A Prayer for Sunday Worship: C. H. Spurgeon

There is One who Bears the Names of All His Redeemed… 

LORD, we would come to Thee, but do Thou come to us. Draw us and we will run after Thee.

Blessed Spirit, help our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought.

Come, Holy Spirit, and give right thoughts and right utterance that we may all be able to pray in the common prayer, the whole company feeling that for each one there is a portion.

We are grateful as we remember that if the minister in the sanctuary should not be able to pray for any one of us, there is One who bears the names of all His redeemed upon His breast, and upon His shoulder, who will take care with the love of His heart and the power of His hand to maintain the cause of all His own.

- A Prayer of Charles Spurgeon

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: C. H. Spurgeon, Prayer, Spurgeon, Sunday Worship, Worship

A Prayer for Sunday Worship: From John Wesley

O merciful Father,

do not consider what we have done against You;   

but what our blessed Savior has done for us.

Don’t consider what we have made of ourselves,

but what He is making of us for You our God.

O that Christ may be “wisdom and righteousness,

sanctification and redemption”

to every one of our souls.

That His precious blood may cleanse us from all our sins,

and that Your Holy Spirit may renew and sanctify our souls.

May He crucify our flesh with its passion and lusts,

and cleanse all our brothers and sisters in Christ across the earth.

O let not “sin reign in our mortal bodies,

that we should obey it in its lusts.”

But, “being made free from sin,

let us be the servants of righteousness.”

Let us commend our hearts to you,

and let all our ways be pleasing in your sight.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who live and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

- John Wesley

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: John Wesley, Praise, Prayer, Sunday Worship, Worship

A Prayer for Sunday Worship: Psalm 92

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

1 It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, 

2 to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night,

3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.

4 For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands.

5 How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts!

6 The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand,

7 that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.

8 But you, O LORD, are exalted forever.

9 For surely your enemies, O LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered.

10 You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me.

11 My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

13 planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,

15 proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Church, Praise, Psalms, Sunday Worship, Worship

A Prayer for Sunday Worship: Open Mine Eyes

Open mine eyes, dear Savior, 

I thirst in the noontide heat,

I pine for refreshing waters

That murmur so cool and sweet.

Open mine eyes, dear Savior, now,

Open mine eyes to see

The well of Thy full salvation

That sparkles and flows for me.

Open mine eyes, dear Savior,

I know that the well is near;

But O that my strength were stronger,

Its mission more bright and clear.

Whence is the voice that calleth?

And what do mine eyes behold?

O Savior, my prayer is answered,

‘Tis answered a hundred fold.

Praise to Thy Name, dear Savior mine,

Joyfully now I see

The well of Thy full salvation

That sparkles and flows for me.

- Fanny Crosby

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Church, Fanny Crosby, Prayer, Sunday Worship, Worship

A Prayer for Sunday Worship: Prayer Perfumed with Praise

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6 ESV) 

Always must we offer prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. No matter though the prayer should struggle upward out of the depths, yet must its wings be silvered o’er with thanksgiving.

Though the prayer were offered upon the verge of death, yet in the last few words which the trembling lips can utter there should be notes of gratitude as well as words of petition. The law saith:

“With all thy sacrifices thou shalt offer salt;” and the gospel says with all thy prayers thou shalt offer praise.

“One thing at a time” is said to be a wise proverb, but for once I must venture to contradict it, and say two things at a time are better, when the two are prayer and thanksgiving.

These two holy streams flow from one common source, the Spirit of life which dwells within us; and they are utterances of the same holy fellowship with God; and therefore it is right that they should mingle as they flow, and find expression in the same holy exercise.

Supplication and thanksgiving so naturally run into each other that it would be difficult to keep them separate: like kindred colours, they shade off into each other. Our very language seems to indicate this, for there is small difference between the words “to pray,” and “to praise.”

A psalm may be either a prayer or praise, or both; and there is yet another form of utterance which is certainly prayer, but is used as praise, and is really both. I refer to that joyous Hebrew word which has been imported into all Christian languages, “Hosanna.”

Is it a prayer? Yes. “Save, Lord.” Is it not praise? Yes; for it is tantamount to “God save the king,” and is used to extol the Son of David.

While we are here on earth we should never attempt to make such a distinction between prayer and praise that we should either praise without prayer or pray without praise; but with every prayer and supplication we should mingle thanksgiving, and thus make known our requests unto God.

From: Spurgeon, Charles. Prayer Perfumed with Praise. A Sermon Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, April 20th, 1879.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Charles Spurgeon, Praise, Prayer, Spurgeon, Worship

A Prayer for Sunday Worship: Thirsty for More

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. 

I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace.

I am ashamed of my lack of desire.

O God, the Triune God,

I want to want Thee;

I long to be filled with longing;

I thirst to be made more thirsty still.

Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed.

Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.

Say to my soul, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Note: A Prayer from A. W. Tozer.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Church, Prayer, Tozer, Worship