Monthly Archives February 2019

I grew up in a small country town and know a little bit about ponds and lakes. They are fun places to be adventurous. One favorite past-time at ponds and lakes was skipping rocks across the top of the water. The more flat the rock, the better the skip. The skip is judged by how far it goes. Distance was the goal, really the only goal in the game.

A life of prayer stretches across the pond, all the way across the pond. When we pray for a situation, mission work, or and individual how far do you see God’s involvement in that for which you have prayed? The truth is, God uses our prayers to stretch farther than we can imagine, in our lives and in the lives of others. God uses prayer to bring grace into other areas of our lives and He does the same for those whom we pray for. Like most of (nearly all) that God is doing, we don’t see His hand orchestrating the symphony of creation. We just know He is doing it.

The life of prayer–of communing with God, is a walk with the Divine that opens infinity. Sound a bit crazy, or too theological? It probably does to those who have never considered the magnitude of what Christ accomplished at the cross, resurrection, and His ascension. The limitations we put on ourselves, in fact, the limitations of all creation do not apply to the One who created all things. We know this to be a fundamental truth, but do we bring it home, into our prayer closet? I challenge you to contemplate the invitation described by Jesus in Matthew 6:6. That invitation is an invite to commune with the Eternal Father, and so it is an invite to step into His realm. Sit with the Sovereign One, the Infinite One. Go ahead, remove the walls of impossibilities of prayer. This is the living God whom you are communing with, and He has invited you to inquire of Him.

Go ahead and shut the world out by closing the proverbial closet door. Accept the invitation from your God, the Infinite One. Jesus has made it all possible.

Sometimes when I talk to a Christian about his/her spiritual growth and ask about attending a local church or reading the Scriptures or even prayer, I hear objections. Some of the objections are legit. Others are … well, we all know them because we have them handy in our tool belt. For most of us the legitimate reasons are due to specific, temporal circumstances. But they are often used when they no longer (honestly) apply. How many times can you use the excuse that you couldn’t attend public worship with other believers because the dog barfed up throughout the house right before you walked out the door? Or because you woke up with a headache…again on a Sunday morning. There are legit reasons, but we better be careful not to allow them to be convenient excuses that hinder our spiritual growth and weaken our spiritual armor.

Even when legit circumstances hinder getting out the door to public worship, what about private worship? Thomas Brooks brings up a common objection some people use to why they don’t spend time in private prayer.

“We have much business upon our hands, and we cannot spare time for private prayer; we have so much to do in our shops, and in our warehouses, and abroad with others, that we cannot spare time to wait upon the Lord in our closets.”

Here is Brooks’ objection to this excuse:

What are all those businesses that are upon your hands, to those businesses and weighty affairs, that did lie upon the hands of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Daniel, Elias, Nehemiah, Peter, Cornelius?1 and yet you find all these worthies exercising themselves in private prayers. And the king is commanded every day to read some part of God’s word, notwithstanding all his great and weighty employments, Deut. 17:18–20. Now certainly, sirs, your great businesses are little more than ciphers compared with theirs. And if there were any on earth that might have pleaded an exemption from private prayer, upon the account of business, of much business, of great business, these might have done it; but they were more honest and more noble than to neglect so choice a duty, upon the account of much business. These brave hearts made all their public employments stoop to private prayer; they would never suffer their public employments to tread private prayer under foot.

I’ve made a note to myself: Know the difference between “A legitimate Reason” and “A Convenient Excuse.” I want to recognize when I’m using a convenient excuse on myself. I don’t want to fool myself, AKA deceive myself. Go ahead, ask yourself: “I am using convenient excuses to avoid developing a habit of prayer in my life?”

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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, p. 202). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

Every Christian knows that Satan does not like us to pray. A reasonable question would be, “How much does Satan hate the child of God to engage in prayer?” It should be obvious that Satan uses many devices and schemes to distract us from prayer, and especially to keep us out of the proverbial prayer closet. If you want to know how important something is to someone, simply take note in the amount of attention and labor the person put towards it. Or, how much someone works against it.

This applies to Satan. He works feverishly to keep the believer from going to the Throne of Grace and offering prayers unto the Most High God. To Satan, it must be highly … HIGHLY important to keep you out of the exercise of prayer with the Father God.

Thomas Brooks gives us five conclusions drawn from Satan’s great war against the exercise of serious prayer.

First, if it were not an excellent thing for a man to be in secret with God, Satan would never make such head against it.

Secondly, the more necessary any duty is to the internal and eternal welfare of a Christian, the more Satan will bestir himself to blunt a Christian’s spirit in that duty.

Thirdly, where we are like to gain most, there Satan loves to oppose most.

Fourthly, if there were not a kind of omnipotency in it, if it were not able to do wonders in heaven, and wonders on earth, and wonders in the hearts and lives and ways of men, Satan would never have such an aching tooth against it as he hath.

Fifthly, that God is highly honoured by this duty, or else Satan would never be so greatly enraged against it. This is certain. The more glory God hath from any service we do, the more Satan will strive by all his wiles and sleights to take us, either off from that service, or so to interrupt us in that service, that God may have no honour, nor we no good, nor himself no hurt, by our private retirements

Beware that the excuses that arrive to distract you or deter you from spending quality time in communion with your Heavenly Father are not from the Spirit of God. If you are tempted to pass on prayer time, realize where the temptation is coming from, and let that realization be fuel on your fire to get alone in prayer all the more. We have much to pray about, many persecuted brethren we need to lift up, and a world of souls who are spiritually blinded by our enemy. Let’s pray! It is a scourge to Satan and all his schemes and works.
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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, p. 197). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.

Consider that Satan is a very great enemy to secret prayer.

Every Christian knows this to be true, right?!  Thomas Brooks gives us more than a true statement. He helps us see deeper into this truth.

Here is:   Thomas Brooks and Private Prayer – 23

Secret prayer is a scourge, a hell to Satan. Every secret prayer adds to the devil’s torment, and every secret sigh adds to his torment, and every secret groan adds to his torment, and every secret tear adds to his torment. When a child of God is on his knees in his secret addresses to God, oh the strange thoughts, the earthly thoughts, the wandering thoughts, the distracted thoughts, the hideous thoughts, the blasphemous thoughts, that Satan often injects into his soul! and all to wean him from secret prayer. There is no one thing that many hundred Christians have more sadly lamented and bewailed, as many faithful ministers can witness, than the sad interruptions that they have met with from Satan, when they have been with God alone in a room, in a corner. Oh! how often have they been scared, affrighted, and amazed by noises and strange apparitions, at least to their fancies, when they have been alone with God in a corner.

Sometimes he [Satan] tells the soul, that it is in vain to seek God in secret; and at other times he tells the soul it is too late to seek God in secret; for the door of mercy is shut, and there is no hope, no help for the soul. Sometimes he tells the soul that it is enough to seek God in public; and at other times he tells the soul, that it is but a precise trick to seek the Lord in private. Sometimes he tells the soul, that it is not elected, and therefore all his secret prayers shall be rejected; and at other times he tells the soul, that it is sealed up unto the day of wrath, and therefore a secret prayer can never reverse that seal; and all this to dishearten and discourage a poor Christian in his secret retirements. Sometimes Satan will object to a poor Christian the greatness of his sins; and at other times he will object against a Christian the greatness of his unworthiness. Sometimes he will object against a Christian his want of grace; and at other times he will object against a Christian his want of gifts to manage such a duty as it should be managed. Sometimes he will object against a Christian his former straitenedness in secret prayer; and at other times he will object against a Christian the small yearnings that he makes of secret prayer; and all to work the soul out of love with secret prayer, yea, to work the soul to loathe secret prayer; so deadly an enemy is Satan to secret prayer.

Oh, the strange fears, fancies, and conceits, that Satan often raises in the spirits of Christians, when they are alone with God in a corner; and all to work them to cast off private prayer. It is none of Satan’s least designs to interrupt a Christian in his private trade with God. Satan watches all a Christian’s motions; so that he cannot turn into his closet, nor creep into any hole to converse privately with his God, but he follows him hard at heels, and will be still injecting one thing or another into the soul, or else objecting one thing or another against the soul. A Christian is as well able to tell the stars of heaven, and to number the sands of the sea, as he is able to number up the several devices and sleights that Satan uses to obstruct the soul’s private addresses to God.

Now from that great opposition that Satan makes against private prayer, a Christian may safely conclude these five things:

There are obvious conclusions we can be sure of from Satan’s furious fight to keep us from the secret place of prayer. We’ll give them in next week’s blog post.
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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, pp. 196–197). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.