AI-assisted analysis for orientation; read the source transcript or listen to the sermon to evaluate the interpretation.
The sermon teaches that God’s promises and purposes do not make prayer unnecessary; rather, God ordains prayer as the appointed pathway by which His people seek promised blessings. Prayer is portrayed as relational, since God desires His children to come to Him, and formative, since asking teaches them to value mercy. Spurgeon connects prayer with personal holiness, assurance, deliverance, family welfare, ministry, and the church’s progress. The sermon strongly urges persistent, expectant prayer, while presenting faithfulness in prayer as a mark of genuine devotion to God.
Theological center: God sovereignly gives mercy while appointing prayer as the means by which His people seek Him, enjoy fellowship with Him, and receive His blessings.
Applications: Pray for every need · Pray persistently · Pray for the church · Prayer is holy inquiry
Primary texts: Ezekiel 36:37
“Thus saith the LORD God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.” Ezekiel 36:37 IN reading the chapter, we have seen the great and exceeding precious promises which God had made to the favored nation of Israel. God in this verse declares, that though the promise was made and though He would fulfill it, yet He would not fulfill it until His people asked Him so to do. He would give them a spirit of prayer by which they would cry earnestly for the blessing, and then, when they should have cried aloud unto the living God, He would be pleased to answer them from heaven, His dwelling place. The word used here to express the idea of prayer is a suggestive one. “I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel.” Prayer, then, is an inquiry. No man can pray aright unless he views prayer in that light. First, I inquire what the promise is. I turn to my Bible and I seek to find the promise whereby the thing which I desire to seek is certified to me as being a thing which God is willing to give. Having inquired so far as that, I take that promise, and on my bended knees I inquire of God whether He will fulfill His own promise. I take to Him His own word of covenant and I say to Him, “O Lord, will You not fulfill it and will You not fulfill it now?” So that there, again, prayer is inquiry. After prayer I look out for the answer. I expect to be heard, and if I am not answered, I pray again and my repeated prayers are but fresh inquiries. I expect the blessing to arrive. I go and inquire whether there are any tidings of its coming. I ask and thus I say, “Will You answer me, O Lord? Will You keep Your promise? Or will You shut up Your ear, because I misunderstand my own wants and mistake Your promise?” Brethren, we must use inquiry in prayer and regard prayer as being, first, an inquiry for the promise, and then on the strength of that promise an inquiry for the fulfillment. We expect something to come as a present from a friend. We first have the note, whereby we are informed it is upon the road. We inquire as to what the present is by the reading of the note. And then, if it arrive not, we call at the accustomed place where the parcel ought to have been left, and we ask or inquire for such and such a thing. We have inquired about the promise and then we go and inquire again, until we get an answer that the promised gift has arrived and is ours. So with prayer. We get the promise by inquiry and we get the fulfillment of it by again inquiring at God’s hands. Now, this morning I s…