Table Of ContentLessons from the Apostle Paul's Prayers
Classic Sermons on Prayer
by Charles Spurgeon
From the Series: Rich Theology Made Accessible
Published in 2018
by
CrossPoints Publishers
www.cross-points.org/
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All Scripture is taken from the King James Version. All rights reserved.
Material Sourced from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons
Lessons from the Apostle Paul's Prayers
Classic Sermons on Prayer
by Charles Spurgeon
Series Introduction
Foreword
1. The Three Whats (Ephesians 1:18–20)
2. Heavenly Geometry (Ephesians 3:16–19)
3. Spiritual Knowledge and Its Practical Results (Colossians 1:9–10)
4. Special Thanksgiving to the Father (Colossians 1:12–13)
5. A Round of Delights (Romans 15:13)
6. Pleading for Prayer (Romans 15:30–33)
7. The Love of God and the Patience of Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5)
8. Divine Love and Its Gifts (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17)
Appendix: A Complete List of the Apostle Paul's Prayers
About the Author
Ministries We Love
Learn more about CrossPoints Books
Series Introduction
The Rich Theology Made Accessible Series seeks to bolster the faith of busy
Christians by making rich theology from time past more accessible.
Current Titles:
Volume 1: The Chief Exercise of Faith: John Calvin on Prayer
Volume 2: Gospel Hope for Anxious Hearts: Trading Fear and Worry for
the Peace of God by Charles Spurgeon
Volume 3: Encouraged to Pray: Classic Sermons on Prayer by Charles
Spurgeon
Volume 4: Lessons from the Apostle Paul's Prayers by Charles Spurgeon
Visit CrossPoints.org/richtheology to learn more or to explore additional titles.
Foreword
Why study and pray the prayers of the Apostle Paul? One word: transformation.
Of the many benefits we have in learning from Paul, a few stand out:
1. We see how the Holy Spirit wants us to pray.
Scripture provides a wealth of prayers inspired by the Holy Spirit, each of them
giving a glimpse into the unsearchable wisdom of Almighty God. These prayers
should shape our priorities and our entire outlook on life.
So often, we pray such small, self-centered prayers instead of asking how God
would have us pray. As we read and pray Paul's prayers, God will work His
purposes in us as we contemplate what Paul prayed for and why. Paul prayed for
the eyes of Ephesian hearts enlightened (Ephesians 1:18) and rejoiced in the rich
fellowship he had with the Thessalonian church (1 Thessalonians 3:9–13). When
was the last time you prayed for either of those things?
Spurgeon illustrates why we want to pray according to God's priorities: "A man
might try to fill us and fail, but God, who made us, knows every corner and
cranny of our nature, and can pour in joy and peace till every portion of our
being is flooded, saturated, and overflowed with delight."
2. We can pray along with Paul confident of God's answers.
Praying God's prayers according to God's priorities means we can be sure of
God's answers. This doesn't mean He will answer as we expect, but it does mean
God will answer prayers according to His will as He promises (1 John 5:14).
Since Scripture is His revealed will, praying Paul's prayers guarantee God's
answers.
Let this sink into your soul. As you earnestly pray for God to strengthen your
faith to grasp the depths and riches of Christ's love (Ephesians 3:14–19), God
will answer you—He wants you to experience the profundity of Christ's love.
"Expect great things, expect things beyond all expectation," Spurgeon writes.
"Your largest hopes shall all be exceeded. Hope, and hope, and yet hope again,
and each time hope more and more, but the Lord will give you more than you
have hoped for."
3. Our minds will be enlightened and affections stirred.
As we contemplate the prayers and petitions of the great apostle, God's Spirit
will illuminate the prayers and shape the desires of our heart. Instead of merely
praying for circumstances and our to-dos, our hearts will pray for things like the
filling of our minds with "the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to
him…" (Colossians 1:9). Praying these prayers will draw us into deeper delight
and communion with our Father.
Lessons from The Apostle Paul's Prayers isn't a comprehensive study on the
subject, but rather eight sermons working through rich nuggets from Paul's
prayers.
Don't read this book to finish; read to change. Note helpful verses and quotes
and incorporate them into your daily prayer routine. Put down the book and get
on your knees. Cry out to God in worship, dependence, and intercession. He will
hear you and He will answer.
The prayer of Paul in Philippians 1:9–11 is our prayer for this volume:
"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge
and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure
and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that
comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."
—
The Editors at CrossPoints Books
Schaumburg, IL
January 2018
Chapter 1
The Three Whats
—
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is
the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the
saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when
he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
places.”—Ephesians 1:18–20.
"The Lord must first enlighten the eyes of our understanding, or else, however
precious the truth, and however clearly it may be stated, we shall never be able
to apprehend it."
—
YOU see the text begins with a personal experience within the mind and
judgment—“the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.” Everything
depends upon the opened eye: the scene may be fair, and the light may be bright,
but if the sight be gone all is in vain. Zedekiah had his eyes put out by the king
of Babylon, and then he was taken down to the imperial city, but for aught he
could enjoy of all its splendour he might as well have been in a desert. There
were vast halls and palaces, and hanging gardens and a city wall which was the
wonder of the world, so that Babylon is called by the prophet “the glory of
kingdoms and the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency”; but the blinded monarch
beheld nothing of all the grandeur of the golden city, and to him her wealth was
as though it had not been. Thus is it with us by nature, we have no apprehension
of spiritual things, no power to discern eternal good, but our foolish heart is
darkened. Therefore the Lord must first enlighten the eyes of our understanding,
or else, however precious the truth, and however clearly it may be stated, we
shall never be able to apprehend it.
I find there is a rendering of the text which runs thus, “The eyes of your heart
being enlightened,” and it strikes me that this version has about it the appearance
