, therefore, is used to smite
Philistines, he is not to be employed in erecting a Temple. Solomon,
his son, a man of peace, is called to do that holy work. I have
sometimes trembled on behalf of our own nation and especially just now,
lest its warlike propensities should disqualify it for what has, up to
now, appeared its highest destiny. If it should resolve to pick a
quarrel and wantonly plunge itself into a bloody war, it may come to
pass that our God may judge it to be unfit for the accomplishment of
His purposes of Grace. Even if it were granted that the war would be
most just and right, yet should it be undertaken with solemn
reluctance, lest it should deprive our nation of the capacity to be the
preacher of righteousness and the herald of the Cross.

With what face can we preach the Gospel of Peace among the heathen if
we, ourselves, provoke war? Little wonder would it be if the Lord
should say of the English people, "You shall not convert the nations
nor build up a Church for My name, because you delight in war and have
needlessly shed blood." God grant that all things may be so ordered
according to His infinite wisdom that this land may be the true Solomon
among the nations and build a Temple for God which shall enclose the
whole earth, wherein every language and every nation shall be heard
praising and magnifying the Lord! Labor, I pray you, O you servants of
the loving Savior, to promote peace if the temporary rage of the
multitude may be appeased without carnage!

To return to personal cases–it may happen to any one of you to be
called to pass through business or domestic trials in which you may be
altogether blameless–and yet you may, at the close of them, find
yourself disqualified for certain prominent positions of usefulness, at
least for a time. Therefore you may not hope to accomplish certain high
and noble

purposes which once were laid upon your heart. God may have to say to
you afterwards, "Your use lies elsewhere. I will not employ you for
this, but, still, I accept you and it was well that it was in your
heart." And if He should so see fit, do not repine, but, like David, do
all you can towards the work that the man who is to perform it may find
materials ready to his hand. David gathered much of the treasure to
meet the cost and did it, none the less earnestly, even though another
name would outshine his own in connection with the Temple.

Beloved Friends, there is a very sweet consolation in my text for those
who may be placed in circumstances similar to those of David. If by any
means a man of God becomes disqualified for any form of desirable
service which was upon his heart, yet nothing can disqualify him from
prayer. If he finds it in his heart to pray, he may boldly draw near to
God through the sacrifice of Christ. He may still use the way of access
which the dying body of our Lord has opened! And he may win his suit at
the Throne of Grace. It was well for David that when the building of
the Temple was in his heart it could not be, yet when a prayer was in
his heart it might be presented with the certainty of acceptance! If
you, my Brother or my Sister, are denied the privilege of doing what
your heart is set upon, be not angry with God, but set your heart
towards Him in prayer. Ask what you will and He will give you the
desire of your heart.

By my text three thoughts are suggested. The first is it is well to
find prayer in our heart–"therefore has Your servant found in his
heart to pray this prayer to You." Secondly, it is pleasant to be able
to see how the prayer came there–I shall trace the rise and progress
of the prayer of David. And, thirdly, it is most profitable to use a
prayer when we find it in our heart, for David solemnly prayed the
prayer which he discovered in his soul.

I. First, then, IT IS WELL TO FIND PRAYER IN OUR HEARTS. In no other
place can true prayer be found. Prayer with the lips, prayer with
bended knee and uplifted hand is worth nothing if the heart is absent.
Prayer as a mere matter of form and routine is but the husk–heart-work
is the kernel! Words are the oyster shell–the desire of the heart is
the pearl. Do not imagine that the Lord looks down with any pleasure
upon the tens of thousands of forms of prayer, whether liturgical or
extempore, which are presented to Him without heart–such forms rather
weary Him than worship Him! They are not adoration, but provocation.
The God of Truth can never accept an untruthful devotion. Our prayers
must flow from our heart or they will never reach the heart of God.

But prayer is not found in every man's heart. Alas, many of our fellow
men never pray! And many who think they pray are yet strangers to that
sacred exercise. If an angel were now suddenly to announce that he
would mark every man and woman here who has never prayed, I fear that
many of you would be in a great fright for fear the mark should be on
you! If suddenly the complexion could change and each prayerless
person's face should gather blackness, I wonder how many there would be
among us whom we should gaze upon with intense surprise! There shall be
no such Cain-like mark set upon any of you, but will you set some sort
of seal upon your own conscience if you are compelled to confess, "I am
one of those who have never prayed"?

What an acknowledgment for a rational being to make! Twenty years of
life without a prayer to the Creator of its being! Be astonished, O
heavens, and amazed O earth! Perhaps you deny that you are guilty, for
you have always said a prayer and would not have gone to sleep at night
if you had not done so. Then I pray you remember that you may have
repeated holy words from your youth up and yet may have never prayed a
prayer with your heart! To pray as the Holy Spirit teaches is a very
different thing from the repetition of the choicest words that the best
of writers may have composed, or the utterance of random words without
thought. Have we prayed with our hearts or not? Remember, a prayerless
soul is a Christless soul–and a Christless soul is a lost soul–and
will soon be cast away forever!

The verses were meant for children, but I cannot help quoting them
here, for they, in simple language, express my meaning–

"I often say my prayers

But do I ever pray?

And do the wishes of my heart

Go with the words I say? I may as well kneel down And worship gods of
stone, As offer to the living God A prayer of words alone. For words
without the heart

The Lord will never hear. Nor will He to those lips attend Whose
prayers are not sincere." Further, let me observe that the spirit of
prayer, though it is always present in every regenerated heart, is not
always alike active. It is not, perhaps, today nor tomorrow that every
Christian will be able to say, "I find in my heart to pray this one
particular prayer to God." It may for the present be beyond our
standard of Grace and we may therefore be unable to grasp the blessing.
In some respects we are not masters of our supplications. You cannot
always pray the prayer of faith in reference to any one thing–that
prayer is often the distinct gift of God for an occasion. Others may
ask your prayers and, sometimes, you may plead very prevalently for
them, but at another time that power is absent. You may, at that time,
feel no liberty to offer a certain petition, but on the contrary feel
held back in the matter. Well, be guided by this inward direction and
follow, rather than press forward, in such a case.

There are times with us when we find it in our heart to pray a prayer
and then we do so with eagerness and assurance. But we cannot command
such seasons at our pleasure. How freely, then, does prayer come from
us as the leaping water from the fountain? There is no need to say, "I
long to pray," we do pray, we cannot help praying, we have become a
mass of prayer! We are walking the streets and cannot pray aloud, but
our heart pleads as fast as it beats! We enter our house and attend to
family business and, still, the heart keeps pleading as constantly as
the lungs are heaving! We go to bed and our last thought is
supplication. If we wake in the night, our soul is still making
intercession before God and so it continues while the visitation
remains. O that it were always so!

Now it is a very happy thing when the Christian finds it in his heart
to pray with marked and special fervor unto God. Then he puts no
pressure upon himself, nor thinks of supplication as a matter of
duty–it has become a pleasant necessity, a sacred passion of the
inward life–a holy breathing of the soul not to be restrained. So it
should always be, but, alas, most of us have to mourn that in the
matter of prayer we are the subjects of many changeful moods. O that we
had learned more perfectly how to be praying always in the Holy Spirit!
The presence of living prayer in the heart indicates seven things about
that heart upon which we will speak with great brevity. First, prayer
in the heart proves that the heart is renewed. True prayer dwells not
in a dead, corrupt, stony heart!

If you find in your heart to pray a prayer unto God you have assuredly
been born again! "Behold he prays," is one of the first and one of the
surest marks of the new birth. The faintest movement of the pulse
proves that life still remains in a drowning man and though prayer is
weak, feeble, fragmentary, yet if it is there at all the soul lives
unto God! Though to your apprehension your prayer is so poor and broken
and unworthy that it cannot be accepted, yet the desire of the soul
towards God is an index of spiritual life most hopeful and instructive.
Have hope, Brothers and Sisters, as long as you can pray, for none who
pray believingly, in the name of Jesus, can ever be cast into Hell! He,
whom faith in Jesus has taught to cry to God, shall never hear Him say,
"Depart, you cursed," for has not the Lord said, "Whoever calls upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved"? Be glad, therefore, if you find
it in your heart to pray, for it proves that the root of the matter is
in you.

To find prayer in the heart proves, next, a reconciled heart. David
might have been upset with God and have said, "If I cannot build a
Temple I will do nothing, for I have set my heart upon it and I have
already laid up treasure for it. It is a laudable project and it has
had the sanction of the Prophet and I am hardly used to having my
designs rejected." There are some professors who would do a great thing
if they might, but if they are not permitted to act a shining part in
it, they sulk and get angry with their God. David, when his proposal
was set aside, found it in his heart not to murmur, but to pray! Job
asks concerning the hypocrite, "Will he always call upon God?" and he
meant to say that only true and loyal hearts will continue to pray when
things go hard with them. Let this be a test for you and for me. Can
you pray, Brothers and Sisters, now that the delight of your eyes has
been cut off by death? Can you pray now that your substance is
diminished and your bodily health is failing? Then I take it as a sign
that you have submitted yourself unto God and are at peace with Him,
being reconciled to Him by His Grace. To cease from complaining and to
give the heart to prayer is the sign of a soul renewed and reconciled.

Prayer is also the index of a spiritual heart. David sat in his house
of cedar–it was costly and carved with great art–but it did not draw
his mind away from God. It has too often happened that prospering
professors have become proud professors and have forgotten God. When
they were poor they associated with Christian Brethren whom they felt

pleasure in recognizing. But now that they have gotten a large estate
they no longer know the poor people of God and they spend their
Sabbaths where they can meet with a little "society," and move among
their "equals," as they call them–they, being so very much superior to
the holy men and women whom once they held in honor! Such folks become
high and mighty like Nebuchadnezzar–and as they walk their grounds or
sit in their painted chambers they say, "Behold this great Babylon
which I have built." A "self-made man," risen from the ranks, comes to
have a name like the name of the great men that are upon the face of
the earth–is not this something?

Oftentimes has it happened that these things have turned away the
hearts of professors from the God who loaded them with benefits. It was
not so with David! In his cedar palace he found it in his heart to
pray. The more he had, the more he loved his God. The more he received,
the more he desired to give thanks to the Lord for his benefits.
Plants, when they are root-bound in their pots, become poor weak things
and so do men's hearts when they are earth-bound, doting upon their
riches! As a traveler finds it difficult to move when his feet stick in
the mud of a miry way, so do some men make small progress heavenward
because they are hindered by their own wealth. Happy is that man who
has riches but does not suffer riches to have him–who uses wealth and
does not abuse it by idolizing it–but seasons all with the Word of God
and prayer.

Prayer in the heart also proves an enlightened heart. A man who does
not pray is in the dark. He knows not his own needs, otherwise he would
make supplication. If he understood his own danger–the temptations
which surround him– and the corruptions which are within him, he would
be incessantly in prayer! He who has left off praying has surely lost
his wits. If the Holy Spirit has taught us anything, He has taught us
this–we must pray without ceasing. David prayed, too, as an
enlightened man because he felt that devotion was due to God. Since the
Lord had done so much for him, he must worship and adore. "Therefore
has Your servant," he says, "found in his heart to pray this prayer to
You." He who is well taught by the Spirit of God knows his position to
be that of a humble dependent who is bound to reverence his God with
all his heart and, therefore, he daily sings, "Your vows are upon me, O
God, I will render praise unto You."

The heart in which prayer is found constantly welling up is, also, a
lively heart. We do not all possess lively hearts, nor do we all keep
them when we get them. Some men appear to have fatty degeneration of
the heart after a spiritual manner since their heart acts very feebly
in prayer. They are lethargic and lifeless in devotion. Do we not all
find ourselves, at times, in a cold state in reference to prayer?
Brothers and Sisters, I believe that when we cannot pray, it is time
that we prayed more than ever. And if you answer, "But how can that
be?" I would say–pray to pray, pray for prayer–pray for the spirit of
supplication. Do not be content to say, "I would pray if I could." No,
but if you cannot pray, pray till you can! He who can row down stream
with a flowing tide and a fair wind is but a poor oarsman compared with
the man who can pull against wind and tide and still make headway. This
our soul must endeavor to do.

But, Beloved, how wonderful it is when you can pray and cannot
stop–when your heart pours forth devotion as the roses shed their
perfume, or the sun gives his light! I love to feel my soul on the wing
like the birds in spring, which are always singing and flitting from
bough to bough, full of life and vigor. Oh to have the soul mounting on
eagle's wings and no longer groping in the earth like a mole! To be
instant, constant, eager at prayer–this is health, vigor and delight!
To feel the heart in prayer like the chariots of Amminadib outstripping
the wind–this is a joy worth worlds! Beloved, this finding in the
heart to pray proves, in the sixth place, that the heart is in
communion with God, for what is prayer but the breath of God in man
returning from where it came?

Prayer is a telephone by which God speaks in man. His Heaven is far
away but His voice sounds in our soul! Prayer is a phonograph–God
speaks into our soul and then our soul speaks out, again, what the Lord
has spoken! Conversation must always be two-sided. God speaks to us in
this Book–we must reply to Him in prayer and praise. If you do not
pray, my Brothers and Sisters, why, then, you have shut the gates of
Heaven against yourself and there is neither coming in nor going out
between you and your Lord! Prayer keeps up a heavenly commerce
acceptable to God and enriching to your own souls. Do you find yourself
mightily moved to pray? Then the Lord is very near to you! The Beloved
has come into His garden to eat His pleasant fruits–take care to feast
Him with your love!

Prayer in the heart is the echo of the footsteps of the Bridegroom of
our souls who is seeking communion with us! Open wide the doors of your
soul and let Him in and then detain Him and constrain Him, saying,
"Abide with us." When we find prayer in the heart, we may know that our
heart is accepted of God and the prayer is, too. Brothers and Sisters,
when a desire comes to you again and again and again, take it as a
favorable omen regarding your supplication. If the

Lord should especially prompt you to any one desire–laying your child,
perhaps, more than usual upon your heart, or causing the name of a
friend constantly to occur to you so that you find yourself frequently
praying for him–take this as a token from the Lord that He would have
you turn your thoughts in that direction and that a blessing is in
store for you. If a certain Church which seems to need revival is laid
upon your soul, or a township or a district, mark well the fact.

Suppose you find your heart going out towards a special country or
city, bearing your mind there and working to pray with tears and
entreaties–grieving because of its sin and entreating that God would
remember and forgive–be sure that this is a prophecy of good to that
place and redouble your petitions! When the gale blows, the navigator
spreads his sails to catch the wind! And when the Spirit, who blows
where He wills, comes upon you, influencing you to this or that, be
sure to spread all sails! Reckon that the inclination to pray is the
foretaste of the coming blessing! As coming events cast their shadows
before them, your desire is the shadow of the mercy which God is
sending down to you. He moves you to pray for it because He, Himself,
is about to give it! Thus I have shown that it is well when we find it
in our hearts to pray a prayer, for it proves the heart to be, in many
respects, in a healthy condition.

II. Now, secondly, IT IS PLEASANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE HOW THE PRAYER CAME
INTO THE HEART. "I

find it in my heart," says David. Well, David, how did it come there? I
answer as he did not, that any true prayer which is found in the human
heart comes there by the Holy Spirit! If there is anything excellent in
us, even if it is only a desire to pray acceptably, it is of the Holy
Spirit's creation and unto Him be all the praise! But the modus
operandi, the way in which the Spirit operates upon us is somewhat in
this fashion.

First of all, He puts the promise into the Word of God. David tells us
very plainly that it was because God had revealed such-and-such
promises that, therefore, he says, "Has Your servant found in his heart
to pray this prayer unto You." The Lord gives the promise and that
becomes the parent of our prayer. For first there are some mercies we
should never have thought of praying for if He had not promised them.
They would never have suggested themselves to us and we would not have
known our need of them unless the supply had taught us and the promise
of God, itself, incited us to the desire. There are other mercies for
which we should not have dared to pray if the promise had not
encouraged us.

We could not have had the heart to ask such great things if the Lord
had not promised them to us. So that the Word of God suggests the
desire and then encourages us to hope that the desire will certainly be
fulfilled. Moreover when promise comes very close home to a man, as it
did to David when it was spoken personally to him by the Prophet, it
vivifies the soul, causes the mind to realize the blessing and both
intensifies desire and gives grasp and grip to faith. We should not
have felt the gift to be real had it not been placed before us in plain
words. Brothers and Sisters, this is how our prayers come into our
heart!

The Word of God suggests them, encourages us to seek them and then
gives us a realizing power so that we plead with eagerness and believe
with force. In saying, "therefore," David means not only that the Word
of God had put the prayer into his mind but that his whole meditation
had led him to the finding of this prayer in his heart. Had he not been
sitting before the Lord in quiet thought, he might never have noticed
the work of the Spirit upon his soul. But inward searching brought the
right prayer to light. Will you kindly look through the chapter while I
very briefly sum up its contents and show that each item excited David
to pray? When the king sat before the Lord and spoke out his heart, his
first word was about the Lord's past goodness to him and his own
insignificance–"Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You
have brought me here?"

Brethren, who are we that God should have been so good to us? But
inasmuch as His Grace to us has been amazing, do we not find it in our
heart to pray a prayer to Him that He would bless us still more? Can
you not enquire of the Lord in the words of the hymn which we sang just
now–

"After so much mercy past Can You let me sink at last?"

He has been mindful of us, He will bless us. Let our memory of His past
loving kindness excite us to prayer for present and future favors.
David then passed on to speak of the greatness of the promise–"This
was yet a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; but You have spoken
also of Your servant's house for a great while to come." We also have
received exceedingly great and precious promises. And since God has
promised so much, will we not be much in prayer? Shall He be large in
promising and shall we be narrow in asking? Shall He stand before us
and say, "Whatever you shall ask in

prayer, believing, you shall receive," and will we be content with
slender, starved petitions? Beggars seldom need pressing to beg and
when a promise is given them, they usually put the widest possible
construction upon it and urge it with great zeal! Will it not be well
to take a leaf out of their book? Come, Brothers and Sisters, the
argument is strong with those who have spiritual sense–the greatness
of the promise encourages us to find many a prayer in our heart!

Then he speaks of the surprising "manner" of God. "Is this the manner
of man, O Lord God?" He saw that God acted far more graciously than the
most generous human beings act towards their fellows. He perceived that
"as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are God's ways
above our ways, and His thoughts above our thoughts," and therefore he
opened his mouth wide in prayer. Was he not right in doing so? And are
we right, my Brothers and Sisters, if we do not imitate his example? We
are advised by the wise man not to go into our brother's house in the
day of our calamity. And the same wisdom would move us not to ask too
much from friends and neighbors. But no such prudence is necessary
towards our Friend above! To Him we may come at all hours and to Him we
may plead the largest requests!

Since the Lord deals not as men deal, but gives liberally and upbraids
not. Since He opens the windows of the treasury of Heaven and is
pleased to make no stint whatever in the showers of His liberality, let
us wait upon Him continually. His unspeakable love should encourage us
to abound in prayer. Then the king goes on to speak of God's free
Grace, which was another argument to pray. "For Your Word's sake, and
according to Your own heart, have You done all these great things to
make Your servant know them." The Lord had entered into covenant with
him, not because David had merited so great an honor, but entirely for
His own mercy's sake. David recognizes the freeness and Sovereignty of
the Grace and seems to say, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in
Your sight. If You have loved me so, then am I bold to ask great things
of You. If You wait not for the merit of man, nor for human merit, then
will I ask You still further to bless me, unworthy though I am, to the
praise of the glory of Your name."

Pray mightily, my Brothers and Sisters, since God sits on a Throne of
Grace! When the choicest treasures are to be had for the asking, who
can refuse to pray? Then He proceeded to mention the greatness of God,
"Why You are great, O Lord God: for there is none like You, neither is
there any God beside You." Surely, to a great God we should bring great
prayers! We dishonor Him by the fewness of our petitions and the
littleness of our desires. My Soul, enlarge your desires! Be hungry, be
thirsty, be greedy after Divine Grace, for whatever you desire you
shall have, provided it is, indeed, for your good. Your desire to
obtain shall be the test of your capacity to receive! Brethren, we have
not because we ask not, or because we ask amiss. "Up to now have you
asked nothing in My name," said the Lord Jesus to His disciples.

And He might say the same to us, for all we have ever asked comes to
next to nothing compared with what He is prepared to give, compared
with what He will give when once He has tutored us into something like
largeness of heart in prayer like that of Solomon, of whom we read,
"God gave him largeness of heart even as the sand which is on the sea
shore." We need to be delivered from narrow conceptions of God and
limited desires in prayer, that we may ask of infinity with suitable
capacity of soul, and so may receive Grace upon Grace and be filled
with all the fullness of God! David closed his meditation by speaking
of God's love to His people, saying, "And what one nation in the earth
is like Your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a
people to Himself, and to make Him a name, and to do for You great
things and terrible, for Your land, before Your people, which You
redeemed to You from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? For You
have confirmed to Yourself Your people Israel to be a people unto You
forever: and You, Lord, are become their God."

Well, since the Lord loves His people so intensely, we may well be
encouraged to ask great things for ourselves and especially to seek
great things for the Church. We are no strangers to God–His chosen are
neither aliens nor foreigners–they are His children, dear to His
heart! And if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our
children, how much more sure is it that our heavenly Father will give
good gifts to them that ask Him? When you pray for Zion, plead for
great prosperity and speak with boldness, for you are asking blessings
upon those whom God delights to bless, asking prosperity for that
Church which is as the apple of His eye!

I will sum up this point as to the pleasure of seeing how prayer comes
to be in our heart, by briefly tracing the line of beauty along which
it runs. First of all the thought and purpose of blessing arises in the
heart of God–David perceived that to be the case, for in the 21st
verse he says, "For Your Word's sake, and according to Your own heart,
have You done all these great things." Prayer owes its origin to the
heart of God! The next stage is reached when it is revealed by
Inspiration–the Lord sent Nathan to tell David of His gracious intent
towards him. The thought has passed, you see,

from God's secret purpose into God's revealed Word, and now it filters
into the heart of David and David sends it back to God in prayer!
Prayer, like our Lord Jesus, comes forth from God and returns to God!
That is the pedigree and history of all true supplication. It is like
the mist which you see in the early morning, rising from the plains
towards Heaven in the form of clouds. It is like incense from an altar.

How did it get there? First of all, the moisture was in the heavens, in
the secret treasuries of God. Then came a day when it fell in drops of
rain and did not return void, but watered the earth. Afterwards, when
the blessed sun shone forth, it steamed up again, to return to the
place from where it came. The clouds are like the Divine Decree–who
shall enter into the secret place where Jehovah hides His purposes? The
rain is like the Word of God with its sparkling drops of precious
promises–the outcome of the mysterious purposes of God. These revealed
blessings we see standing in pools in the Scriptures. Turn to the Book
or listen to the Lord's servants whom He helps to speak and you shall
hear a sound of abundance of rain!

This rain waters the soul of man and when the warm love of God comes
shining on the saturated heart it rises up in earnest petitions. Prayer
is never lost, for though the mist which rises in yonder valley may
never fall again into the same place, it drops somewhere! And so, true
prayer, though it comes not back into the offerer's own bosom, is
fruitful in good in some way or other. The result of honest hearty
prayer may not be distinctly this or that according to your mind or
mine, but it is always good. Supplication is never wasted, it is
preserved in the Divine reservoir and in time its influence visits the
earth and waters it with "the river of God, which is full of water."

When you find a rare flower by the roadside and wonder how it came
there, for it is no indigenous weed but a fair stranger from another
clime, it is pleasant to trace out its way to the place it beautifies.
And even so, when you find a prayer in your heart, it is gladsome to
see how it comes forth from the heart of God, by the Word of God, to
blossom in the garden ofyour soul!

III. In the third place IT IS VERY PROFITABLE TO USE A PRAYER WHEN WE
FIND IT IN OUR HEART.

Notice the phraseology of my text. He says, "Your servant has found in
his heart to pray this prayer unto You." Not to say this prayer, but to
pray this prayer. There is great force in the expression. Some prayers
are never prayed, but are like arrows which are never shot from the
bow. Scarcely may I call them prayers, for they are such as to form,
matter and verbiage, but they are said, not prayed. The praying of
prayer is the main matter. Sometimes, Beloved, we may have a prayer in
our hearts and may neglect the voice of the Lord within our soul–and
if so, we are great losers.

What does praying a prayer mean? It means, first, that you present it
to God with fervency. Pray as if you meant it. Throw your whole soul
into the petition. Entreat the Lord with tears and cries. If you do not
prevail at first, yet come to Him importunately again and again with
the resolve that since He has written the prayer in your heart, you
will not take "no" for an answer. Heat your prayers red hot! In naval
warfare, in the old days, our men of war fired red hot shot–try that
system, for nothing is so powerful in prayer as fervency and
importunity. Pray spiritually, also, for the text says, "I have found
it in my heart to pray this prayer to Fou."

It is of no use pray to yourself or to the four walls of your room.
Some persons even pray to those who are around them, like the preacher
of whose prayer the remark was made that, "it was one of the finest
prayers that ever was presented to a Boston audience." I am afraid many
prayers are presented to audiences rather than to God. This should not
be. Moreover, when you find a prayer in your heart, do not talk it over
nor say to another, "I feel such-and-such a desire"–but go and pour it
out before God! Speak it into the Divine ear! Realize that God is there
as distinctly as if you could see Him, for that is the way to make a
proper use of the prayer which is in your heart.

Pray with specialty. The text indicates that–"I have found it in my
heart to pray this prayer." Know what you pray. Prayer is not putting
your hand into a bag and pulling out what comes first. Oh, no! There
must be definite desires and specific requests. Think carefully about
it and ask for what you need and for nothing else but what you need.
Pray this prayer. David had a promise about his house and his prayer
was about his house–that God would bless and establish it. Much of
what we think to be prayer is really playing at praying. The archers in
the English armies of old, with their arrows a cloth-yard long, when
they met the foe, took steady aim and they sorely galled the foe! Give
your little boy his bow and arrow and what does he do? He shoots at
random and sends his arrows all over the place–he plays at archery.

A good deal of praying is of that sort. There is no steadily taking aim
at the white and drawing the bow with strength–and watching the arrow
with anxiety. Lord, teach us to pray! We ought to pray, too, dear
Friends, when we find prayer in our hearts, with much boldness. He
says, "I found in my heart to pray," that is, he had the heart to pray,
the courage to pray! The promise influenced him to be bold with God.
Some men fail in reverence for God, but far more fail in holy boldness
towards God! Men who are mighty for God are generally famous for
courage with Him. Look at Luther! They say it was wonderful to hear him
preach, but a hundred times more so to hear him pray! There was an
awful reverence about that heroic man, but there was also such a
childlike simplicity of daring that he seemed as though he did really
lay hold of God.

That is the way–try it in your chamber this afternoon. Be bold with
God! Find it in your heart to pray this prayer unto Him. And do so
promptly. Let promptness mark your prayer as it did that of David. He
did not wait a week or two after he had obtained the promise–he went
straight away and sat down before the Lord and began to plead the
Divine Word. He said, "Do as You have said." He found the petition in
his heart and before it could lose its way, again, he brought it before
God! He was studying his soul and as he observed its movements, he saw
a prayer lift up its head. "Ah," he said, "I will seize it." And he
held it fast and presented it before God–and so obtained a blessing. I
suggest, dear Friends, to those whose hearts feel touched in the
matter, that we should today make special supplication to God as to the
peace of nations, now so miserably endangered.

You will meet as teachers in the school. You will meet in the classes.
And others of you will be at home in meditation this afternoon. But you
can all, in various ways, help in the common intercession. At this
moment it is upon my heart very heavily to pray this prayer to God and
I wish you would all make a point of joining in it–"Send us peace in
our days, good Lord." Not as politicians, but as followers of Christ we
are bound to entreat our Lord to prevent the cruel war which is now
threatened. A curse will surely fall upon all who are causing the
strife, but blessed are the peacemakers! I believe that if all
Christians would join in pleading with God, they would do much more
than all the public meetings and all the petitions to the Houses of
Parliament or to the Queen will ever accomplish. O Lord, prevent war,
we pray

You!

Another thing. During this week the various societies are holding their
public meetings and I suggest, if you find it in your hearts, that you
spend a little extra time in praying to God to bless His Church and its
mission work. There will, also, be meetings held of great importance,
this week, in connection with certain religious bodies. There are
denominations which are sadly diseased with skepticism. But a healthy
love for the Truth of God remains with many and, therefore, there will
come a struggle between the evangelical and the philosophical parties.
This week will witness such a struggle. Pray God to send the conquest
to the right, to strengthen hesitating Brethren and to give decision to
those who have long been too timorous in their actions. Pray that power
and guidance from on high may be given to those who hold the orthodox
faith. I find it in my heart to pray so and shall be glad to know that
others are agreeing with me.

Find it in your hearts, too, at this time, to pray for the work of
this, our own Church, and I call special attention to the work of our
tract distributors. We have, now, nearly 90 Brothers going from village
to village, from house to house, distributing the Word of God and
preaching it to those who in the hamlets might otherwise be left
without the Gospel. Find it in your hearts to invoke a blessing upon
them! And, if there is anything that is more upon your heart than
another, be wise enough to hedge in a quarter of an hour in order to
pray the prayer unto the Lord. Shut yourself up and say, "I have
business to do with the Master. I feel a call within my heart to speak
with the King."

Beloved Brothers and Sisters, when such a season comes upon you, I
would most humbly but most affectionately ask those of you who are
benefited by my ministry to whisper my name into the King's ear, for I
have much need of His Grace and help. May the Lord accept your
petitions, for Jesus' sake. Amen.