By Matt Pettett:

Is there someone who, when they pray, you always lean into a little more and listen carefully to the things that they pray, their choice of words, their heart behind the prayer? Well, here is a book that is not only filled with prayers to pray but filled with model prayers that teach us to pray even as we pray them.

The book is C. H. Spurgeon's Prayers. It is a collection of 26 personal prayers by Charles Spurgeon, the 19th Century English pastor. I use this book in my personal prayer times. It's not a book I read in addition to what I'm already doing, rather I see it as an enhancement of what I'm already doing. Here are 3 ways I think the book has enhanced my prayers - all beginning with "P"!

• Pattern - Spurgeon always begins his prayers with worship of the Lord followed by requests. Learning from Spurgeon in this has helped give me words and ideas for how to adore and honour and praise the Lord in prayer. It helps me shape my prayers not only around the day ahead of me, but also around God's character and will, just as Jesus modelled for us (Matt 6:9-13).

• Particulars - the details of Spurgeon’s requests are very broad so that I no doubt pray for things I'd not have thought to pray for or pray for things in ways I wouldn’t have thought to pray.

• Promises - Spurgeon constantly takes the promises of God and turns them into prayers that connect with real life experiences. One example:

Grant us also the peace-speaking word of promise applied by the Holy Spirit, that “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Let us be forgiven and know it. May there remain no lingering question in our hearts about our reconciliation with God, but by a firm, full assurance based on faith in the finished work of Christ, may we stand as forgiven men and women against whom transgression will never again be mentioned.

The sermon at the end of the book, titled “The Golden Key of Prayer”, is filled with encouragements to pray and is a nice counterbalance to the 26 prayers because it gives some direct insight into the thinking which underpins those prayers.

C.H. Spurgeon's Prayers $8 (Amazon.au) / $8 (Kindle) / Reformers Bookshop (14.99)