Thomas Watson
An edited extract from Watson’s The Ten Commandments.
What prayer is most likely to prevail with God? It is good medicine which has the right ingredients; and that prayer is good, and most likely to prevail with God, which has these seven ingredients:
[1] It must be mixed with faith.
“Let him ask in faith” (Jas 1:6). Believe that God hears and will in due time grant an answer; believe His love and truth; believe that He is love and therefore will not deny you; believe that He is truth and therefore will not deny Himself. Faith sets prayer to work. Faith is to prayer what the feather is to the arrow; it feathers the arrow of prayer and makes it fly swifter and pierce the throne of grace. The prayer that is faithless is fruitless.
[2] It must be a melting prayer.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit” (Ps 51:17). The incense was to be beaten to typify the breaking of the heart in prayer. A Christian says, I cannot pray with such gifts as others; as Moses said, “I am not eloquent”. But can you weep? Does your heart melt in prayer? Weeping prayer prevails. Tears drop as pearls from the eye. Jacob “wept and made supplication” and “had power over the angel” (Hos 12:4).
[3] Prayer must be fired with zeal and fervency.
“Effectual fervent prayer . . . availeth much” (Jas 5:16). Cold prayers, like cold suitors, never speed. Prayer without fervency is like a sacrifice without a fire. Prayer is called a pouring out of the soul, to signify vehemence (1 Sam 1:15). Formality starves prayer. Prayer is compared to incense: “Let my prayer be set forth . . . as incense” (Ps 141:2). Hot coals were to be put to the incense, to make it fragrant; so fervency of affection is like coals to the incense; it makes prayer ascend as a sweet perfume. Christ prayed with strong cries (Heb 5:7). Luther says, “Such a cry pierces the clouds”. Fervent prayer, like a gunpowder machine set against heaven’s gates, makes them fly open.
To cause holy fervour and ardour of soul in prayer, consider: (1.) Prayer without fervency is no prayer; it is speaking, not praying. Lifeless prayer is no more prayer than the picture of a man is a man. One may say as Pharaoh, “I have dreamed a dream” (Gen 41:15). It is dreaming, not praying. Life and fervency baptize a duty and give it a name. (2.) The need in which we stand of those things that we ask in prayer. We come to ask the favour of God; and if we do not have His love, all we enjoy is cursed to us. We pray that our souls may be washed in Christ’s blood; if He does not wash us, we have no part in Him (Jn 13:8). When will we be in earnest, if not when we are praying for the life of our souls? (3.) Only fervent prayer has the promise of mercy affixed to it. “Ye shall . . . find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jer 29:13). Praying is dead without a promise, and the promise is made only to fervency. God’s heart is ever open to fervent prayer.
[4] Prayer must be sincere.
Sincerity is the silver thread which must run through all the duties of religion. Sincerity in prayer is when we have gracious holy ends, when our prayer is not so much for temporal mercies as for spiritual. We send out prayer as a merchant ship, that we may have large returns of spiritual blessings. Our aim in it is that our hearts may be more holy, that we may have more communion with God, and that we may increase our stock of grace. The prayer which lacks a good aim, lacks a good outcome.
[5] It must have fixedness of mind.
“My heart is fixed, O God” (Ps 57:7). Since the Fall, the mind is like mercury, which will not fix; it has a principle of restlessness, not of peace. The thoughts will be roving and dancing up and down in prayer, just as if a man who is travelling to a certain place should run off the road and wander he knows not where. In prayer we are travelling to the throne of grace, but how often, by vain thoughts, we turn out of the road! This is rather wandering than praying.
[6] It must use arguments.
God loves to have us plead with Him and use arguments in prayer. See how many arguments Jacob used in prayer. He prayed, “Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother” (Gen 32:11). The arguments he used are from God’s command: Thou “saidst unto me, Return unto thy country” (v 9); as if he had said, I did not take this journey out of my own head, but by Thy direction; therefore in honour Thou canst not but protect me. And he uses another argument: “Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good” (v 12). Lord, wilt Thou go back from Thine own promise? Thus he argued in prayer; and he not only got a new blessing, but a new name: “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God . . . and hast prevailed” (v 28).
God loves to be overcome with strength of argument. Thus, when we come to God in prayer for grace, let us argue: Lord, Thou callest Thyself the God of all grace; and whither should we go with our vessel but to the fountain? Lord, Thy grace may be imparted, yet not impaired. Has not Christ purchased grace for poor, needy creatures? Every dram of grace costs a drop of blood. Shall Christ die to purchase grace for us, and shall we not have the fruit of His purchase? Lord, it is Thy delight to milk out the breast of mercy and grace, and wilt Thou Thyself abridge Thine own delight? Thou hast promised to give Thy Spirit to implant grace; can truth lie? Can faithfulness deceive? God loves thus to be overcome with arguments in prayer.
[7] It must be joined with reformation.
“If thou stretch out thine hands toward Him; if iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away” (Job 11:13,14). Sin, when lived in, makes the heart hard and God’s ear deaf. It is foolish to pray against sin, and then sin against prayer: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Ps 66:18). The loadstone loses its power when spread with garlic; so does prayer when polluted with sin. The incense of prayer must be offered upon the altar of a holy heart.