A discourse for a revival season

‘Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in her?’ Jeremiah 8:19

Suggested Further Reading: Luke 11:5–13

Our prayers, poor as they are, are the prayers of God’s own people, and therefore they must be heard. You will say, ‘Is that a right argument?’ O, yes it is. ‘If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children.’ Remember that is how Christ puts it. You are the Lord’s children, therefore he will hear you. If you were strangers it might be a different thing. Our prayers might very readily be pulled to pieces by critics, but our Father will not criticise them, because they are the cries of his own children. I do not think we set such store by believers’ prayers as we ought to do. Would you let your child constantly cry to you and not answer him? I know you would not. Put it differently: would you let your own brother plead with you and not grant him his desire if you could grant it? You have not a brother’s heart if you would. Or I will touch you more closely. We love our wives—if your wife should ask for anything that would be for her good, and you could give it, would you refuse it? Husband, would you refuse it? You are no husband if you did. Look at Christ, the husband of the church, do you think he will refuse the cry of his own spouse? What, shall his own dear bride come before him, and embrace his feet, and say, ‘I will not let thee go except thou bless me;’ and shall he who has espoused her unto himself in faithfulness, say to her, ‘I have bidden thee seek me, but I will not be found of thee; I have commanded thee to knock, but the door shall not be opened; I have told thee to ask, but thou shalt not receive’? O, slander not my loving Lord, because ‘he feels at his heart all our sighs and our groans.’

For meditation: Spurgeon’s references to loving family relationships, probably prompted by the fact that this was his 9th wedding anniversary, remind us that Christians have a heavenly friend who sticks closer than father (Luke 11:11–13), mother (Isaiah 49:15), brother (Proverbs 18:24), husband and wife.

Sermon no. 608
8 January (1865)