Corporate Prayer Etiquette [IP31]

Excessive length of each prayer

This is an old, old problem. Long prayers often become a weariness to the flesh, making it
hard for those listening to spiritually participate and keep up concentration, especially if it is
an evening meeting. This problem often has to be addressed and pastors down the years have
had their own ways of dealing with persistent ‘offenders’.

Short prayers help to retain freshness. Besides, most prayers in the Scriptures are brief and to
the point. ‘Some pray me into the spirit and others pray me out of it by undue length,’
Spurgeon complained. It has been said: ‘Short prayers sink deep’. ‘It is strength, not length,’
said Spurgeon. ‘The worth of a prayer is not gauged by its dimensions,’ – M’Cheyne.
Thomas Boston said: ‘Lay no weight on the quantity of your prayers; that is to say, how long
or how many they are. These things avail nothing with God, by whom prayers are not
measured, but weighed.’ To quote Spurgeon again: ‘It is necessary to draw near unto God,
but it is not required of you to prolong your speech till everyone is longing to hear the word
“Amen”’. The only exception I believe is if a spirit of prayer and supplication is poured out
upon one member in a special way. Every spiritually-minded person will know, and will lose
sight of the time. J. C. Philpot’s advice was that on such occasions we should make the most
of it and spread the sails, as it were, to catch those heavenly breezes.

Prayers that persist

I mentioned earlier that prayers for revival have been offered to the Lord for over 98 years in
England, yet we have no awakening. This would be a real tragedy if these were continuous
and persistent prayers. God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. There is no way a
group of believers will set themselves out to earnestly seek God’s face for revival and had to
wait 98 years for the answer.

Problem is: often we have no sense of urgency; and where there is it soon fizzles out if the
answer is delayed. To get revival we must be focussed; we must be urgent; and we must be
desperate. In a small cottage by the roadside in the village of Barvas, in the Hebrides, lived
two elderly women, Peggy and Christine Smith. They were eighty-four and eighty-two years
old. Unable to attend public worship, their humble cottage became a sanctuary where they
met with God. To them came the promise: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and
floods upon the dry ground.” They pleaded this promise day and night in prayer. But one day
in desperation the sisters drew a circle on the stone floor of their cottage. Then they knelt
inside the circle and told God, “We will stay here on our knees in prayer until you either hear
our prayer or take us home.” Not long after revival broke out.

The price for heaven sent revival has never changed. Before the floods of Holy Ghost
conviction could sweep across the Isles of The Hebrides, strong men were broken before
God, travailing in agony of prayer through the long hours of the night for months. To do this,
in spite of the demands of home and work, these men had to make time for waiting before
God! This is perhaps the greatest problem besetting us today. We have all the modern
luxuries of life to make work easier and yet we cannot make time to pray!