John Bunyan

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, and and an affectionate pouring out of the soul to God.

O, what heat, strength, life, vigor, and affection there is in true prayer! “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” (Psa 42:1). “I have longed after thy precepts” (Psa 119:40). “I have longed for thy salvation” (Psa 119:174). “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God” (Psa 84:2). “My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times” (Psa 119:20). O, what affection is here discovered in prayer! You have the same in Daniel. “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God” (Dan 9:19). Every syllable carries a mighty vehemency¹² in it. James calls this the fervent or the working prayer. So again, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly” (Luk 22:44). He had His affections more and more drawn out after God for His helping hand. O how wide are the most of men with their prayers from this prayer! Alas! The greatest part of men make no conscience at all of the duty. As for them that do, it is to be feared that many of them are very great strangers to a sincere, sensible, and affectionate pouring out their hearts or souls to God. They content themselves with a little lip-labor and bodily exercise, mumbling over a few imaginary prayers. When the affections are indeed engaged in prayer, then the whole man is engaged, and in such sort that the soul will spend itself, as it were, rather than go without that good desired, even communion and solace¹³ with Christ. Hence it is that the saints have spent their strength and lost their lives rather than go without the blessing (Psa 69:3; 38:9-10; Gen 32:24, 26).

All this is too evident by the ignorance, profaneness, and spirit of envy that reign in the hearts of those men who are so hot for the forms and not the power of praying. Few among them know what it is to be born again, to have communion with the Father through the Son, to feel the power of grace sanctifying their hearts. For all their prayers, they still live cursed, drunken, whorish, and abominable lives, full of malice, envy, deceit, persecuting the dear children of God. O what a dreadful judgment is coming upon them!…which all their hypocritical assembling themselves together, with all their prayers, shall never be able to help them against or shelter them from.

Prayer is a pouring out of the heart or soul. There is in prayer an unbosoming¹⁴ of a man’s self, an opening of the heart to God, an affectionate pouring out of the soul in requests, sighs, and groans. “All my desire is before thee,” says David, “and my groaning is not hid from thee” (Psa 38:9). Again, “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me” (Psa 42:2, 4). Mark, “I pour out my soul.” It is an expression signifying that in prayer there goes the very life and whole strength to God. As in another place, “Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him” (Psa 62:8). This is the prayer to which the promise is made for the delivering of a poor creature out of captivity and thraldom¹⁵ “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deu 4:29).

Again, prayer is a pouring out of the heart or soul to God. This shows also the excellency of the spirit of prayer. It is the great God to Whom it goes. “When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psa 42:2). And it argues that the soul that thus prays indeed sees an emptiness in all things under heaven; that in God alone there is rest and satisfaction for the soul. “Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God” (1Ti 5:5). So says David, “In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me. Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth” (Psa 71:1-5). Many speak of God; but right prayer makes God the hope, stay,¹⁶ and all. True prayer sees nothing substantial and worth the looking after, but God. And that, as I said before, it does in a sincere, sensible, and affectionate way.

Again, prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God through Christ. This “through Christ” must needs be added, or else it must be questioned whether it is prayer, though in appearance it be never so eminent and eloquent.

Christ is the way through Whom the soul has admittance to God, and without Whom it is impossible that so much as one desire should come into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth¹⁷ “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (Joh 14:1314). This was Daniel’s way in praying for the people of God; he did it in the name of Christ. “Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake” (Dan 9:17). And so David, “For thy name’s sake, O LORD”—that is, for thy Christ’s sake—“pardon mine iniquity; for it is great” (Psa 25:11). But now, it is not every one that makes mention of Christ’s name in prayer that does indeed, and in truth, effectually pray to God in the name of Christ or through Him. This coming to God through Christ is the hardest part of prayer. A man may be sensible of his condition and sincerely desire mercy, and yet not be able to come to God by Christ. The man that comes to God by Christ must first have the knowledge of Him: “For he that cometh to God must believe that he is” (Heb 11:6). So he that comes to God through Christ must be enabled to know Christ. “I pray thee,” says Moses, “shew me now thy way, that I may know thee” (Exo 33:13).

This Christ, none but the Father can reveal (Mat 11:27). And to come through Christ is for the sinner to be enabled of God to hide himself under the shadow of the Lord Jesus, as a man hides himself under a thing for safeguard (Mat 16:16). Hence it is that David so often terms Christ his shield, buckler,¹⁸ tower, fortress, rock of defense (Psa 18:2; 27:1; 28:1). Not only because by [Christ,] he overcame his enemies, but also because through [Christ,] he found favor with God the Father. So God says to Abraham, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield (Gen 15:1). The man, then, that comes to God through Christ must have faith by which he puts on Christ and in Him appears before God. Now he that has faith is born of God and so becomes one of the sons of God by virtue of which he is joined to Christ and made a member of Christ (Joh 3:5, 7; 1:12). Therefore, he as a member of Christ comes to God; I say, as a member of Christ, so that God looks on that man as part of Christ, part of His body, flesh, and bones, united to Him by election, conversion, enlightenment, the Spirit being conveyed into the heart of that man by God (Eph 5:30). So that now he comes to God in Christ’s merits—in His blood, righteousness, victory, intercession¹⁹—and so stands before Him, being “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). And because this poor creature is thus a member of the Lord Jesus, and under this consideration has admittance to God, therefore, by virtue of this union is the Holy Spirit conveyed into him, whereby he is able to pour out his soul before God.

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God through Christ by the strength or assistance of the Spirit.

These things so depend one upon another that it is impossible that it should be prayer without a joint concurrence²⁰ of them. Though it be [most] eloquent, yet without these things, such prayer is rejected of God. For without a sincere, sensible, affectionate, pouring out of the heart to God, it is but lip-labor; and if it be not through Christ, it falls far short of ever sounding well in the ears of God. So also, if it is not in the strength and by the assistance of the Spirit, it is but like the sons of Aaron offering strange fire (Lev 10:1-2).

I say that which is not petitioned through the teaching and assistance of the Spirit cannot be “according to the will of God” (Rom 8:26-27). There is no man or church in the world that can come to God in prayer but by the assistance of the Holy Spirit. “For through him [Christ] we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph 2:18). Wherefore, Paul says, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom 8:2627). And because there is in this Scripture so full a discovery of the spirit of prayer and of man’s inability to pray without it, therefore I shall in a few words comment upon it.

“For we.” Consider first the person speaking, even Paul, and, in his person, all the apostles. We apostles, we extraordinary officers, the wise master-builders, some of whom have been caught up into paradise (Rom 15:16; 1Co 3:10; 2Co 12:4). “We know not what we should pray for.” Surely there is no man but will confess that Paul and his companions were as able to have done any work for God as any pope or proud prelate21 in [the Roman Catholic tradition], and could as well have made a Common Prayer Book²² as those who at first composed this. [Paul and his companions were] not a whit²³ behind them either in grace or gifts.

“For we know not what we should pray for.” We know not the matter of the things for which we should pray, the object to whom we pray, nor the medium by or through whom we pray. None of these things know we but by the help and assistance of the Spirit. Should we pray for communion with God through Christ? Should we pray for faith, for justification²⁴ by grace, and a truly sanctified²⁵ heart? We know none of these things. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1Co 2:11). But here, alas! the apostles speak of inward and spiritual things, which the world knows not (Isa 29:11).

Again, as they know not the matter of prayer without the help of the Spirit, so neither know they the manner thereof without the same. Therefore, he adds, “We know not what we should pray for as we ought”; but the Spirit helps our infirmities with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered. Mark here: they could not so well and so fully succeed in the manner of performing this duty as these in our days think they can.

The apostles, when they were at the best—yea when the Holy Ghost assisted them—were fain to come off²⁶ with sighs and groans, falling short of expressing their mind but with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered.

“For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.” Mark this: “as we ought.” For the not thinking of this word, or at least the not understanding it in the spirit and truth of it, has occasioned some men to devise, as Jeroboam did, another way of worship, both for matter and manner, than is revealed in the Word of God (1Ki 12:26-33). “But,” says Paul, “we must pray as we ought.” This we cannot do by all the art, skill, cunning, and device of men or angels. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit,” nay, further, it must be “the Spirit itself ” that helps our infirmities—not the Spirit and man’s lusts. What man may imagine and devise of his own brain is one thing; what [he is] commanded and ought to do is another.

Many ask and have not because they ask amiss;²⁷ and [they] so are never nearer the enjoying of those things they petition for (Jam 4:3). It is not to pray at random that will cause God to answer. While prayer is making, God is searching the heart to see from what root and spirit it arises (1Jo 5:14). “And he that searcheth the heart knoweth,” that is, approves only the meaning “of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom 8:27). For in that which is according to His will only, He hears us, and in nothing else. Only the Spirit can teach us so to ask, it only being able to search out all things—even the deep things of God. Without which Spirit, though we had a thousand Common Prayer Books, yet we know not what we should pray for as we ought, being accompanied with those infirmities that make us absolutely incapable of such a work.

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From Prayer, The Banner of Truth Trust

John Bunyan (1628-1688): English Baptist preacher and influential author of The Pilgrim’s Progress and numerous other titles; born at Elstow near Bedford, England. (Bunyan’s complete works are available at www.chapellibrary.org.)

12. vehemency – passionate force.
13. solace – comfort in a time of distress, sadness, or disappointment.
14. unbosoming – bringing out of the heart; to make known one’s thoughts and desires.
15. thraldom – the condition of being under the control of another person; slavery.
16. stay – support; an object of reliance.
17. Lord of Sabaoth – Lord of the Armies; Lord of Hosts.
21. prelate– a minister or priest of the higher order, as an archbishop, bishop, or patriarch.
22. Prayer Book of Common Prayer – the official service book of the Anglican tradition, compiled by Thomas Cranmer and others, first issued in 1549.
23. a whit – the least bit.
24. justification – Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. (Spurgeon’s Catechism, Q. 32) See FGB 187, Justification, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
25. sanctification – Sanctification is the work of God’s Spirit whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness. (Spurgeon’s Catechism, Q. 34) See FGB 215, Sanctification, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
26. fainto come off to come off to come off – glad under the circumstances to succeed.
27. amiss – wrongly; with wrong motives.

Courtesy of Chapel Library