Recommended Reading: From time to time Truth Perspective enjoys recommending certain books that help grow the believer towards Christ-likeness and encourage a better understanding of the Bible.
In recent weeks at our church, I initiated a weekly prayer meeting after speaking and giving a series of messages on Understanding Prayer from a biblical perspective. We felt this was imperative if we as a church were to watch the Lord work in growing us spiritually and reaching our community and the city of Lynchburg, Virginia, for Him.
Scripture is clear, Jesus said, “And whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:13-14. In other words, Jesus promises that if we ask for anything according to His will and for His glory, God will answer that prayer and honor His name. (For more, see Understand Prayer, Part 1).
I recently read a book that has been a tremendous inspiration and supplemental material to our Monday evening prayer meetings called, Only A Prayer Meeting by C. H. Spurgeon. Every individual and church who desires to see true God-honoring success in their ministry, like the success during Spurgeon's day at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, will be encouraged to read this book.
I learned many valuable points from this book. For example, I discovered how Spurgeon's Monday evening addresses to his congregation derived from casual unprepared exhortations, daily personal thoughts, and his weekly readings. Quite amazing considering how rich each of Spurgeon's addresses read. In these lectures, Spurgeon focused on the subject of faith, prayer, and other various biblical topics and amazingly never formally prepared for any of them, yet delivered them to help develop his habit of speaking impromptu.
It is clear from these forty messages that what attributed to the unparalleled success of his ministry and its effectiveness in London was the time that his members spent on Monday evenings specifically devoted to prayer.
This book will offer the reader many of Spurgeon’s insightful recommendations for maintaining a healthy format during a prayer meeting and will also serve as an insightful commentary providing his expositional thoughts on various passages of Scripture.
For example, Spurgeon suggests that each minister should often mention the prayer meeting to his congregation “as being dear to his own heart…” and do “all in his power to give an interest to the meeting.” He firmly believed this would nurture in believers a genuine love for the prayer meeting.
It is clear from these forty messages that what attributed to the unparalleled success of his ministry and its effectiveness in London was the time that his members spent on Monday evenings specifically devoted to prayer.
Spurgeon also believed that it was “better to have six pleading earnestly, than two drowsily; far better for the whole meeting that the many wants should be represented experimentally by many intercessors, than formally by two or three. As a general rule, meetings in which no prayer exceeds ten minutes, and the most are under five, will exhibit the most fervor and life.”
Another heartfelt recommendation by Spurgeon (and one that portrayed his passionate desire for prayer), is when he says, “the first hesitating, stumbling, ungrammatical prayer of a confused Christian may be worth more to the church than the best prayer of the most eloquent pastor.” This statement reveals Spurgeon's intense desire for prayer by expressing the prayerful heart of one who cries out to God in true genuine humility.
"the first hesitating, stumbling, ungrammatical prayer of a confused Christian may be worth more to the church than the best prayer of the most eloquent pastor."
In addition to his helpful recommendations on how to effectively lead a prayer meeting is Spurgeon's thought-provoking commentary on various Bible passages. One of my favorite illustrations that he gives is related to Matthew 22:1-14, otherwise known as the Parable of the wedding banquet. Spurgeon giving commentary on this particular passage writes,
“Jesus Himself, that great provision of God, will be of no use if sinners do not come to Him to be saved: the substitutionary sacrifice will be an eternal waste if men are not redeemed thereby, the provisions of atoning love will be a superfluity if the guilty do not come and partake of them. “My oxen and my fat-lings are killed. Then, if nobody comes to the wedding all my preparations will be in vain.” The king must have guest for his feast, and therefore he said to his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind,” When this was done, and there was still room, he said to his servant , “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” Ah you make a great mistake if you imagine that they looked to be a motley crew! The spectacle was magnificent; they were all dressed as ladies and gentlemen, for they had put on wedding-garments furnished by the giver of the banquet. As they sat at table, they looked like courtiers, for they were all dressed in robes worthy of the great occasion. They hardly knew themselves, or one another. One of them would look across the table to a man who used to be his companion in poverty, and he would say, Is that you? And the other would reply, “It is, and it is not. I have undergone a great change. I have put off my rags, and I am covered with beauty.” If you come to Christ, the poorest of you shall be made to sit among princes…come just as you are, and the Lord will welcome you, will heal you, and bid you be at home at His table, where fat things full of marrow prove the splendor of His love. Come to Jesus, and see if it be not so.”
One cannot help but be passionately moved and influenced by such a book as, Only a Prayer Meeting. It provides the reader with many rich scriptural insights from the mind, heart, and passion of Charles H. Spurgeon. It also affirms the deep love that Spurgeon had for prayer and provides evidence on how prayer was instrumental in the success of his own ministry.
I believe if more churches today are willing to emphasize and implement such basic biblical principles and strategies, that they too can witness and experience the tremendous power of God that flows from prayer, even if others still choose to undermine it as - only a prayer meeting!
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