The Power in Prayer

Pause here, Spurgeon purist. This volume is edited and updated. Proceed at your own risk.

While this may sound lighthearted, there is a significant bastion of Spurgeon devotees who defend the original renderings of Spurgeon’s sermons and attack editing or updating of any kind. They would rather Spurgeon’s language remain obscure, with its thees and thous and Victorian sentence construction, than be altered slightly for the readability of modern audiences. In my humble opinion, Whitaker House has done the Christian community a favor in updating Spurgeon. As near as I can tell, without subjecting this volume to a side-by-side comparative study with the original sermons, none of the meaning has been lost.

In the first chapter, entitled “Guaranteed to Succeed,” Spurgeon roots prayer in the supremacy of God. Our Father in heaven is not simply powerful enough, but is supremely powerful and omnipotent, and therefore infinitely competent to manage the prayer requests of all humanity. This chapter also deals easily with the oft-vexing question of predestined prayer. Unfortunately, Spurgeon engages in hermeneutical acrobatics later in the chapter. Referring to the “ask, seek and knock” phrases of Matthew 7 and Luke 11, he identifies three varieties or postures of prayer associated with the three verbs, then expands and expands and expands. Whereas the majority of modern commentators see Christ’s injunction to ask, seek and knock as a threefold rhetorical construction, Spurgeon obviously saw fit to “spiritualize” this phrase (a tendency common in Spurgeon), thereby forcing upon it multiple meanings not justified by the text. Nevertheless, this chapter is a fitting introduction to a volume on prayer, scripturally establishing the power of the One who answers prayer.

Chapter 2, “The Raven’s Cry,” is a straightforward exposition of Psalm 147:9 (“He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry”) and Luke 12:24 (“Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!”). Here Spurgeon illustrates the chasm of value between the instinct-driven animal and the God-imaging human being. Not simply content to enumerate the differences, however, he goes on to explain humanity’s benefit in having a high priest in heaven – the God-man Jesus Christ – who represents humans before the Father. This is a benefit no other being enjoys, and it should cause us to desire to approach the throne all the more often.

Chapter 3, entitled “Order and Argument in Prayer,” seemed to me to be worthy of reproducing and handing out to every member of my local church. In it, Spurgeon outright refuses to draw up a schematic of prayer: “I am not about to give you a scheme…in which adoration, confession, petition, intercession, and ascription are arranged in succession. I am not persuaded that any such order is of divine authority.” In that stroke of a pen, Spurgeon has paid his dues for chapter 1. But to be serious, Spurgeon’s grounds for prayer are far more concrete than any program for prayer. Rather, he stakes his prayers upon God’s promises and God’s praises. He prays according to God’s attributes, in the name of God, in view of the past, in light of earthly sorrows, the very existence of God as a prayer-hearer, and most importantly, the sufferings of Christ. Instead of praying according to a forced acronym, Spurgeon’s modus operandi is to approach God in thanksgiving, in view of God’s person and God’s promises. Such an approach begets “prayer without ceasing” (Eph. 6:18).

Chapter 4, “Pleading,” addresses the specific attitude of plaintive prayer, when the soul is in distress. As in all earlier chapters, Spurgeon draws out many examples from Scripture, from David to Elijah to Christ.

As the fifth chapter opened, “The Throne of Grace,” I was half-expecting that Spurgeon would engage in more hermeneutical guesswork, as the chapter promised to focus exclusively on the two nouns of its title: “The Throne” and “of Grace.” But no, Spurgeon paints a picture of the throne almost as compelling as the visions of Isaiah or Ezekiel – almost. His description of grace is a clarion gospel call to both believer and unbeliever, showing how Christ is a Savior through the precious blood spilt at Calvary.

Finally, similarly to chapter 4, in chapter 6 Spurgeon addresses another special form of communication with God, “Exclamatory Prayer.” Citing Nehemiah’s angst over Jerusalem, Spurgeon details the uses and circumstances of quick and urgent prayers. This is a chapter long on practicality and application. And as in each previous sermon, it presents the gospel call to sinners.

I should note that although you can purchase The Power in Prayer as a standalone book – and I would recommend you do, for ease of transport and comfort in the hand – my volume is contained in an omnibus of six Spurgeon books entitled Spurgeon on Prayer & Spiritual Warfare. While the six-in-one is a better deal financially, I’d rather hold a 120-page book in my hand than a 575-omnibus. Formatting aside, this book is filled with Christ-exalting discussions of the theology and practice of prayer. With the one hermeneutical caution mentioned above, I can recommend this book.