Call to Worship, December 1, 2024
“Thirdly, The matter of prayer, or what we are to petition and seek for. These are, the things that are agreeable to God’s will. To pray for the fulfilling of unlawful desires, is horrid, James 4:3. But the will of God is the rule of our prayers, 1 John 5:14, ‘This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.’ We find the will of God in his commands and promises. Whatever God has commanded us to seek, whatever he has promised, that we may and ought to pray for. These are,
(1.) Spiritual mercies, grace, glory, the increase of grace, comforts, etc.
(2.) Temporal mercies, health, strength, etc., mercies relating to our bodies and temporal estate in the world.
Some have no freedom to bring their temporal concerns to their prayers. ANS. That we may and ought to do it, is plain.
1. In that God has given them a place in his covenant; they are promised as well as spiritual mercies, 1 Timothy 4:8, ‘Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’ Isaiah 33:16, ‘Bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure.’ Psalm 1:3, ‘Whatever he does shall prosper.’
2. It has been the practice of the saints in all ages. Memorable is Agur’s prayer, Proverbs 30:8, ‘Give me neither poverty, nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me.’
3. Christ teaches us so to do in that pattern of prayer, Matthew 6:9, etc., ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ where we may observe, that they ought to have a place in our prayers daily.
4. God has commanded it, Philippians 4:6, ‘Be careful for nothing: but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Ezekiel 36:37, ‘Thus says the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.’ Compare verses 30, 33, etc., ‘I will multiply the fruit of the tree,’ etc. It is a general command, ‘In all your ways acknowledge him,’ Proverbs 3:6.
5. Sin and duty are very large. Men are under a law as to their management of temporal concerns, and light and wisdom should be sought for the same from the Lord, Psalm 112:5, ‘A good man will guide his affairs with discretion.’ No doubt many things go the worse with us, that God is so little owned in them. If that be true, that ‘God does instruct the plowman to discretion, and does teach him,’ Isaiah 28:26, there is a good reason we pray, that ‘God may establish the work of our hands upon us,’ Psalm 90. Surely those Christians that neglect it, deprive themselves of many experiences of the Lord’s kindness. For the temporal mercies they meet with, were they answers of prayer, would be so many experiences of the Lord’s love, Isaiah 41:11. Nay, I think it were a piece of Christian prudence, for the child of God, when he finds his heart not so affected as he would have it for spiritual mercies, to make an errand to God of a temporal mercy, whereby his heart may be the more fitted for asking spiritual blessings; as we have instances often in the Psalms, and also in the famous wrestling of Jacob. Only,
(1.) Pray for temporal mercies for the sake of spiritual, not contrariwise, Matthew 6:33, ‘Seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Proverbs 30:8–9, ‘Give me neither poverty, nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny you, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.’
(2.) Keep within the bounds of the promise. Now, all promises of temporal things have this condition, if they be for God’s glory and his children’s good. Pray so as you may be content to want them, if God see it meet. But as for grace, the favor of God, and communion with him here and hereafter, it can never be our duty to be content to want them, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, ‘For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.” (Thomas Boston, Discourses on Prayer)