Piety/Worship

Sunday Evening Series on “The Basics of Christian Prayer”

Posted on by Carl Robbins

It is my intention (Deo Volente) to take a break from our normal Old Testament exposition in our Lord’s Day Evening service, especially since we have just completed our series on The Life of David.

Over the years we have done this several times, usually in the summer. Topics we have addressed have included: Affliction and Suffering, The Meta-Narrative of Scripture, The Holy Spirit, The Seven Deadly Sins and several others.

Beginning on the Sunday Evening of June 21 and extending for 8 sermons (maybe more), we will be preaching on “The Basics of Christian Prayer”.

I will go into some of my motivations for this series in the actual sermons but suffice it to say that I am convinced that we as a congregation have a profound need to for instruction in this basic spiritual discipline and means of grace.

Below are some observations on prayer from my dear friend Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), the famous Calvinistic Baptist pastor, from London. Perhaps these will whet your appetite !

SpurgeonI know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer.

The ship of prayer may sail through all temptations, doubts and fears, straight up to the throne of God; and though she may be outward bound with only griefs, and groans, and sighs, she shall return freighted with a wealth of blessings!

It is a good rule never to look into the face of a man in the morning till you have looked into the face of God.

It is well said that neglected prayer is the birthplace of all evil.

Methinks every true Christian should be exceedingly earnest in prayer concerning the souls of the ungodly; and when they are so, how abundantly God blesses them and how the church prospers!

Oh, without prayer what are the church’s agencies, but the stretching out of a dead man’s arm, or the lifting up of the lid of a blind man’s eye? Only when the Holy Spirit comes is there any life and force and power.

Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer can do.

Prayer meetings are the throbbing machinery of the church.

True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length.

We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.

Carl Robbins
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Carl Robbins
Carl is a native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, a graduate of Crichton College and Covenant Theological Seminary. Pastor Robbins has served churches in South Carolina, Oklahoma and Nevada. In addition Carl has served on the board of crisis pregnancy centers, Christian schools and seminaries. He has spoken to college groups, medical school forums, state legislative groups, seminary chapels and church conferences. His special passion is training pastors in developing countries. Carl and wife Sandy have been married for 37 years(!) and are the parents of three believing, adult children: John and his wife DeAnna and their children (Bray, Emmie Ruth, and Maggie Grace), James and his wife Megen and their children (Jack and Lainey Janice), and Sarah and her husband Andrew Holmes. Carl and Sandy love OU football, big dogs, good Mexican food, and the beach—any beach, any time.