Appeal For Intercessory Praying
Praying for others is the very least we can do, and if we cannot do the least, we fail to do anything greater. The sermon study concludes.
Brethren, I have to EXHORT YOU TO PRAY FOR OTHERS.
—C. H. Spurgeon
Why would he have to? In the final part of the sermon—Intercessory Prayer, the preacher urges his hearers to actually engage in the activity. Apparently, he doesn’t think the congregation does so as they should. And, if they have, he admits he himself has not!
Do you always pray for others, yes or no? He asks, “Do you think you have taken the case of your children, your church, your neighborhood, and the ungodly world before God as you ought to have done?”
He stands, as do we, as the chief culprit of neglecting intercessory prayer. Spurgeon ends by admonishing us to practice a decidedly noble privilege.
Someone has prayed for you
If you are reading this, likely your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is an answer to someones prayer. You came to Christ because somebody else prayed for you. In Spurgeons case, it was his mother.
Many of us were prayed for in our cradles. Husbands who owe conversion to the prayers of their wives. Brothers who know it was a sister’ pleading. There were Sunday school teachers and youth leaders who were on their knees for one such as me!
And if by the prayers of others we were brought to Christ, how do we repay this Christian kindness?
By pleading to Almighty God for others.
He who has not a man to pray for him may write himself down a hopeless character.
Is there anyone unsaved of your acquaintance that has nobody to pray for him? As you had someone pray for you, then you be the one who pleads for your acquaintance. Spurgeon says you prove your love to Christ and to His church by praying for others.
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. (I John 3:14)
Praying for others is the very least we can do, and if we cannot do the least, we fail to do anything greater. Loving one another means praying for them.
Your own prayers unanswered
Will God answer your own prayer if you neglect prayers for those around you? Will not the Lord say, “Selfish wretch, you are always knocking at My door, but it is always to cry for your own welfare and never for another. Inasmuch as you have never asked for a blessing for one of the least of these My brethren, neither will I give a blessing to you.”
Our prayers are selfish if only to be personally blessed, but Christians were meant to be selfless, and pray not just for themselves, but plead for God’s grace for our friends. The Lord blessed Jobs friends when he prayed for them.
O brethren, let us unite with one heart and with one soul to plead with God for this neighborhood!
Awake the Watchmen
We pray for more people of God to be prayers to God. The Church needs prayers, our family, friends, neighbors, and all those near and far from us NEED our shouts, like those on Zion’s walls in the ancient day.
Brothers and Sisters, we are surrounded by people who do not pray, or pray as they ought. We must renew our prayers, it is ours to rise up and call aloud to the Almighty, go before the throne of mercy, to ask, and ask, and ask again. Let ours be the fervent prayer that avails much, ours be the striving prayers like Epaphras, ours be as Daniel in our commitment and constancy.
God has put high up in the mountains of His promise springs of love, it is yours to bring them down by the divine channel of your intense supplications.
And let’s dispense with shallow, feeble, flippant, or occasional intercession. These have no place in the prayer closet nor in the meeting. Praying like this is being as those four men who tore through the roof to bring their friend to Jesus.
Spurgeon concludes
Let us be Christians—let us have expanded souls and minds that can feel for others.
Let us weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice, and as a church and as private persons, we shall find the Lord will turn our captivity when we pray for our friends.
God help us to plead for others! And as for you that have never prayed for yourselves, God help you to believe in the Lord Jesus!
Amen.
Thank you for reading our study of the sermon. If this post is where you began, the other parts of the sermon series are available here, here, here, and here
We hope this summary has been of help to you in your praying, and we’d ask you to do us a favor. Please help us get the word out about our newsletter to encourage more people of God to pray more from the Word of God.
Until Monday, grace and peace…
And in case you get lost while praying, here is a previous post that may help:
