Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Loss of Zeal for Prayer

 Read the following excerpt from Iain Murray's Archibald G Brown: Spurgeon's Successor and tell me what your heart shouts at you:

"A characteristic of revival is that hunger for the presence of God is seen as much in attention to prayer as in hearing the word of God. In a sermon already quoted from 1872, Brown reminded the people that the 'ten days' prayer meeting that preceded Pentecost continued afterwards, and he pleaded with his people,"

Let not your prayerfulness decline. The Pentecostal blessing we are now enjoying may be traced to our gatherings for prayer. It is not alone the preaching, it nothing of the man, it is your praying that has won the day. For five years you have flocked to the prayer meetings, as the world does to its pleasures. Let everything else go rather than the meetings for pleading with God. May this spirit of prayer - this pioneer of revival, be ours now and ever as a church.


Now, read this excerpt and what does you heart shout?

These prayer meetings were long to be remembered. Some thirty years later, about 1910, when Brown was no longer serving in East London, he came back to preach one Sunday, and recorded the following"

I was preaching in East London last Sunday morning, and I walked from London Bridge, and as I got a little way past the Mile End Gate, I saw a workman leaning against the wall.He touched his cap and said, 'Good morning, Mr. Brown; glad to see you in the neighborhood again. Going to the old Tabernacle?' I said, 'Yes', and he then went on, 'May I walk with you?' Going along he said, 'Are not things changed Sir? I have been thinking of thirty years ago. Do you remember how there was a prayer meeting every Sunday morning, and we used to walk there sometimes up to our knees in snow; yet there used to be two or three hundred there; now you cannot get people out of bed at 10:30 on Sunday morning.'

As he spoke of those old days how well I remembered them! At 7 0'clock on Sunday morning there were hundreds met for prayer. Rain, hail, or snow made no difference. They were all in dead earnest.

What has happened for the zeal for prayer? What do you think?

_______________________________ 
Iain Murray, Archibald G Brown: Spurgeon's Successor, p. 59-61


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This says what is on my heart!~ Prayer is the open door to the Throne of God. Let us pray personally, and encourage others to pray when we can with us.

My daughters, husband, grandchildren and I pray on the spot when we hear or see a need. We need to be bolder in our prayers.

James 4:2-3
Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
NKJV

Let us ask for the Glory of God, and the Glory of His Name~

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

I think that prayer is a good thing, one can pray anywhere, anytime.

Yvonne.

Alice said...

I found that when embracing certain theologies about Sovereignty (I do believe God is Sovereign)may cause some to lose heart for prayer.

If God's going to do what He's going to do anyway, what does prayer do?

I know someone asking this very question now.

Are we missing something?