A Method for Prayer01 Matthew Henry (continued)
(Ifthere be hopes ofrecovery) Lord, when you have tried them let them come forth like gold; Let their souls live, and they shall praise you, let your judgments help them: O deal bountifully with them that they may live, and keep your word. In love to their souls deliver them from the pit of corruption and cast all their sins behind your back. Recover them and make them live. Speak the word, and they shall be healed; say unto them, Live, yea, say unto them, Live, and the time shall be a time of love. Father, ifit be possible, let the cup pass away; however not as we will, but as you wilt: The will of the Lord be done. Perfect that which concerns them; your mercy, O
Lord, endures forever, forsake not the work of your own hands; but whether they live or die, let them be the Lord's. Job 23:10. Psalm
119:175, 17. Isaiah 38:17, 16. Matthew 8:8. Ezekiel 16:6, 8.
Matthew 26:39. Acts 21:14. Psalm 138:8. Romans 14.8.
(Ifthey be in appearance at the point ofdeath) Now the flesh and the heart are failing, Lord, be you the strength of the heart, and an everlasting portion: In the valley of the shadow of death, Lord, be you present, as the good shepherd with a guiding rod, and a supporting staff. O do not fail them nor forsake them now. Be a very present help: Into your hands we commit the departing spirit, as into the hands of a faithful Creator, by the hands of him who has redeemed it. Let it be carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Let it be presented to you without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Lord Jesus, receive this precious soul, let it come to the spirits of just men made perfect; when it is absent from the body, let it be present with the Lord! This day let it be with you in paradise. Now let it be forever comforted, and perfectly freed from sin; and prepare us to draw after, as there are innumerable before, that we may be together for ever with the Lord, there where there shall be no more death, and where all tears shall be wiped away.
Psalm 73:26. Psalm 23:4. Hebrews 13:5. Psalm 46:1. Psalm 31:5. 1
Peter 4 (v. 19). Luke 16:22. Ephesians 5:27. Acts 7:59. Hebrews 12:23. 2 Corinthians 5:8. Luke 23:43. Luke 16:25. Romans 6:7. Job
21:33. 1 Thessalonians 4 (v. 17). Revelation 21:4.
22.4. When wepray with orfor those that are deprived of the use of their reason.
O look with pity upon those that are put out of the possession of their own souls, whose judgment is taken away, so that their soul chooses strangling and death rather than life: O restore them to themselves and their right mind. Deliver them from doing themselves any harm: And whatever afflictions you lay upon any of us in this world, preserve to us the use of our reason, and the peace of our consciences. Luke 21:19. Job 27:2. Job 7:15. Luke 15:17. Mark
22.5. When wepray with orfor sick children.
Lord, we see death reigning even over them that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression; but Jesus Christ hath abolished death and admitted even little children into the kingdom of God. O let sick children be pitied by you, as they are by their earthly parents. They have come forth like flowers, O let them not be cut down again: Turn from them, that they may rest till they shall have accomplished as a hireling their day. Be gracious to us, and let the children live. However, Father, your will be done. O let their spirits be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Romans 5:14. 2
Timothy 1:10. Matthew 18:3. Psalm 103-13. Job 14:2, 6.
2 Samuel 12:22. Acts 21:14. 1 Corinthians 5:5.
22.6. When wepray with orforfamilies where death is, especially such as have lost their head.
Visit the houses ofmourning, as our Savior did, and comfort them, by assuring them that Christ is the resurrection and the life, that their relations which are removed from them, are not dead, but sleep; and that they shall rise again, that they may not sorrow as those that have no hope: And enable them to trust in the living
God, the rock ofages, and enjoy the fountain ofliving waters, when creatures prove broken reeds and broken cisterns. John 11:25, 23.
Matthew 9:24. 1 Thessalonians 4.13. 1 Timothy 6:17. Psalm 146-4, 5.
Isaiah 26-4. Jeremiah 2:13.
Bea Father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widows, O God, in your holy habitation.
With you let the fatherless find mercy, keep them alive, and let the widows trust in you, that they may be widows indeed, who being desolate, trust in God, and continue instant in prayer night and day. And where father and mother have forsaken, let the Lord take up the children, and not leave them orphans, but come to them. Psalm 68.5. Hosea 14:3. Jeremiah 49:11.
1 Timothy 5-5. Psalm 27:10. John 14.18.
22.7. When wepray with orfor those women that are near the time oftravail, or in travail.
Lord, you have passed this sentence upon the woman that was first in the transgression, that in sorrow she shall bring forth children.
But let this handmaid of yours be saved in childbearing, and continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety. Enable her to cast her burden upon the Lord, and let the Lord sustain her; and what time she is afraid, grant that she may trust in you, and may encourage herself in the Lord her God. O let not the root be dried up from beneath, nor let the branch be withered or cut off, but let both live before you. Be you her strong habitation, her rock, and her fortress, give commandment to save her. And when travail comes upon her, which she cannot escape; be pleased, O Lord, to deliver her: O Lord make haste to help her: Be you yourself her help and deliverer, make no tarrying, O our God: Let her be safely delivered, and remember the anguish no more, for joy that a child is born into the world, is born unto you. 1 Timothy 2:14. Genesis
1 Timothy 2(v. 15). Psalm 55:22. Psalm 56:3. 1 Samuel 30:6.
Job 18:16. Psalm 71:3. 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Psalm 40:13, 17. John 16:21.
22.8. When wepray with orfor those that are recoveredfrom sickness, or are delivered in childbearing, and desire to return thanks unto Godfor His mercy.
We will extol you, O Lord, upon the account of those whom you have lifted up, whose souls you have brought up from the grave, and kept them alive, that they should not go down to the pit. Those that were brought low you have helped, have delivered their souls from death, their eyes from tears, and their feet from falling. Now give them grace to walk before you in the land of the living, to offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, to call upon your name, and to pay their vows unto the Lord. Psalm 30-1, 2, 3. Psalm 116:6, 8, 9, The grave cannot thus praise you, death cannot celebrate you, they that go down to the pit cannot hope for your truth; but the living, the living they shall praise you, as we do this day. Lord, grant that those who are delivered from death may not be as the nine lepers, who did not return to give thanks, or as Hezekiah, who rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, but that they may so offer praise, as to glorify you, and so order their conversation, as to see the salvation of God. Isaiah 38:18, 19. Luke 17:18. 2
Chronicles 32:25. Psalm 50.23.
Those whom the Lord hath chastened sore, yet he has not delivered over unto death: O that they may therefore praise him, who is become their salvation. Psa/m 118-18, 21.
22.9. When we pray with orfor those parents, whose children area griefto them, or such as they are infear about.
Lord, give to parents the desire of their souls concerning their children, which is to see them walking in the truth, form Christ in their souls. O give them betimes to know the God of their fathers, and to serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind. Let children of the youth, that are as arrows in the hand, be directed aright, that those parents may have reason to think themselves happy, that have their quiver full of them, and they may never be arrows in the heart. 2 John 4. Galatians 4:19. 1 Chronicles 28:9.
Let those foolish children, that are the grief of the father, and the heaviness of her that bare them, that mock at their parents, and despise to obey them, be brought to repentance; and let those that have been unprofitable now at length be made profitable. O turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, even the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that they may be made readya people prepared for the Lord. O show them their work, and their transgression, that they have exceeded, and open their ear to discipline. Proverbs 17:25.
Proverbs 30:17. Philemon 11. Malachi 4:6. Luke 1:17. Job 36:9, 10.
22.10. When we pray with orfor those that are in prison.
Those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most High, give them grace to cry unto you in their trouble, and ina day ofadversity to consider.
Psalm 107:10, 11, 13. Ecclesiastes 7:14.
In their captivity give them to bethink themselves, to humble themselves, and pray, and seek your face, to repent, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, and to return unto you with all their heart, and with all their soul; and thus bring their souls out of prison, that they may praise your name: Bring them into the glorious liberty of the children of God, out of the bondage of corruption. Let the Son make them free, and then they shall be free indeed. 1 Kings 8:47, 48. Psalm 142:7. Romans 8:21. John 8:36.
Those that are wrongfully imprisoned be you with them, as you were with Joseph in the prison, and shew them mercy. Hear the poor, and despise not your prisoners, but let their sorrowful sighing come before you, and according to the greatness of your power preserve those that are unjustly appointed to die. Genesis 39:21.
Psalm 69:33. Psalm 79:11.
22.11. When wepray with orfor condemned malefactors, that have but a little while to live.
O look with pity upon those, the number ofwhose months is to be cut off in the midst for their sin: O give them repentance unto salvation, as you didst to the thief upon the cross, that they may own the justice of God in all that is brought upon them, that he has done right, but they have done wickedly. O turn them, and they shall be turned, that being instructed they may smite upon the thigh, and may be ashamed, yea even confounded, because they do bear the reproach of their own iniquity. O pluck them as brands out of the fire; let them be delivered from the wrath to come. Jod
21:21. 2 Corinthians 7:10. Nehemiah 9:33. Jeremiah 31:18, 19. Jude 23. 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
Enable them to give glory to God by making confession, that they may find mercy, and that others may hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. Joshua 7:19. Proverbs 28:13. Deuteronomy 17:13.
Lord Jesus, remember them now who are in your kingdom: O let them not be hurt of the second death: Deliver them from going down to that pit! Though the flesh be destroyed, O let the spirit be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. The God of infinite mercy be merciful to these sinners, these sinners against their own souls. Luke
23:42. Revelation 2:11. Job 33:24. 1 Corinthians 5:5. Luke 18:13.
22.12. When we pray with orfor those that are at sea.
Let those that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, observe the works of the Lord there, and his wonders in the deep; And acknowledge what a great God he is whom the winds and the seas obey; who hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over. Psalm 107:23, 24. Matthew 8:27.
O preserve them through the paths of the seas, and in perils by waters, and perils by robbers. If the stormy wind be raised, which lifts up the waves, so that they are at their wits end, deliver them out of their distresses, make the storm a calm, and bring them to their desired haven: And O that those who are delivered may praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Psalm 8:8. 2 Corinthians 11:26. Psalm 107:25, 2731.