Blogs on Prayer

I have just returned from a few days absence, during which I attended the Twin Lakes Fellowship at Twin Lakes Conference Center in Florence, MS. And, now that I'm back, I'd like to devote some blog space to a topic we just finished in Sunday school...PRAYER. My thoughts are to use a book provided to us at the TLF by Banner of Truth, namely, Thomas Brooks' The Secret Key to Heaven: The Vital Importance of Private Prayer. In the second part of this work, Brooks gives 20 arguments for why we should engage in private prayer. I wanted to pass them along to you (not necessarily verbatim). We'll look at them one by one over the next few weeks.

Here is Brooks' first argument for why we should engage in private prayer:

1. The Most Eminent Saints Engaged in Private Prayer.
"The first argument is that the most eminent saints in both the Old Testament and the New applied themselves to private prayer. Moses was alone in the mount with God forty days and forty nights (Exod. 34:28). Similarly, Abraham fills his mouth with arguments, and reasons the case out alone with God in prayer, to prevent Sodom's desolation and destruction, and never leaves off pleading and praying till he had brought God down from fifty to ten (Gen. 18:22-32); and in Genesis 21:33, you have Abraham again at his private prayers: 'And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.' Why did Abraham plant a grove, but that he might have a most private place to pray and pour out his soul before the Lord in?

"So Isaac: Gen. 24:63, 'And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at even-tide.'"

"So you shall find Jacob at his private prayer: Gen. 32:24-28, 'And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.'"

"So David, Psa. 55:16, 17, 'As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear my voice.'"

"So Daniel was three times a day in private prayer: Dan. 6:10, 'Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and, his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.'"

"So Jonah keeps up private prayer when he was in the fish's belly, yes, when he was in the belly of hell (Jon. 2:1-2ff)."

"So we have Elijah at prayer under the juniper tree (1 Kings 19:4)."

"So Hannah (1 Sam. 1:13). Now, Hannah speaks in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. The very soul of prayer lies in the pouring out of the soul before God, as Hannah did, verse 15."

"Neither was Rebekah a stranger to this duty, who, upon the babe's stuggling in her womb, went to inquire of the Lord (Gen. 25:22)."

"So Saul is no sooner converted, but presently he falls upon private prayer: Acts 9:11, 'And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus; for, behold, he prayeth.' Though he was a strict Pharisee, yet he never prayed properly before, and never prayed in private before. The Pharisees used to pray in the corners of the streets, and not in the corners of their houses. And after his conversion he was frequently in private prayer, as you may see by comparing of these Scriptures together: Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:15, 16; Phil. 1:3, 4; 2 Tim. 1:3."

"So Epaphras was a warm man in closet prayer (Phil. 4:12, 13); so Cornelius had devoted himself to private prayer (Acts 10:2, 4); and so Peter gets up to the housetop to pray."

"Eusebius tells us of James called Justus, that his knees were grown hard and brawny with kneeling so much in private prayer. And [Gregory of] Nazianzen reports of his sister Gorgonia, that her knees seemed to cleave to the earth by her often praying in private."

"And Eusebius reports of Constantine the emperor, that every day he used to shut up himself in some secret place in his palace, and there, on bended knees, did make his devout prayers and soliloquies to God."

"Oh friends! These pious examples should be very awakening, very convincing, and very encouraging to you. Certainly it is as much your duty as it is your glory to follow these pious patterns that are now set before you....Oh, that we were as much in love with the examples of good men as others are in love with the examples of bad men; and then we should be oftener in our closets than now we are!"