Perkins on Prayer
Recently, I’ve been enjoying reading the Works of William Perkins. A few weeks ago, I posted an article on the role of the conscience in which I was helped by Perkins. One reason I love the Puritans, and especially Perkins, is that their writings are rich with doctrinal truth, and yet they are intensely practical. I found that to be the case this morning when I read William Perkins’ thoughts on prayer.
Every Christian that I know really does pray, and every Christian I know really does struggle with prayer. I can’t think of a single person who thinks their prayer life is adequate, and I don’t know of a single person who doesn’t want to take the necessary steps to make their prayer life more meaningful. Perhaps Perkins will give us some fresh encouragement today.
He divides his discourse into three sections. What you should do before you pray, what you should do in praying, and what you should do after you pray.
What should I do before I pray?
Perkins admonishes Christians to do three things:
1) Repent. The only prayer God hears is the prayer of a repentant sinner (1 John 3:22). Repentance is one of the hallmarks of humility, which is the whole impulse behind prayer. Proud men do not pray, so humble yourself, and repent of your sins before God almighty.
2) Reconcile. Perkins quotes the words of Jesus saying that if someone has sinned against his brother, he should reconcile before going to the temple (Matt. 5:23). Before we engage in prayer, we should seek to make right any relational strife we might have with a brother or sister in Christ, and ask for their forgiveness.
3) Realize. We must realize that we are going to speak with the king of all the Universe, not as a slave asking for freedom, but as a Son asking for his Father’s tender mercy. We should be in awe of the privilege, and yet desire to enter before the throne of heaven often.
Consider how your prayer life might be different by spending a few moments repenting of sin, reconciling with fellow Christians, and realizing who we are talking with. Perhaps this would help us immensely in the next step.
What should I do in prayer?
Perkins’ conditions for prayer are eightfold:
1) Make petitions from a sense of want and spiritual poverty.
The Lord knows how needy we are. We should not seek to hide such a fact from Him and pretend as if we are sufficient on our own and just need a boost of encouragement to get through the day. Humbly expressing your need for Christ and his work on your behalf honors the Lord more than presuming you only need a little bit of God’s mercy to get through the day.
If we come before the throne of Grace without coming desperate and needy, we come before the throne of grace with unclean lips! (Isa. 6:5).
2) Pray with an earnest desire for God’s grace.
Perkins says that the desire for God’s grace is indeed prayer itself. The continual groan of the heart that says, “Lord, give me your grace!” is just as pleasing in the ear of God as any long-form prayer prayed in a worship service or prayer gathering. The Spirit Himself intercedes with us with groans too deep for words (Romans 8:26). The practice of prayer is the crying of the heart to God, and if we are spiritually impoverished as Scripture teaches, we need God’s grace each day. Pray and plead for God’s grace each day!
3) Pray with true and justifying faith.
This is to say, it is not because of our praying that God hears our prayer. It is because of our faith in Christ. We should thank God for justifying us, for the salvation he has given to us, and that we can receive Christ and all his benefits by faith! What a gift faith is!
4) Ground your praying upon the Word of God.
I have heard someone once say that “The best way to pray the will of God is to pray the Word of God.” I don’t know who coined the phrase originally, but Perkins would agree with the statement. He writes, “Every petition must be grounded upon the Word of God, and not framed according to the carnal conceit and fancy of man’s brain.”
We have true needs and we should express those needs, but we should not express those needs in such a way that goes beyond the Word of God. Jesus prayed in the Garden, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Each Christian should pray the same way.
We might think that praying the Word of God limits our prayer, but it actually enhances our praying, for in the Scripture things are revealed to us that we could never conceive of on our own! There is forgiveness with God (Psalm 130). We are God’s children (Romans 8). Whoever believes on the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10). We have an inheritance in heaven (Ephesians 1). God loves us with a love that predates our own existence! (Psalm 139). The truths of Scripture are far better prayed than whatever our mind can come up with to pray about, and that is Perkins’ point.
5) Pray to God alone and none but Him.
This is in keeping with the first commandment “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” Additionally, this is reminding us of the power of God in all things. Perkins says, “No one else can hear all men in all places, and at all times; and help all men in all places, and at all times, but only He.”
Perkins here is likely combatting the common Roman Catholic notion of making petitions to the saints of old. To put it bluntly, if you’re not praying to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you aren’t praying at all!
6) Plead the merits of Christ before the throne of God.
Perkins says, “We ourselves are not worthy of anything but shame and confusion.”
Additionally, “Our prayers are our sacrifices and Christ alone is that altar whereon we must offer them to God the Father.”
We come before God by the merits of Christ and Him alone. This is related to the first few points, but cannot be overstated. We do not come to tell God what we have done for Him. We come to thank Him for all He has done for us in Jesus Christ.
7) Persevere in praying.
Keep on praying. If you prayed for it once, it is worthwhile to pray for it again. This reminds us that the answer to our prayers is not earned in either quality or quantity of prayers offered, but is left to the mind of God. Come before your Father, ask for His aid, and trust His Fatherly hand to care for you.
8) Thanksgiving to God for all his benefits.
Every time a Christian prays, he leaves the throne of God with more spiritual benefit than he entered with. He did not even deserve to come before the throne of God, let alone open his mouth and speak, let alone have his requests heard, and even more, have his requests answered! Moreover, this great King has given his only Son for you so that you might enjoy this benefit! We have a small view of God if we are not consistently thankful to come before him in prayer.
Consider this silly illustration. Have you ever seen a famous person? One instance jumps into my mind. One time, at a random gas station off the interstate, I exited the front door only to come face to face with Shaquille O Neal. I looked up at the man. I mean, I looked waaaaay up at him! It was a remarkably brief encounter, as I was too shocked to speak to the man. Nevertheless, I have told countless stories about how I ran into Shaq in a random convenience store off I-75. I felt fortunate to have had such a brief and small encounter with a basketball legend.
Shouldn’t speaking with the Lord of Hosts be more significant than a brief interaction with a basketball legend? Of course, it should. Yet some of us would be willing to wait in line to meet Shaq while we won’t wake up 15 minutes earlier to pray before the Lord of hosts. We have forgotten who our God is!
If you have prayed before the Lord, you have entered into the dwelling place of the Lord of heaven and earth, the most glorious of all beings, who transcends creation itself. Just sitting in the presence of God for a moment is worth more than anything this life has to offer. Consider also that you got to speak with this King, and he heard your requests and promised to work out all petitions you make for your own good and his glory. So he will be honored as the High King above all kings and you will be blessed by his graciousness towards you. Isn’t this glorious? Such is the task of prayer.
When we realize who the Lord is, it changes our hearts, melting the heart of stone and giving to us a heart of flesh, beating with gratefulness for the grace received in Christ Jesus.
What do I do when I’m finished praying?
Two brief exhortations from the Puritan.
First, whatever we ask in God’s name will be granted to us (Mark 11:24). The Lord will make sure our requests come to pass in a way that accords with his will. In eternity, we will see how God answered each one of our prayers, and we will glory in his wise counsel.
Second, and more practically, a man must do and practice all that he prays for. That is, our praying before God is one means of sanctification. If we pray that we might not enter into temptation, we should attempt to act upon that prayer and flee the place where temptation occurs. This is not some kind of legalistic attempt at self-made righteousness, but simply the ordinary means of grace being acted out in a faithful Christian’s life. And if our praying is in accord with the Word of God, this should be the expectation of a Christian.
Conclusion
Perhaps this appears overwhelming and makes prayer more complex than it needs to be. After all, when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, his prayer was far shorter than this blog post!
I think it’s helpful to note that many Christians naturally do many of these things in prayer without consciously thinking about them. Perkins is attempting to dissect the practice or prayer and offers helpful correctives for praying. In this work, He goes on to mention types of prayer, positions of prayer, and occasions for praying, but none of these are as important as the theological impetus contained in these admonitions.
Its my humble prayer that thinking about praying might lead you to the practice, knowing that your Father delights to give good gifts to His children.
(All quotations were taken from The Works of William Perkins, Vol. 8. Published by Reformation Heritage Books. Pages 257-261).