You Are Weak

It may be that your worst point is that you feel very feeble.  You say, "I would not mind that persecution if I felt strong, but I am so weak."

Well now, always distinguish between feeling strong and being strong.  The person who feels strong is weak; the person who feels weak is strong.  Paul said, "When I am weak, then am I strong"
(2 Cor. 12:10).  David prayed, "Deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I" (Psalms 142:6).

I am glad that there is some trouble in being a Christian, for it has become a very common thing to profess to be one.  If I am right, it is going to become a much less common thing for a person to say, "I am a Christian."  There will come times when sharp lines will be drawn between the world and true believers.  Some of us will help to draw them if we can.  The problem is that many people bear the Christian name but they act like worldlings and love the amusements and the follies of the world. 

It is time for a division in the house of the Lord in which those for Christ go into one camp and those against Christ go into the other camp.  We have been mixed together too long.

I, for one, say, "May the day soon come when every Christian will have to run the gauntlet!"  It will be a good thing for genuine believers.  It will just blow some of the chaff away from the wheat.  We will have all the purer gold when the fire gets hot and the crucible is put into it, for then the dross will be separated from the precious metal.

Be courageous, my fellow believer.  If you are now in the cave, the Lord will bring you out of it in His own good time.

(Spurgeon on Prayer & Spiritual Warfare)

MAKE A FULL CONFESSION...

"Do not think that the use of pious words can be of any help.  It is not merely words that you have to utter; you have to lay all your trouble before God.  As a child tells his mother his griefs, tell the lord all your griefs, your complaints, your miseries, your fears.  Get them all out, and great relief will come to your spirit."

Pour out your heart.  David said, "I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him my trouble" (v. 2).  The human heart longs to express itself.  An unuttered grief will lie and smolder in the soul until its black smoke blinds the very eyes of the spirit.

Sometimes it is not a bad thing to speak to a Christian friend about the anguish of your heart.  I would not encourage you to make it a priority -- far from it -- but it may be helpful to some.  However, I do encourage you to make a full confession unto the Lord.  Tell Him how you have sinned.  Tell Him how you have tried to save yourself and have failed.  Tell Him what a wretch you are, how fickle, how proud, how unruly.  Tell Him how your ambition carries you away like an unbridled horse.  Tell Him all your faults, as far as you can remember them.  Do not attempt to hide anything from God.  You cannot do so, for He knows all.  Therefore, do not hesitate to tell Him everything -- the darkest secret, the sin you would not even wish to whisper to the evening's breeze.  Tell it all.  Confession to God is good for the soul.  "Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13).

I urge you who are now in a gloomy cave to seek a secret, quiet place and alone with God, to pour out your heart before Him.  David said, "I showed before him my trouble" (Psalms 142:2). 

(Spurgeon on Prayer & Spiritual Warfare - Charles Spurgeon)

Exclamatory Prayer

Do you think that there is a temptation before you?  Do you begin to suspect that somebody is plotting against you?  Now offer a prayer:  "Lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies" (Psalms 27:11).

Are you at work at the bench or in a shop or in a warehouse where lewd conversation and shameful blasphemies assail your ears?  Now lift up a short prayer.  Have you noticed some sin that grieves you?  Let it move you to prayer.  These things ought to remind you to pray.  I believe the Devil would not let people swear so much if Christian people always prayed every time they heard an oath.  He would then see it did not pay.  Their blasphemies might somewhat be hushed if they provoked us to supplication.

Do you feel your own heart going off track?  Does sin begin to fascinate you?  Now utter a prayer -- a warm, earnest, passionate cry -- "Lord, hold thou me up'" (Psalms 119:117).  Do you see something with your eye, and did that eye infect your heart?  Do you feel as if your "feet were almost gone; (and your) steps had well nigh slipped" (Psalms 73:2)?  Now offer a prayer:  "Hold me, Lord, by my right hand."  Has something quite unlooked-for happened?  Has a friend treated you badly?  Then, like David say, "Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness" (2 Samuel 15:31).  Breathe a prayer now.

Are you eager to do some good?  Be sure to have a prayer over it.  Do you mean to speak to that young man as he goes out of the church tonight about his soul?  Pray first, Christian.  Do you mean to address yourself to the members of your class and write them a letter this week about their spiritual welfare?  Pray over every line, Christian.  It is always good to have praying going on while you are talking about Christ.  I always find I can preach better if I can pray while I am preaching.

The mind is very remarkable in its activities.  It can be praying while it is studying.  It can be looking up to God while it is talking to man.  There can be one hand held up to receive supplies from God while the other hand is dealing out the same supplies that He is pleased to give.

Pray as long as you live.  Pray when you are in great pain; the sharper the pang, the more urgent and persistent should your cry to God be.  And when the shadow of death gathers around you and when strange feelings flush or chill you and plainly tell that you near the journey's end, then pray.  Oh, that is a time for exclamation!  Short and pithy prayers like this:  "O Lord...hide not thy face from me" (Psalms 143:7), or this:  "O God, 'Be not far from me'" (Psalms 22:11) will doubtless suit you.  "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:50) were the thrilling words of Stephen in his extremity.  "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" were the words that your Master Himself uttered just before He bowed His head and "gave up the ghost" (Like 23:46).  You may well take up the same strain and imitate Him.

(The Power in Prayer by Charles H. Spurgeon)