Sunday Morning Prayer by Dr. Joseph Parker, February 7, 2016

07 Feb Sunday Morning Prayer by Dr. Joseph Parker, February 7, 2016

William Adamson in his 1902 biography on the pastor of London’s City Temple, Dr. Joseph Parker, gives this insight into his prayer ministry: “Those who have worshipped in the City Temple have been greatly influenced by the prayers of the pastor. They are tender, reverent, filial, elevating, and breathe a child-life spirit. Some may think that they are more like meditations before, than prayers to the Lord; but when their spirit and essence are studied they reveal all the constituents of true prayer. Enshrined within them they have ‘not my will, but Thy will be done. Thou knowest best what to give without our asking.’ Frequently Dr. Parker has been asked if he prepared his prayers before he entered the pulpit, and the answer has been, ‘No, I prepare myself, not my prayers, which are the spontaneous utterances of the heart, as these are given by the Holy Ghost. I do not feel as if they are mine, and oftentimes I feel refreshed by what passes through my soul, and is uttered by my lips; and may then stop with seeming suddenness because no more has been given me to say.’ A frequent visitor to the City Temple – himself a minister – has said; ‘I can listen to the sermon without a tear, but I cannot do so to one of the prayers.”

I post these prayers here each Sunday morning as a simple tool to help encourage you in your walk and worship of Jesus.

From Dr. Joseph Parker’s message on 1 Corinthians 14:15-19.

“Our Father in heaven, bring us back to thyself, to thy righteousness, to obedience, to the love of holiness, and to good-doing all the day. We know that we have done the things we ought not to have done, but inasmuch as we are still living in thy sight we have hope that on the confession of our sin thou wilt pardon us at the Cross of Jesus Christ, the eternal Saviour, and give us newness of hope. Speak to us even in our sinfulness, lest we fall into despair. Preach thy Gospel unto us in the night-time, then shall we know that thou art still seeking our souls, that they may be saved, and brought home, and set in the household of God. Deliver us not wholly over to ourselves, or we shall certainly go farther from thee day by day. It is not in us to return; we cannot climb the upward way, it is steep and high and difficult; thou canst save, and thou alone. Come to us in the almightiness of thy grace, in the tenderness of thy love, in the compassion of thy Cross, in all the efficacy of the ransoming blood, and bring us home again. We have wandered far, we are weary of the world; it is not in time to satisfy the instincts of immortality; the rivers of the world cannot quench the thirst of the soul: but the river of God is full of water; thou canst satisfy the longing soul, and it is in the power of thy grace to heal all our backsliding, and our wounds, and to recover us from our sore apostasy. We cast ourselves therefore upon thee; our expectation is from on high; we shall not be delivered over to the power of the lion or trampled under foot, for we are bought with blood, we are ransomed with a great price, and because of the Cross of Christ we need not, shall not, die. By the ministry of providence help us to believe that thou dost mean our ultimate and perfect deliverance. Thou dost heal us, by the breathing wind, by the sunlight, by all the ministry of nature; it is unto us as mother and nurse, physician and friend, and the meaning of it is our personal and eternal salvation. Help us to see the goodness of God, that we may see his glory; may the goodness of God lead us not to boasting and exultation and presumption, but to repentance; may we look at providence through our tears, and find in providence the beginning of redemption. Wherein thou hast called us back and given us an estate in thy household, continue to educate us, to edify our souls, in wisdom, in righteousness, in love of nobleness and honour, and grant unto us daily strength for daily need, that we may never be worsted in the fight of life, but may always be victorious through the power that is in Christ Jesus. We bless thee that being in the household of God we are entrusted with all the armour of righteousness, on the right hand and on the left, so that we do not fight in our own strength, or according to our own sagacity; we are shielded by God, we are protected by omnipotence, we are inspired by the Holy Ghost; enable us therefore to see that the fight is not ours but God’s, and that thou art perfecting and completing thine own oath in the perfect deliverance and ultimate sanctification of thy people. Give us understanding of thy book—a deep, clear, full understanding, so that we may enjoy rest in the Lord, being no longer tossed about by every wind of doctrine; may we be established, steadfast, firm, enduring unto the end, as men who are like trees planted by the rivers of water. Grant unto us according to life’s necessity the ministry of direction and consolation: in perplexity show us the right way, in sorrow dry our tears, in bereavement preach to us the doctrine and the person of the resurrection; and amid all the darkness show us that the light is greater than the night, and that the summer shall be eternal when the winter has done its work and is for ever forgotten. In all the way of life let the eye of the Lord guide us, and at the last may we be able to whisper, if we cannot say aloud, When heart and flesh do fail the Lord will take me up, and as for the valley of the shadow of death it is but a way into the garden of God, and God’s rod and staff comfort and support the on-passing soul. Thus by life, and thus in death, may we be able to glorify the Cross of Christ, and show that the faith that is in the Lamb of God is not in vain, but is a gracious, mighty, according power, lifting the soul nearer God, and enriching the soul with all the wealth of heaven. Amen.”

• Parker, Joseph (2015-09-03). Romans to Galatians (The People’s Bible Book 25) (Kindle Locations 4940-4945). Chariot Ebooks. Kindle Edition.