1 October 2006: ASKED OF GOD – For This I Prayed!

TOPIC: Prayer; Petition, Praise, Supplication, Thanksgiving, Worship
TITLE: ASKED OF GOD – For This I Prayed! [H/T: Charles Haddon Spurgeon; Morning & Evening, Evening September 19]
TEXT: 1 Samuel 1:27-28

"For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him. So I have also dedicated him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: How can we name our prayers Samuel?
CONCISE OUTLINE:

I. BY PRAYING WITH COMPARABLE CONCENTRATION?
II. BY PRAYING WITH COMPARABLE CONVICTION?
III. BY PRAYING WITH COMPARABLE CONSECRATION?
IV. BY PRAYING WITH COMPARABLE CONCLUSION?

TRUTH/CONTEXT: This is the second in my open-ended series on Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening devotionals. Today’s topic is prayer.

There is a danger of making prayer ritualistic and common … I want to avoid that if possible.

Prayer is worship … Jesus confronted us with “worship the Father in Spirit and truth” [John 4:23] but Paul confronts us with “pray without ceasing” [1 Thessalonians 5:17] also.

Now there’s a challenge … if prayer becomes common, the truth is not in that prayer; thus it isn’t genuine spirit worship either.

[HALEY’S COMET] Haley’s Comet comes but once every 75 years, people of every description go to great lengths to see her; some travel half way around the world to see her! What does Haley have to do with Samuel?

If Haley’s Comet came as often as Peninnah’s childbirth it would be-come common place … it would lose the aura of special and thrilling!

“Peninnah had many children, but they came as common blessings unsought in prayer; Hannah's one heaven-given child was dearer far, because he was the fruit of earnest pleadings.” [Spurgeon]

Humility and integrity, as in Hannah’s case, are essential to prayer a life … success in prayer is hinged upon my humility and my integrity before my God.

[WEARINESS] We do not read of Joshua's hand growing weary while wielding the sword; we do read, however, of Moses' hand growing weary in holding the rod.

The more spiritual the duty, the more apt we are to tire of it. I can stand and preach all day; but I can’t pray all day. I can go out to min-ister to the sick all day, but not stay in my prayer closet all day.

We’re in good company: Peter, James, and John on the Mount [Matthew 26:36-46] . Paul had the problem [Romans 7] … but having company is no excuse.

To spend a night with God in prayer is far more difficult than spending a night reading a good book. We must take care we don’t cease in our praying!

“Devout souls delight to look upon those mercies which they have obtained in answer to supplication, for they can see God's especial love in them.

When we can name our blessings ‘Samuel,’ that is, ‘asked of God,’ they will be as dear to us as her child was to Hannah.” [Spurgeon]

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: How can we name our prayers Samuel?
EXPANDED OUTLINE:

I. BY PRAYING WITH COMPARABLE CONCENTRATION?

A. Samuel – “Asked of God” … a child not yet born!
B. Our children not yet born-again … fulfillment yet future!
C. Oh that we could say of our children – “asked of God”!
D. Better to rejoice over them as

1. The fruit of our pleadings than as
2. The fruit of our bodies.

E. Can you, pray with concentration as this woman did, for years?

II. BY PRAYING WITH COMPARABLE CONVICTION?

A. “It happened year after year” [v.7]
B. Seeing His answer as blessed no matter the answer
C. When it comes it’s wrapped in God’s gold cloth of

1. faithfulness
2. and truth,
3. [no matter His answer – yes, no, maybe, later]

D. And doubly precious compared to Peninnah’s common fruit

III. BY PRAYING WITH COMPARABLE CONSECRATION?

A. “She made a vow” to the Lord “if you will” [v.11]

1. “see my affliction”
2. “remember me,”
3. “forget me not”
4. “give me a son”

B. “then I will give him back to You”
C. “poured out [her] soul before the LORD” [v.15]
D. And she did not fail to fulfill her vow.

IV. BY PRAYING EXPECTING COMPARABLE CONCLUSION?

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

Matthew 7:7-8 (9-11)

"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

Matthew 21:22

So important are the prayers of His saints that they are canned in golden Mason jars and put in the royal pantry for use on the Day of His Wrath [Revelation 5:8].

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: If this church or any church is not a church of prayer … it will go nowhere! We travel on our knees!

[PAPER WEIGHT] There is a story of a man who owned a little grocery store. It was the week before Christmas, shortly after World War I.

A young mother came in and asked for enough food to make a Christmas dinner for her children. The grocer asked her how much she had to spend.

"My husband didn’t come back; he was killed in the War. And I have nothing to offer but a small prayer," she answered.

The storekeeper was not religious, so he mocked, "Write prayer on a piece of paper, and I’ll weigh it." To his surprise, the woman took a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to the man, saying, "I wrote it during the night while watching over my sick baby."

The grocer took the paper prayer and, because other customers were watching, placed the unread prayer on the weight side of the old scales. Then he began to pile food on the other side as she handed it to him. To his amazement, the scale didn’t go down.

He became upset and flustered and said, "Well, that's all the scale will hold. Here's a bag; you will have to put it in yourself, I am busy."

The woman filled the bag, and through tear-filled eyes expressed her gratitude and departed.

After the store was empty, the grocer examined the scales. They were broken and had been broken just in time for God to answer the woman’s paper prayer.

As the years passed, the grocer wondered about the event. Why did the woman come at just the right time? Why had she already written the prayer in such a way as to confuse the grocer so that he did not examine the scales?

The paper-weight lingered with him in to his old age. He never saw the woman again. Yet he remembers her more than any customer.

And he treasures the slip of paper on which the woman's prayer had been written from a heart of faith, "Please, Lord, give us this day our daily bread."

How joyful is the result which comes flying on the wings of answered prayer!

“It is always best to get blessings into our house in the legitimate way, by the door of prayer [rather than over the wall; or through the transom]; then they are blessings indeed, and not temptations [to pride or to sin].”

“Even when prayer speeds not, the blessings grow all the richer for the de-lay. The child Jesus was all the more lovely in the eyes of Mary when she found him after having sought him sorrowing.”

“That which we win by prayer we should dedicate to God, as Hannah dedi-cated Samuel. The gift came from heaven, let it go to heaven. Prayer brought it, gratitude sang over it, let devotion consecrate it.”

Here is a special occasion for saying to God, "Of your own have I given to You." [Spurgeon]

Is prayer an element of your spiritual life or is weariness? Which?

RELATED LINKS: The SHEEP'S CRIB - Sermons

SPECIFIC TAGS: Humility, Integrity, Petitions, Prayer,
Samuel, Supplication, Thanksgiving, Worship
GENERAL TAGS: Homoletics, Preaching, Sermons