In the final few days of our 40-Day Prayer journey, we want to give you a chance to hear from inspirational voices from the wider Church, past and present. London pastor Charles Spurgeon (1834 to 1892), was one of the greatest gospel communicators of the 19th century. Called the “Prince of Preachers”, Spurgeon through his sermons and prolific writing, arguably has greater impact today that he did in his own time!
He taught often about the power of prayer. We’ve broken up one of his great expository sermons on prayer into three parts for you to reflect on. Here’s part 1 of “Real Prayer”.
“Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” – Psalm 50:15
In our text, ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you,” we have adversity turned into advantage. What a wonderful truth! May God impress it on us all!
I write this with all reverence: God himself cannot deliver a person who is not in trouble. Therefore it is to some advantage to be in distress, because God can then deliver you. So when you pray, do you not see what a basis for prayer you have in this verse?
First, you have a basis in the very time you are in: “the day of trouble.” You can plead, “Lord, this is a day of trouble! I am in great affliction, and my case is urgent!”
Second, state what your trouble is – a sick wife, a dying child, a bankrupt business, your failing health, or poverty staring you in the face. Say unto the Lord of mercy, “My Lord, if ever a person was in a day of trouble, I am. Therefore I take the liberty to pray to you now because you have said, ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble.’ This is the hour that you have appointed for appealing to you. If ever there was a person who had a right to pray according to your own word, I do, for I am in trouble.”
Third, turn your adversity into advantage by pleading God’s command. You can go to the Lord now, at this precise instant, and say, “Lord, do hear me, for you have commanded me to pray! I, though I am evil, would not tell someone to ask me for something if I intended to deny him. I would not urge him to ask for help if I meant to refuse it.”
So plead the time, plead the trouble, and plead the command. Then plead God’s own character. Speak with him reverently, but believingly, in this fashion: “Lord, it is you yourself to whom I appeal. You have said, ‘Call upon me’. If my neighbor would tell me to do so, I might fear that perhaps he would change his mind and not hear me. But you are too great and too good to change. Lord, by your truth and by your faithfulness, by your unchangeableness and by your love, I, a poor sinner, heartbroken and crushed, call upon you in the day of trouble! Help me, and help me soon, or else I will die!”
Surely you who are in trouble, you are on firm ground with the God of the covenant, and you may bravely seize the blessing. Surely if I were in trouble today, I would open my mouth and drink in this text. I would pray like David or Elijah or Daniel with the power of this promise. Oh you troubled ones, leap up at the sound of this promise! Believe it. Let it go down into your souls. The Lord has come to deliver you!
Drink in one of the more powerful new worship songs of the past decade: