There is no one who calls on Your name

There is no one who calls on Your name,

Who awakens himself to take hold of You, Isaiah 64:7

Alexander White says this: Prayer is colossal work. Prayer takes all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and all our mind and all our life. God must often complain of us as He complained of Israel in Isaiah 64:7, “There is no one who calls on Your name, who awakens himself to take hold of You.”

Sadly, often prayer is an appendix to our lives but for Luther and the Reformers, prayer was their life. It was chapter one. It was the foundation. They prayed away through their day. Think about it; have you ever wondered what blessed the ministry of the Reformers? Why were their ministries so owned of God? Where is the breaking through of God in our days? Where is the Kingdom of heaven being made manifest, greatly and abundantly? What is the difference in their ministries?

If you read their biographies, you quickly realize that under the purview of the sovereignty of God that these men were men of prayer. That’s the difference! To have a true intimate loving relationship with God that means more to you than anything else in the world involves more than a five minute a day exercise.  But most of all it involves the heart- the sincerity of the heart, the pouring forth of the soul, bringing God’s own Word back to Him. That’s what God delights to do. He loves to hear and see His own Word.  

God is tender to His own handwriting, says William Gurnall. That’s the way to pray: “Lord, do as You have said in Your Word.” Read back His promises. 

When you get discouraged about your own poverty in prayer, reach back to David, to Daniel, to Jeremiah and read their prayers to rekindle the flame in your own soul. Even when you read the prayers of wonderful saints such as Spurgeon, and Whitefield and Edwards and other reformers, what is really striking is the “scriptureness” of their prayers. Almost all of them are a string of Bible verses brought together. They were just bringing God’s Word back to Him. 

I know no better counsel to give than what Spurgeon gave: Be a man of prayer in the inner closet and you’ll be a blessing on the pulpit.

What we are in secret with God, said John Owen, is what we are and no more. 

The call goes forth once more for us God’s people to come together to seek the face of God. May your presence be a living witness to the validity and reality of that which we, as a congregation profess in a way of relationship to the Lord. 

Let us all come this evening and seek the face of God in—

Adoration: Focus on the character of God: His goodness, His mercy, His love, His transcendence, His unending glory. Prayers of adoration praise God for simply who He is. 

Contrition: Often involves confession of sin, but are much more than just confession. Prayer offered from a contrite heart recognizes our pitiful state and our desperate dependence on the God who created, sustains, and directs all things. This prayer seeks the grace and mercy of God. 

Thanksgiving: Reflects on how God has worked, according to His character, His grace, His mercy, His will, in all the world and in our lives. As we remember these things we give Him thanks and praise because we only receive them and behold them by His gracious good will.

Supplication: Are prayers of requests, which recognize our absolute dependence on God. God is the only one who is able to make His name revered, advance His kingdom, and accomplish His will. He alone can provide us with sustenance, forgive our sins, and keep us from temptation. We must humbly bring our requests to our Father who knows what we need.