3. IT’S OUR DUTY TO BE ALWAYS PRAYING

Take no rest from prayer. Be always praying. If not always in the act of prayer, be always in the spirit of prayer. “Pray without ceasing.” Not only reason, but wrestle with God in prayer. Sometimes pray without words and, sometimes, with them.

Pray alone, but often pray with Brothers and Sisters. There is special prevalence in the prayer of two or three. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven.” Gather in the greater congregations for prayer. “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is,” as, I regret to say, the manner of many Churches has come to be in these days.

The moderns despise the meeting for prayer and in this, they condemn themselves, by acknowledging that they attach little value to their own prayers! Possibly their consciousness of having lost all power with God in prayer is thus betraying itself. Where the Prayer Meeting is despised, there may be cleverness in the preacher, but there will be no unction for the hearer. O my Brothers and Sisters, I beseech you, both as individuals and as a Church, do not restrain prayer! “Watch and pray”—that precept is a condensation of our text.

Never rest from prayer because you are weary of it. Whenever prayer becomes distasteful, it should be a loud call to pray all the more. No man has such need to pray as the man who does not care to pray. When you can pray and long to pray—why, then, you will pray! But when you cannot pray and do not wish to pray—why, then, you must pray, or evil will come of it! He is on the brink of ruin who forgets the Mercy Seat.

When the heart is apathetic towards prayer, the whole man is sickening from a grievous disease. How can we be weary of prayer? It is essential to life! When a man grows weary of breathing, surely he is near to dying! When a man grows weary of praying, surely we ought to pray anxiously for him, for he is in an evil case. Never rest from prayer because you have prayed enough. When has a man prayed enough? The greatest pleaders with God in prayer are the hungriest after more of it. The more a man gets from God, the more he desires from God. Those who have but little, ask but little—but to him that has shall be given—and he shall have abundance.

Does anyone say, “I have long been prayerful and watchful, and I shall now take things more easily”? Yes. I saw a good man taking it easy the Sermon #2189 A Call to Prayer and Testimony 5 Volume 37 www.spurgeongems.org 5 other day—he was riding upon a bicycle with both feet off the pedals—and with the brake in full force. I did not blame the cyclist, but one thing was quite clear—he was going down the hill. He would not have had his feet on the rests in that fashion if he had been upon the upgrade. Brother, whenever you begin to put your legs up and have no more work to do, you are going down hill and there is no doubt about it! The way to Heaven is up hill, and every inch of the way will need effort—for the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence.

Grace does not exempt us from activity, but works it in us. If you know the power of the weapon called, “all-prayer,” never put it into its sheath, but continually call upon the Lord, and in this matter, “take no rest.” Do not fall into the habit of praying as a matter of routine. “You that are the Lord’s remembrancers, take you no rest.”

I have heard of soldiers sleeping while on the march and I have known some good people sleep while praying, till I have thought that their prayers were a kind of pious snore. They go on with the old phrases without considering what they mean by them. They are like crickets, whose notes are forever the same. “I sleep,” says the spouse, “but my heart wakes.” But these might more truly say, “I do not sleep, and yet my heart is not awake.” Many prayers are like a grocer’s or a draper’s account—“Ditto, ditto, ditto.” The petitions are as “per usual.” It is dreary work when we have the shell of prayer before us, but have no oyster in it. The Brother’s lips are here in prayer, but his soul has gone home to his shop, or to his farm. The sails of his mill go round as the wind blows, but he is not grinding anything—there is no grist in the mill, no intelligent, loving desire. Let us get out of the ruts of phrases and set petitions!

Mere routine religion is hateful and yet how easily we all fall into it! Let us not rest on our oars and hope to make progress by the impetus already gained. All progress made heavenward by the natural drift of the current is seeming and not real. All worship which is mechanical is, so far, dead! God is a Spirit and we can only worship Him acceptably in spirit and in truth—if the spirit is gone, the very truth of the worship is gone—and it becomes an offense rather than a sweet-smelling saviour.

#It’s Our Duty to be Always Praying, #SpurgeonSermanExtractsOnPrayer, #SelectedByPeterCollins, #PeterCollins, #ProfitMakerSales, #PeterCollinsHintsAndTips, #SaleslTraining, #profitmakersales.com,

This Article is by Peter Collins – In a sales career spanning more than 53 years, Peter Collins has focused on helping and bringing out the best in others – whether it involves training or mentoring salespeople, managers, business consulting to SME’s. Since the 1970’s Peter has built a reputation as a Nationally and Internationally Published author, and has 68 business books to his credit, but he is mainly known for one book based on the Audio Tape series of the same name, Over 50 Ways of Closing the Sale. Peter had his first book published in 1969 and now has over 133 books in all, including Business, Marketing, Sales, Free Publicity, Body Language, Music and over 30 Christian books to date. Peters books have sold over 2.5 Million copies of his books over 49 years. In his personal life, Peter has been sought after as an encourager and motivator that has given of his time and talents freely despite his busy schedule. Subsequently, he has assisted churches, pastors, community and charity groups, as well as individuals through his teaching, training, development and on-going mentoring.

3. It’s Our Duty to be Always Praying

3. IT’S OUR DUTY TO BE ALWAYS PRAYING

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