Tag Archives: Charles Spurgeon

Wish I Could Help, But All I can Do Is Pray…

I have heard this statement so many times, even among faith-filled forgiven followers of Jesus Christ, that I am now beginning to understand WHY our nation (and the world) is morally collapsing and God is no longer the foundation of this country.

People are seeking something or someone to heal their broken hearts and tragic lives.  We as God’s chosen are obligated, not just incidentally asked, to pray for everyone!

Throughout the history of the true church, the only time change or revival happened was when God’s people prayed.

Why do so many believers think of prayer as a last resort?  Why do so many think they have to read some self-help book on how to pray effectively?  Why do so few spend time alone on their knees before God Almighty in earnest prayer?

The God of Creation gave us His Holy Word to speak to us (if we read it) and made it possible for us to speak to Him through our Mediator and Savior Jesus Christ.

C.H. Spurgeon once said, “Prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly; others give only an occasional jerk at the rope. But he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all his might.”

2 Chronicles 7: 11-16:  Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished.  Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him:  “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.  When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,  if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.  For now I have chosen and consecrated this house (**) that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.”

Mark 11: 15-18:   And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.  And he was teaching them and saying to them, (**)”Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

1 Timothy 2:1 “ I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;”   KJV   “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,”  ESV

James 5: 16 ” Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than being alive without breathing”

Martin Luther King Jr.

****For anyone who would like to watch one of the most Spirit filled messages I’ve ever heard, here’s a link.  The original message was delivered at a Praise Conference in October of 1994 by Jim Cymbala, a pastor from Brooklyn.  It’s almost an hour long, but I must say, it’s an hour well spent!  http://youtu.be/U79YOKje2zU

True Hope Defined

Romans 5: 1-6 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

  • Matthew Henry’s Commentary verses 1-5:  A blessed change takes place in the sinner’s state, when he becomes a true believer, whatever he has been. Being justified by faith he has peace with God. The holy, righteous God, cannot be at peace with a sinner, while under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away the guilt, and so makes way for peace. This is through our Lord Jesus Christ; through him as the great Peace-maker, the Mediator between God and man. The saints’ happy state is a state of grace. Into this grace we are brought, which teaches that we were not born in this state. We could not have got into it of ourselves, but we are led into it, as pardoned offenders. Therein we stand, a posture that denotes perseverance; we stand firm and safe.  And those who have hope for the glory of God hereafter, have enough to rejoice in now. Tribulation works patience, not in and of itself, but the powerful grace of God working in and with the tribulation. Patient sufferers have  Divine consolations, which abound as afflictions abound. It works needful experience of ourselves.  This hope will not disappoint, because it is sealed with the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of love. It is the gracious work of the blessed Spirit to shed abroad the love of God in the hearts of all the saints. A right sense of God’s love to us, will make us not ashamed, either of our hope, or of our sufferings for him.

1 Peter 1: 3-6 ” Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****************~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Charles Spurgeon once said ” I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, “You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.” My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.

Jump Off The Wheel

Oh the joy of all the gifts our Almighty Father has given us.  Many praises unto Him and our Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ!  Seek some time of quietness…just your Lord and you!  It is a most beautiful joy.  I know this society is a liken to ‘hamsters on a wheel’.  Well, jump “off the wheel” and get alone with God.  True refreshment will fill every part of your being.  This is my prayer for you today!

Zephaniah 1: 7 ” Be silent in the presence of the Lord God; For the day of the Lord is at hand…”

Psalm 37:7 ” Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!”

Psalm 77: 1-11 ” I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.  In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.  When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah   You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.  I consider the days of old, the years long ago.  I said,”Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.”  Then my spirit made a diligent search:  “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah   Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.” I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

“There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labor in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. . . . Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord. . . .”
― Charles H. Spurgeon