by Aaron Sturgill
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
Background to the journey.
My journey in prayer began several years ago from the overflow of two conversations on friendship. Within a month of each other, in the fall of 2015, two church members approached me about what they considered to be a deficit in relationships. As they further described their challenges of belonging and their frustrations for years of church relationships, I took to heart their pain, critique, and desires. In their descriptions, they both acknowledged a desire for friendship. However, a couple questions persisted within my thinking. (1) Is what they want good? Likely, we would agree to the desire for friendship being generally healthy and appropriate. Nagging speculations concerning motivation and responsibility from this question eventually subsided. However, the second question pricked my mind for years. (2) Is the church responsible to help facilitate friendships? And, more personally, am I, as the pastor, responsible for facilitating the friendships of church members? More broadly speaking, what types of relationships should the church facilitate?
I had recently started a doctoral program in biblical counseling at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and for my project, decided to pursue a deeper understanding of friendship and its role in church life. Sickness in our home would prolong this journey, lead to a ThM at Southern in December of 2017, and sideline my formal study on friendship. In God’s providence and by his good grace, I began my doctorate once again in the Fall of 2018, this time at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The head of my program quickly transitioned my project from friendship to biblical fellowship. While initially irritating, I would come to realize an understanding of biblical fellowship answered my questions concerning relationships within the church.
How do we get to prayer? As part of my project, I formed a fellowship team consisting of nearly a dozen of my church members. While much of our month-long discussion surrounded an understanding of biblical fellowship, our final task consisted of formulating a proposal to enhance biblical fellowship at Cornerstone Church. The team determined one of our church’s greatest weaknesses in biblical fellowship to be a lack of prayer in both our personal lives and our church life. For Cornerstone to enhance its biblical fellowship, we would need to pursue a better understanding and practice of prayer. The fellowship team proposed we focus on four themes over the next four years – prayer, discipleship, the Holy Spirit, and communion. So then, in the Fall of 2021, I began gathering resources for a study on prayer.
Throughout the next year, I would be introduced to authors ranging from the 17th century Reverend Thomas Ken and Martin Luther to the 19th century Samuel Miller to helpful authors in the 20th and 21st centuries such as Donald Whitney, Leonard Ravenhill, Scotty Smith, Megan Hill, Ole Hallesby, and Walter Brueggemann. While searching for helpful resources, I quickly noticed several authors referencing one particular resource – Matthew Henry’s A Method for Prayer.
Throughout the following months, I found myself consistently, if not daily, going back to Henry’s book to be refreshed by his approach to prayer. However, I found his archaic language challenging and started rewording his paragraphs. At first, I felt disrespectful in changing any of his thoughts and wording. But quickly, I came to embrace the value of personalizing each prayer. Early each morning, in the dim light of my den even further darkened by the comforting terracotta orange walls, as part of my communion with God, I would take a single paragraph, meditate on its verses, and rewrite the paragraph as a personal prayer. Often one paragraph would bleed into a couple days if not a week, causing the journey through Henry’s book to last several years.
Amid this journey, I came to further appreciate the statement, “the joy is in the journey.”
My Motivation.
Throughout this journey, primarily, four people groups compelled my forward progress. First, I need to grow in prayer. Throughout my personal journey with the Lord, I have consistently prayed. However, my prayer life mostly reflected a quote from the 19th century, Pentecostal evangelist, Smith Wigglesworth. He once said, “I don’t often spend more than half an hour in prayer at one time, but I never go more than half an hour without praying.”1 While this statement may have reflected my prayer life at times, sadly the phrase also seemed to justify a lack of lengthy times of prayer. My most recent journey in prayer dismisses the first half of the statement while attempting to retain the second half. My time of morning prayer2 now often takes up to two hours, if not more. However, I still desire to go very little time without praying.
Second, my wife has accompanied me throughout this journey. For years, Linda and I desired to have a consistent devotional and prayer time together. While consistently maintaining personal devotions, we struggled finding the right time to pray and read together. When she rose early for her morning devotional time, I would momentarily lay in bed, shame ridden, desiring to get up with her. However, typically, I successfully rid myself of the shame and rolled back over to sleep. In contrast, my mind would find its clearest moments late in the evening as my dear wife struggled to stay awake. Over more than twenty years of marriage, we attempted to find some consistent devotional time together with very little success. God, in his grace, used two challenging moments to assist in this pursuit. First, Covid forced us to stay home. We contend, Covid gifted us a consistent devotional and prayer time. The change in schedule allowed us to spend time together just a little later in the morning when my mind was more alert. Second, God used a year and a half of insomnia, coupled with a particular medication, to reprogram my sleep patterns. Previously, I struggled to get up before 7:00. However, these two catalysts shifted my morning routine up by about two hours. Coupled together, Covid and insomnia led to an
early morning devotional time for Linda and me – now my favorite time of day. My journey with Matthew Henry became a significant part of these moments.
Third, I can think of no greater, tangible gift to my children than a resource for their enhanced prayer life. Sadly, for years, the consistency in my prayers for my children reflected the same inconsistency in my overall prayer life. Developing a consistent and substantive prayer time resulted in purposeful and daily intercession for my children. Linda and I have often joked, “if you were on a deserted island and could only pray one thing, what would it be?” We agree we would pray one specific line from Matthew Henry’s prayer for our children, “we earnestly pray that Christ may be formed in their souls.”3 We couldn’t think of any eternal, substantive request that did not somehow fit within that one request.
Finally, I desired to finish this resource for the equipping of my church family for greater prayer. All along, the edification of Cornerstone Church served as the initial impetus for studying prayer. While God gifted me so many other blessings through this journey, I always wanted to personally grow in my understanding and practice of prayer in order to benefit my church family. As I read Henry’s book, I would often struggle with archaic words and at times challenging sentence structure. I often spent as much time interpreting Henry as I did resonating with his point in my own prayer. I wanted my church to have a similar resource as Henry’s book but in a format that would be more accessible to them.
Approach to this edition. Isaac Watts summarized Henry’s approach in organizing his prayer points and scripture passages. Watts wrote,
Mr. Henry’s method of prayer is a judicious collection of scriptures, proper to the several parts of that duty…. And above all, I would recommend to them the late Mr. Henry’s Method of Prayer, where the devout expressions of the holy men of God, in scripture, are ranged under a variety of heads or common places, suited to the several parts of prayer, and the different occasions of the Christian life.
Henry offers a thorough organization of prayer topics accompanied by a helpful list of verses pertinent to the topic. While often Henry took some liberty in combining verses into one sentence or adding a prefatory statement, he primarily just listed verses, often with conceptual redundancies throughout the verse list. In other words, he doesn’t offer a prayer but the resources for prayer.
On the other hand, I attempted to take the verse list and formulate a single prayer, which often required combining of verses, deletion of redundancies, change of tense, and the change of verses discussing God to a prayer directed to God.
In some sense, I offer nothing new. Others, well suited to the task, have come before me offering a modernized version of Henry’s work. O. Palmer Robertson offers a very helpful resource, titled A Way to Pray by Matthew Henry. Robertson retains Henry as author and offers this resource as a modernized edition of Henry’s book. Robertson does simplify Henry’s excessive outline structure of each chapter, which extends, at times, to five layers of outlining. While Robertson offers a different version for the scripture passages, he appears to retain all of Henry’s passages.4 In contrast, I often deleted or added other scripture passages to a particular prayer point. Robertson describes his edition in the following manner.
This current edition does not represent simply an effort to modernize the language of Matthew Henry's original. Instead, it is an effort to provide a respectful but thorough reworking of the text of Matthew Henry in light of careful exegetical consideration … The reader of this revised edition will find that it falls more in the category of ‘dynamic’ rather than ‘literal’ renderings of scripture. This approach is justified in large part by the fact that the effort is being made to make the reading as natural as possible in the language of today so that the reader will be able to express himself naturally before God in his mother tongue (xv).
Ligon Duncan also offers a very helpful edition of Henry’s work. Through the Alliance of Confessing Evanglicals, Duncan offers both a physical copy and online copy of the resource. The online copy offers several translations (ESV, KJV, NAS, and NIV) for each passage as well as a first person and corporate reading of each version. Unlike Robertson, Duncan does not offer his own translation work but instead employs four of the most popular English translations. Duncan does not change any of Henry’s verse selections.
I am extremely thankful for the work of these two men and their accompanying teams, for they offer a wonderful gift to the church and to me personally. Their work has often accompanied my journey with Matthew Henry in prayer. In my writing, I do not attempt to offer something better, but rather the byproduct of my own personal prayer life. As a result, my writing would not equate to an edition of Henry’s work. While I always started with his verse list for each prayer point, I regularly deleted, added, and compressed scripture passages. I also attempted to make each prayer point into one cohesive prayer rather than a list of verses. Often, the text reflects the point of a verse and not the wording.
Out of deep respect for Henry, I originally structured the book as closely as possible to Henry’s outline.5 The most significant exception to this structure was my deletion of several of Henry’s intercessory prayers in chapter five. Having finished my original edition, I then decided to reorganize the prayers to offer a clearer resource with less outlining.
Additional assessment of Henry’s work. Matthew Henry reflects impeccable biblical logic. In my devotions, I would often sit pondering on his particular wording or passage selection – usually to realize a helpful word choice or an unexpected passage. Truly, this process was a
delight. However, I was often surprised at his lack of New Testament (NT) use. His prayer points seemed excessive in Old Testament (OT) passages, even when NT texts seemed obvious. Clearly, Henry views the connection between Israel and the Church differently than I do which likely explains much of the confusion.
I’m uncertain as to my level of theological disagreement with Henry. Besides his view of Israel and the Church, a couple other differences presented themselves, for instance his inclusion of a prayer for infant baptism. I assumed some theological differences by his use of particular passages, even though I’m uncertain as to what he may have been thinking. On these occasions, when I sensed Henry missed the author’s original point, I simply deleted those verses and often replaced them with passages I thought more clear to the point.
Henry consistently offers hope or appropriate conclusions throughout his writing, but typically this hope came by following the logic of the whole book rather than offering hope in each section or paragraph. I often chose to place a little hope at the end of each paragraph – especially in the chapter on confession.
I deleted several prayers in chapter five concerning national unity, morality, etc. In these cases, Henry applied passages to a modern nation that were specifically intended for Israel. The practical elements of those prayers could be found in other prayers – for instance praying for the gospel to spread, praying for revival in a nation, or praying for unity within the church.
My approach to Henry’s work.
Chapter choice and structure. Henry’s work included four additional chapters (6-9). While I personally found these chapters helpful, I chose not to include them. Henry’s first five chapters consisted of scripture passages. However, by means of his last four, he offered a host of prayers for specific occasions, not connected to specific passages. I found a few of these prayers to be extremely helpful, but on the whole, I determined both myself and my intended audience would find much less help in that format.
In this edition, I almost entirely ignored Henry’s outline. Henry only used numbers (not numbers and letters) even though he had several layers of sub points. When Henry got to the fifth sublevel, the outline became challenging to follow. While keeping the five major
delight. However, I was often surprised at his lack of New Testament (NT) use. His prayer points seemed excessive in Old Testament (OT) passages, even when NT texts seemed obvious. Clearly, Henry views the connection between Israel and the Church differently than I do which likely explains much of the confusion.
I’m uncertain as to my level of theological disagreement with Henry. Besides his view of Israel and the Church, a couple other differences presented themselves, for instance his inclusion of a prayer for infant baptism. I assumed some theological differences by his use of particular passages, even though I’m uncertain as to what he may have been thinking. On these occasions, when I sensed Henry missed the author’s original point, I simply deleted those verses and often replaced them with passages I thought more clear to the point.
Henry consistently offers hope or appropriate conclusions throughout his writing, but typically this hope came by following the logic of the whole book rather than offering hope in each section or paragraph. I often chose to place a little hope at the end of each paragraph – especially in the chapter on confession.
I deleted several prayers in chapter five concerning national unity, morality, etc. In these cases, Henry applied passages to a modern nation that were specifically intended for Israel. The practical elements of those prayers could be found in other prayers – for instance praying for the gospel to spread, praying for revival in a nation, or praying for unity within the church.
My approach to Henry’s work.
Chapter choice and structure. Henry’s work included four additional chapters (6-9). While I personally found these chapters helpful, I chose not to include them. Henry’s first five chapters consisted of scripture passages. However, by means of his last four, he offered a host of prayers for specific occasions, not connected to specific passages. I found a few of these prayers to be extremely helpful, but on the whole, I determined both myself and my intended audience would find much less help in that format.
In this edition, I almost entirely ignored Henry’s outline. Henry only used numbers (not numbers and letters) even though he had several layers of sub points. When Henry got to the fifth sublevel, the outline became challenging to follow. While keeping the five major
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
1. Adoration of God
1.1. The great and glorious God.
1.2. God as transcendently bright.
1.2.1. God is eternally unchanging.
1.2.2. God is present everywhere.
1.2.3. God perfectly knows and sees all.
1.2.4. God’s wisdom is unsearchable.
1.2.5. God’s sovereignty is indisputable.
1.2.6. God’s power is irresistible.
1.2.7. God is perfectly pure and morally right.
1.2.8. God is just in the oversight of His creation.
1.2.9. God’s truths are absolute and the treasures of His goodness unlimited.
1.2.10. God’s glorious attributes extend far beyond man’s most exhaustive descriptions of God’s divine nature.
1.3. God’s heavenly glory.
1.4. God as Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign.
1.5. God’s Triunity.
1.6. God as Preserver and Benefactor.
1.7. God’s ownership and dominion.
1.8. The privilege of prayer.
1.9. Our unworthiness in prayer.
1.10. A humble profession of our desires.
1.11. Our hope and confidence in God.
1.12. Pleading for God’s acceptance in prayer.
1.13. The needful Spirit in prayer.
1.14. God’s glory, our highest end in prayer.
1.15. Full reliance on Jesus in prayer.
2. Confession of Sin
2.1. The reason for our confession.
2.2. Our humble confession of sin.
2.3. Our inherent sinfulness.
2.4. Our natural inclination toward evil.
2.4.1. Our blindness and inability to understand divine truth.
2.4.2. Our stubborn will and refusal to obey God’s commands.
2.4.3. Our wicked hearts and temporal concerns further corrupting our minds.
2.4.4. Our inordinate affections being placed on wrong objects and extending beyond proper bounds.
2.4.5. The corruption of the whole man resulting in an excessive desire for pleasure, an irrational avoidance of displeasure, and rejection of the Holy Spirit’s dynamic work.
2.5. Sins of omission and abandonment of duty.
2.6. Active sins of commission in thought, word, and deed.
2.6.1. Pride.
2.6.2. Lack of self-control and rash anger.
2.6.3. Covetousness and love of the world.
2.6.4. Sensuality and fleshly desires.
2.6.5. Presumptuous security and thoughtlessness to our lack of control over changes in our world.
2.6.6. Fear, impatience, and sadness amid suffering, and our distrust of God and His providence.
2.6.7. Unkindness and injustice towards others.
2.6.8. Sinful speech.
2.6.9. Spiritual complacency and decay.
2.7. The malignant nature and great evil in our sin.
2.7.1. The sinfulness of sin.
2.7.2. The foolishness of sin.
2.7.3. The unprofitableness of sin.
2.7.4. The deceitfulness of sin.
2.7.5. The offensiveness of sin to a Holy God.
2.7.6. Sins damage to our souls.
2.8. Increasing the horror and danger of sin.
2.8.1. Increased knowledge of God and his expectations.
2.8.2. Increased hypocrisy.
2.8.3. More mercies from God.
2.8.4. Warning from God’s Word and our conscience.
2.8.5. Increased punishment endured due our sin.
2.8.6. Increasing promises of heightened obedience.
2.9. We condemn our sins and accept our worthy punishment.
2.10. God’s patience and willingness to be reconciled.
2.11. Professing shame over sin and humble reception of grace.
3. Petition and Requests
3.1. We pray for forgiveness of sins.
3.1.1. God’s infinite goodness.
3.1.2. Christ’s righteousness.
3.1.3. God’s promises.
3.1.4. Our own sin.
3.1.5. Our blessed condition.
3.2. We pray for reconciliation.
3.2.1. Peace with God.
3.2.2. Covenanted with God.
3.2.3. Favor with God.
3.2.4. Blessings of God.
3.2.5. Presence of God.
3.2.6. A sense of reconciliation.
3.3. We pray for God’s grace.
3.3.1. Grace to fight.
3.3.2. Grace to equip.
3.3.3. Grace to teach and instruct.
3.3.4. Grace to lead, keep, and correct in truth.
3.3.5. Grace to help our memories.
3.3.6. Grace to direct our consciences.
3.4. We pray for God’s work of sanctification.
3.4.1. Faith.
3.4.2. Fear of God.
3.4.3. Love of God rather than the world.
3.4.4. Tender conscience and life of repentance.
3.4.5. Love of others.
3.4.6. Self-denial.
3.4.7. Humility and meekness.
3.4.8. Contentment.
3.4.9. Hope in God, Christ, and eternal life.
3.4.10. Preservation from sin.
3.4.11. Control and good use of the tongue.
3.4.12. Strength to live a godly life.
3.4.13. Wisdom and maturity.
3.5. We pray for future grace.
3.5.1. Support and comfort in suffering.
3.5.2. Preservation until the end.
3.5.3. Preparation for death.
3.5.4. Fit for heaven.
3.5.5. Additional good in life.
3.5.6. Preservation from calamity.
3.5.7. Daily comfort and support.
3.5.8. God’s promises fulfilled.
4. Thanksgivings for Mercy
4.1. Abundant reasons for gratitude.
4.2. Specificity in our thanksgiving.
4.3. Thankful for this present physical world.
4.4. Thankful for mankind specifically.
4.4.1. God gloriously created us with a glorious purpose.
4.4.2. God preserves our lives.
4.4.3. God protects amid sickness.
4.4.4. God provides support and comfort.
4.4.5. God generally provides success.
4.5. Thankful for God’s redemptive plan.
4.5.1. God’s redemptive plan for lost sinners.
4.5.2. God’s eternal and divine election.
4.5.3. God’s appointment of a Redeemer.
4.5.4. God’s early revelation of his gracious design.
4.5.5. God’s favor to his people in the Old Testament.
4.6. Thankful for Christ’s life and work.
4.6.1. Jesus Christ’s incarnation.
4.6.2. God’s ongoing care of Christ during his incarnation.
4.6.3. Jesus Christ’s perfect and exemplary teaching and life.
4.6.4. His call to poor sinners.
4.6.5. Complete satisfaction for sin and resulting privileges.
4.6.6. His resurrection from the dead.
4.6.7. His ascension and position at God’s right hand.
4.6.8. His ongoing intercession for his redeemed.
4.6.9. His exalted position as Sovereign Redeemer.
4.6.10. Certainty of his second coming.
4.7. Thankful for God’s Word and Christ’s Church.
4.7.1. Sending of the Holy Spirit into the believer.
4.7.2. Covenant of grace and its precious privileges.
4.7.3. Inspiration and preservation of Scripture.
4.7.4. Institution of the ordinances.
4.7.5. Institution and expansion of the church.
4.7.6. Godly examples throughout church history.
4.7.7. Spiritual communion of saints throughout time.
4.7.8. Prospect and hope of eternal life.
4.8. Thankful for spiritual mercies to those effectually called.
4.8.1. The Holy Spirit’s work and our consciences.
4.8.2. Our Spirit led, transformed lives.
4.8.3. Our forgiveness and peace of mind.
4.8.4. Our sanctification, preservation, and strength.
4.8.5. Personal communion and favor with God.
4.8.6. Gracious answers to our prayers.
4.8.7. Support amid and spiritual value of affliction.
4.8.8. God’s promises fulfilled.
5. Intercession for Others
5.1. The lost.
5.1.1. The lost in general.
5.1.2. Spread of gospel and growth of church
5.1.3. The conversion of the Jews.
5.1.4. Conversion of those who have rejected the Gospel.
5.2. God’s People.
5.2.1. The church in general.
5.2.2. Spirit’s outpouring to mend and revive the Church.
5.2.3. Defeat of the church’s enemies.
5.2.4. Suffering churches and persecuted believers.
5.3. God’s sovereignty over nations.
5.3.1. Nations of the world.
5.3.2. National mercies.
5.3.3. Advancement of the Gospel in our nation.
5.3.4. Political leaders.
5.3.5. Judges and law enforcement.
5.4. Intercession for specific people groups.
5.4.1. Ministers of the Gospel.
5.4.2. A spouse.
5.4.3. The young.
5.4.4. Parents.
5.4.5. The old.
5.4.6. The rich and prosperous.
5.4.7. The poor and afflicted.
5.4.8. The sick and suffering.
5.4.9. Our enemies and those that hate us.
5.4.10. Our friends and those that love us.
6. Things to Pray for People
6.1. Praying for Those You Love.
6.2. Praying For a Spouse.
6.3. Praying for Your Children.
6.4. Praying for Your Church.
6.5. Praying for Pastors.
6.6. Praying for Retirees and Parents.
6.7. Praying for the Persecuted Church.
6.8. Praying for the Sick & Suffering.
6.9. Praying for the Lost.
6.10. Praying for Political Leaders.
7. Additional Prayers
7.1. Our Morning Prayer
7.2. A Morning Prayer: Thomas Ken
7.3. Morning Prayer: Valley of Vision
7.4. Another Morning Prayer: Piercing Heaven
7.5. Evening Prayer: Thomas Ken
7.6. Evening Prayer: Valley of Vision
7.7. Evening Prayer: Matthew Henry
7.8. A Cry of Prayer in the Middle of the Night
7.9. A Prayer for Our Children
7.10. A Prayer for a Husband
7.11. Prayer of Pardon
7.12. My Sins! My Sins!: Piercing Heaven
7.13. Give Me a New Heart: Piercing Heaven
7.14. A Petition for Grace: Thomas Ken
7.15. A Form of Confession: Thomas Ken
7.16. Acts of Contrition: Thomas Ken
7.17. Confession & Petition: Valley of Vision
7.18. I Wrestle with Sin: Piercing Heaven
7.19. Yet I Sin: Valley of Vision
7.20. Request for Pardon
7.21. Lord’s Day Prayer
7.22. Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: W. Brueggemann
7.23. Sleep: Valley of Vision
7.24. A Prayer of Humility
7.25. Voyage: Valley of Vision
7.26. Prayers for Political Leaders
7.27. A Preacher’s Prayer: Greg Heisler
7.28. A Minister’s Bible: Valley of Vision
7.29. A Minister’s Preaching: Valley of Vision
7.30. A Minister’s Prayer: Valley of Vision
7.31. A Minister’s Evils: Valley of Vision
Bibliography