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)