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Praying Successfully
Tragic circumstances surprisingly changed, a desperate cry for help heard and answered, a nagging need met––how can such things happen? Through the powerful resource of prayer. As you read these pages, you will understand how to turn adversity into advantage, get ahead without competing, see your desires fulfilled, obtain the wealth available to you, find peace in life's storms, be free from sin, and receive the free gift of salvation. Begin to receive whatever you need from the Lord today. The blessings of God are yours for the asking!
112 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
17 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
About the author
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
6,033 books1,603 followersCharles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London's famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian, John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues, Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 24, 2011
Good, thought-provoking, encouraging stuff here. I especially enjoyed the last chapter about the Syrophoenician woman.
May 30, 2016
I cried when I read this book, and I'll continue to reread its in-depth exploration. Spurgeon did a magnificent job of opening my heart to my need for a richer prayer-life. It's a much-needed study for anyone truly seeking to understand how to pray.
Read
May 28, 2023Book two of “Spurgeon on Prayer and Spiritual Warfare,” an Anthology.
August 3, 2023
old books give you some perspective
September 12, 2023
Maybe would be good if I could stay awake while reading it
December 25, 2019
I liked this book better than Charles Spurgeon's "The Power in Prayer," and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to think more about prayer and actually pray.
"His asking is a mere matter of form; his heart is not in his worship. He buys a book containing what are called forms of prayer, and he repeats these. He has discovered that repeating is easier than praying and it demands no thought." I thought that quote was funny in that Spurgeon's books sometimes contain a couple sentences here and there of his own prayers. But, I understand the point. Such books can contain motivations to pray and reminders to pray and reminders of topics to pray, but merely repeating words, without talking to God, is not praying. The quote was a good reminder to make our own prayers.
Spurgeon's description of "Robinson Crusoe" made me want to read that sometime.
"The believer in the prayer meeting may think within himself, 'How delightfully fluent I am!' Whenever there is that attitude in us, God cannot accept our worship." A good reminder for our focus.
"Remarkably, Psalm 50:15 was originally written to those who had mocked God. They had presented their sacrifices without a true heart. Yet the Lord said to each of them, 'Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.'" Amazing, and I am so glad that God has the same heart for us today.
At first, it didn't look clear to me that Spurgeon referred to delivering us after death, as well as delivering us from this or that in our lives here, but later on in the chapter, it became clear that he included death and going to jesus as part of one means of deliverance.
Also, in paraphrasing God in Psalm 50:15 above, Spurgeon said, "Sinners, I will give you pardon, but you must give Me the honor for it... I will justify you, but I must have the glory for it..., I will put you into My family, but My grace must have all the glory... I will sanctify you and make you holy, but I must have the glory for it... I will take you home to heaven, I will deliver you from sin and death and hell, but I must have the glory for it."
I especially enjoyed reading Spurgeon's chapter "Pleading, not Contradiction," about the woman of Matthew 15:27, because it's a "problem" passage, or an uncomfortable passage not often taught about, that I've wondered about. Jesus seemed uncharacteristically harsh or stand-offish to the woman who came to him wanting a demon cast out of her daughter. The only other people He was harsh to were the legalistic, hypocritical Pharisees that kept people from God. But we are not told what this woman did, if anything, to deserve His rebuke.
She had asked for a miracle, and He'd first ignored her, telling his disciples, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Then, He replied directly to her, "It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs." This sounds very uncharacteristically racist of Jesus. After all, He met the Samaritan woman at the well, and He praised a Roman soldier saying that He hadn't found such a great faith in all of Israel. So, I don't think that racism is the motive for this. In fact, I wonder ... and this is just pure conjecture on my part ... if she had something in common with the Pharisees and been arrogant or had been as racist towards the Jews as some of them had been towards her, and had called them dogs. I wondered if Jesus had been echoing her own earlier words back to her, making her realize that she was now asking for the help of a Jew, and seeing if she would accept the rebuke in humility.
Spurgeon didn't touch that possibility or conjecture, but he did have a few good thoughts and reminders on the matter: "Jesus knew her well, and He knew that she could stand the trial and would be greatly benefited by it... She would not be driven away. She persevered, she advanced nearer, she actually turned the rebuff into a plea... First, agree with the Lord, whatever He says... Second, plead .. And third, have faith in the Lord, no matter what He says."
"She did not say, 'It is hard,' or 'It is unkind,' but, 'It is true.'"
"You will never come into perfect peace if you are in a contradicting mood, for that is a proud and unacceptable condition of mind. He who reads the Bible to find fault with it will soon discover that the Bible finds fault with him." That statement got my attention, because I did feel in a contradicting mood, not towards the Bible, but towards others, having felt unfairly treated, harshly questioned, and had the happenstance of circumstance against me. Even worse, my "contradicting mood" had caused me to snap at someone else, who, while not acting graciously, was not really the cause of my frustrations, either. Spurgeon's statement made me pause and reflect that if I wanted a more peaceful frame of mind for myself, if I wanted more of a peaceful relationship with them, I needed to get out of this "contradicting mood," and after, sulking a bit to nurse my wounds, I went and apologized.
"The Bible never gives unrenewed human nature a good description, nor does it deserve one."
"Great faith is always the sister of great humility."
"As for me, my mind is made up that I will quarrel with anyone else sooner than with my Savior. I will especially contend with myself and pick a desperate quarrel with my own pride rather than have a shade of strife with my Lord."
"Beloved, do not dispute the rights of the eternal God."
And finally, Spurgeon did do a little conjecture on what might've driven the thought-process of the woman who replied so humbly to Jesus, "The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." (Matthew 15:27):
Spurgeon's conjecture: "He is a shepherd for lost sheep. Whatever His flock may be, He is a shepherd, and He has tremendous compassion for poor lost sheep. Surely I can look to Him with confidence."
"If my daughter were healed, it would be a great and blessed thing to me, but to Him it would be no more than a crumb from His table."
I had a minor disagreement with Spurgeon when he quoted 2 Peter 1:20, "No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation." True. But he used the verse to indicate that all scriptural promises apply to all of us. I would differ. Yes, the scripture doesn't mean only whatever we want it to mean in our private lives. God had a specific purpose for it. I'll agree with that.
But, the context of various promises made it clear that they were for specific people. If we considered the promises to Abraham, for example, because Spurgeon brought him up and mentioned some of the promises to him, so, if we consider Abraham, we have not all been promised that we will all be the father of many nations. That would be a little strange, that there were so many Jewish nations. Or that Sarah would bear to each of us a son from the promise - that would be absurd - or that all nations on earth would be blessed through all our descendants. While we might hope and ask for that promise, it happened to Abraham's descendants, who blessed us, both in the Jewish culture blessing us, and even more so, in Jesus blessing us with salvation.
So, we do need to be careful to know the context and conditions for each Biblical promise. There are truly some promises written for us all. When I think of promises for us all, I think of: "Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call.' - Acts 2:38-39, NIV
There are certainly other promises, too, for us all. But there were also promises specific to the person being told and we need to be careful with that, with claiming what hasn't been offered to us or designed for us. Of course, we can ask, and God often does answer because He really does enjoy blessing us, but it seems dangerous to me to presume.
Favorite quotes:
"If he [King David] had prayed half as much when he was in the palace as he did when he was in the cave, things would have been better for him." Ha! But that's a good point, too.
"Some of God's people shine brightest in the dark."
"It is wonderful to see what poor prayers God will hear and answer." Thank You, Jesus.
"Cultivate great love to those who, having come into the army of Christ, are harassed by adversaries. Like David, they are in the cave. Do not disown them. They are trying to do their best. Stand side by side with them."
"Many prayers fail to achieve their purpose because there is no faith behind them. Prayers that are filled with doubt are requests for refusal. Imagine that you wrote to a friend and said, 'Dear friend, I am in great trouble. I am telling you this, and I am asking for your help, because it seems right to do so. However even though I am writing to you, I do not believe you will send me any help. Indeed, I would be shocked if you did, and I would speak of it as a great wonder."
"Surely there must be in our hearts a lurking enmity toward Him. Otherwise, instead of prayer being an unwelcome necessity, it would be a great delight."
"I have sometimes wished that very comfortable Christians, those who seem to treat religion as if it were a bed of roses, could have just a little time of 'roughing it' and really come into actual difficulties. A life of ease breeds hosts of falsehoods and pretenses, which would soon vanish in the presence of matter-of-fact trials and tribulations."
"I cannot tell you [how God will deliver you] and I do not feel bound to try to explain it to you. It rests with the Lord to find suitable ways and means to deliver you... He created the world well enough without my being there and knowing how He would do it, and He will deliver me without my having a finger in it."
"'Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord' {shall be saved' Acts 2:21] Now by the word name is meant the person, the character of the Lord. Therefore, the more you know about the Lord, and the better you know His name, the more intelligently you will call upon that name. If you know His power, you will call upon that power to help you. If you know His mercy, you will call upon that mercy to save you. If you know His wisdom, you will feel that He knows your difficulties and can help you through them. If you understand His immutability, you will call upon the same God who has saved other sinners to come and save you."
"Often, when I have been cheering up a poor sinner and urging him to believe in Christ, I have thought, 'Well, if he will not drink this cup of comfort, I will drink it myself.' I assure you, I need it as much as those to whom I offer it."
"Do you think that the Lord wants you to give yourself a new heart first and that then He will save you? My dear soul, if you had a new heart, you would be saved already and would not need Him to save you. 'Oh, but I must have devout feelings!' You must? Where will you go to get them?... Come to God without any devout feelings. Come just as you are. Come, you who are like a frozen iceberg, who have nothing in you whatsoever but that which chills and repels. Come call upon the name of the Lord, and you will be saved."
"How often we may use the holy art of looking from one doctrine to another! ... I beg you to learn this holy art of setting one truth side by side with another so that you may have a fair view of the whole situation and not despair." Beautifully said!
"Mercy is not for those who think they have merited it. Such people seek justice, not mercy. Only the guilty need and seek mercy. Believe that God delights in mercy, delights to give grace where it cannot be deserved, delights to forgive where there is no reason for forgiveness but His own goodness."
"His asking is a mere matter of form; his heart is not in his worship. He buys a book containing what are called forms of prayer, and he repeats these. He has discovered that repeating is easier than praying and it demands no thought." I thought that quote was funny in that Spurgeon's books sometimes contain a couple sentences here and there of his own prayers. But, I understand the point. Such books can contain motivations to pray and reminders to pray and reminders of topics to pray, but merely repeating words, without talking to God, is not praying. The quote was a good reminder to make our own prayers.
Spurgeon's description of "Robinson Crusoe" made me want to read that sometime.
"The believer in the prayer meeting may think within himself, 'How delightfully fluent I am!' Whenever there is that attitude in us, God cannot accept our worship." A good reminder for our focus.
"Remarkably, Psalm 50:15 was originally written to those who had mocked God. They had presented their sacrifices without a true heart. Yet the Lord said to each of them, 'Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.'" Amazing, and I am so glad that God has the same heart for us today.
At first, it didn't look clear to me that Spurgeon referred to delivering us after death, as well as delivering us from this or that in our lives here, but later on in the chapter, it became clear that he included death and going to jesus as part of one means of deliverance.
Also, in paraphrasing God in Psalm 50:15 above, Spurgeon said, "Sinners, I will give you pardon, but you must give Me the honor for it... I will justify you, but I must have the glory for it..., I will put you into My family, but My grace must have all the glory... I will sanctify you and make you holy, but I must have the glory for it... I will take you home to heaven, I will deliver you from sin and death and hell, but I must have the glory for it."
I especially enjoyed reading Spurgeon's chapter "Pleading, not Contradiction," about the woman of Matthew 15:27, because it's a "problem" passage, or an uncomfortable passage not often taught about, that I've wondered about. Jesus seemed uncharacteristically harsh or stand-offish to the woman who came to him wanting a demon cast out of her daughter. The only other people He was harsh to were the legalistic, hypocritical Pharisees that kept people from God. But we are not told what this woman did, if anything, to deserve His rebuke.
She had asked for a miracle, and He'd first ignored her, telling his disciples, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Then, He replied directly to her, "It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs." This sounds very uncharacteristically racist of Jesus. After all, He met the Samaritan woman at the well, and He praised a Roman soldier saying that He hadn't found such a great faith in all of Israel. So, I don't think that racism is the motive for this. In fact, I wonder ... and this is just pure conjecture on my part ... if she had something in common with the Pharisees and been arrogant or had been as racist towards the Jews as some of them had been towards her, and had called them dogs. I wondered if Jesus had been echoing her own earlier words back to her, making her realize that she was now asking for the help of a Jew, and seeing if she would accept the rebuke in humility.
Spurgeon didn't touch that possibility or conjecture, but he did have a few good thoughts and reminders on the matter: "Jesus knew her well, and He knew that she could stand the trial and would be greatly benefited by it... She would not be driven away. She persevered, she advanced nearer, she actually turned the rebuff into a plea... First, agree with the Lord, whatever He says... Second, plead .. And third, have faith in the Lord, no matter what He says."
"She did not say, 'It is hard,' or 'It is unkind,' but, 'It is true.'"
"You will never come into perfect peace if you are in a contradicting mood, for that is a proud and unacceptable condition of mind. He who reads the Bible to find fault with it will soon discover that the Bible finds fault with him." That statement got my attention, because I did feel in a contradicting mood, not towards the Bible, but towards others, having felt unfairly treated, harshly questioned, and had the happenstance of circumstance against me. Even worse, my "contradicting mood" had caused me to snap at someone else, who, while not acting graciously, was not really the cause of my frustrations, either. Spurgeon's statement made me pause and reflect that if I wanted a more peaceful frame of mind for myself, if I wanted more of a peaceful relationship with them, I needed to get out of this "contradicting mood," and after, sulking a bit to nurse my wounds, I went and apologized.
"The Bible never gives unrenewed human nature a good description, nor does it deserve one."
"Great faith is always the sister of great humility."
"As for me, my mind is made up that I will quarrel with anyone else sooner than with my Savior. I will especially contend with myself and pick a desperate quarrel with my own pride rather than have a shade of strife with my Lord."
"Beloved, do not dispute the rights of the eternal God."
And finally, Spurgeon did do a little conjecture on what might've driven the thought-process of the woman who replied so humbly to Jesus, "The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." (Matthew 15:27):
Spurgeon's conjecture: "He is a shepherd for lost sheep. Whatever His flock may be, He is a shepherd, and He has tremendous compassion for poor lost sheep. Surely I can look to Him with confidence."
"If my daughter were healed, it would be a great and blessed thing to me, but to Him it would be no more than a crumb from His table."
I had a minor disagreement with Spurgeon when he quoted 2 Peter 1:20, "No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation." True. But he used the verse to indicate that all scriptural promises apply to all of us. I would differ. Yes, the scripture doesn't mean only whatever we want it to mean in our private lives. God had a specific purpose for it. I'll agree with that.
But, the context of various promises made it clear that they were for specific people. If we considered the promises to Abraham, for example, because Spurgeon brought him up and mentioned some of the promises to him, so, if we consider Abraham, we have not all been promised that we will all be the father of many nations. That would be a little strange, that there were so many Jewish nations. Or that Sarah would bear to each of us a son from the promise - that would be absurd - or that all nations on earth would be blessed through all our descendants. While we might hope and ask for that promise, it happened to Abraham's descendants, who blessed us, both in the Jewish culture blessing us, and even more so, in Jesus blessing us with salvation.
So, we do need to be careful to know the context and conditions for each Biblical promise. There are truly some promises written for us all. When I think of promises for us all, I think of: "Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call.' - Acts 2:38-39, NIV
There are certainly other promises, too, for us all. But there were also promises specific to the person being told and we need to be careful with that, with claiming what hasn't been offered to us or designed for us. Of course, we can ask, and God often does answer because He really does enjoy blessing us, but it seems dangerous to me to presume.
Favorite quotes:
"If he [King David] had prayed half as much when he was in the palace as he did when he was in the cave, things would have been better for him." Ha! But that's a good point, too.
"Some of God's people shine brightest in the dark."
"It is wonderful to see what poor prayers God will hear and answer." Thank You, Jesus.
"Cultivate great love to those who, having come into the army of Christ, are harassed by adversaries. Like David, they are in the cave. Do not disown them. They are trying to do their best. Stand side by side with them."
"Many prayers fail to achieve their purpose because there is no faith behind them. Prayers that are filled with doubt are requests for refusal. Imagine that you wrote to a friend and said, 'Dear friend, I am in great trouble. I am telling you this, and I am asking for your help, because it seems right to do so. However even though I am writing to you, I do not believe you will send me any help. Indeed, I would be shocked if you did, and I would speak of it as a great wonder."
"Surely there must be in our hearts a lurking enmity toward Him. Otherwise, instead of prayer being an unwelcome necessity, it would be a great delight."
"I have sometimes wished that very comfortable Christians, those who seem to treat religion as if it were a bed of roses, could have just a little time of 'roughing it' and really come into actual difficulties. A life of ease breeds hosts of falsehoods and pretenses, which would soon vanish in the presence of matter-of-fact trials and tribulations."
"I cannot tell you [how God will deliver you] and I do not feel bound to try to explain it to you. It rests with the Lord to find suitable ways and means to deliver you... He created the world well enough without my being there and knowing how He would do it, and He will deliver me without my having a finger in it."
"'Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord' {shall be saved' Acts 2:21] Now by the word name is meant the person, the character of the Lord. Therefore, the more you know about the Lord, and the better you know His name, the more intelligently you will call upon that name. If you know His power, you will call upon that power to help you. If you know His mercy, you will call upon that mercy to save you. If you know His wisdom, you will feel that He knows your difficulties and can help you through them. If you understand His immutability, you will call upon the same God who has saved other sinners to come and save you."
"Often, when I have been cheering up a poor sinner and urging him to believe in Christ, I have thought, 'Well, if he will not drink this cup of comfort, I will drink it myself.' I assure you, I need it as much as those to whom I offer it."
"Do you think that the Lord wants you to give yourself a new heart first and that then He will save you? My dear soul, if you had a new heart, you would be saved already and would not need Him to save you. 'Oh, but I must have devout feelings!' You must? Where will you go to get them?... Come to God without any devout feelings. Come just as you are. Come, you who are like a frozen iceberg, who have nothing in you whatsoever but that which chills and repels. Come call upon the name of the Lord, and you will be saved."
"How often we may use the holy art of looking from one doctrine to another! ... I beg you to learn this holy art of setting one truth side by side with another so that you may have a fair view of the whole situation and not despair." Beautifully said!
"Mercy is not for those who think they have merited it. Such people seek justice, not mercy. Only the guilty need and seek mercy. Believe that God delights in mercy, delights to give grace where it cannot be deserved, delights to forgive where there is no reason for forgiveness but His own goodness."
January 16, 2024
I loved the whole book but the last two chapters had me in tears. I’ll be reading this another time.
July 16, 2014
"Praying Successfully" is a deeply meaningful book for me. It's short compared to many, but it does not lack in powerful content.
Some might read the title and thing, "Oh, it's just about how to say your prayers to get results, because that's what doing anything successfully means, right? Getting desired results."
Wrong. Unless your desired result is a magnification of your own unworthiness, of course.
Prayer is about depending on the God of the universe to save you from your trouble, not phrasing things a certain way to cajole or coerce Him into doing what you want. Prayer is not a following of a pattern, or "vain repetitions," as the Bible calls it. It is the outpouring of one's heart because one is overwhelmed with one's sin and the direness of life, and one calls out to God, to Jesus, for deliverance.
Spurgeon deals with several key themes in five chapters, such as prayer from a place of weakness and despair, why we ask and don't receive, what real prayer is, and the promises of God to those who pray, and what it means when God said, "Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Chapter list:
- David's Prayer in the Cave
- Ask and Have
- Real Prayer
- Grace Guaranteed
- Pleading, Not Contradicting
Some might read the title and thing, "Oh, it's just about how to say your prayers to get results, because that's what doing anything successfully means, right? Getting desired results."
Wrong. Unless your desired result is a magnification of your own unworthiness, of course.
Prayer is about depending on the God of the universe to save you from your trouble, not phrasing things a certain way to cajole or coerce Him into doing what you want. Prayer is not a following of a pattern, or "vain repetitions," as the Bible calls it. It is the outpouring of one's heart because one is overwhelmed with one's sin and the direness of life, and one calls out to God, to Jesus, for deliverance.
Spurgeon deals with several key themes in five chapters, such as prayer from a place of weakness and despair, why we ask and don't receive, what real prayer is, and the promises of God to those who pray, and what it means when God said, "Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Chapter list:
- David's Prayer in the Cave
- Ask and Have
- Real Prayer
- Grace Guaranteed
- Pleading, Not Contradicting
February 4, 2011
I have become a HUGE Charles Spurgeon fan. He has written more than any other Christian writer or speaker past or present. I plan on reading as many of his books as I can find.
His words inspire me to have a closer walk with God.
His words inspire me to have a closer walk with God.
June 25, 2015
Spurgeon is easily my favorite dead guy from the past two hundred years. He writes with a passion that it is convicting, inspiring, and encouraging. This wasn't my favorite book by any means, but the content is still super solid.
February 1, 2016
How can you go wrong reading Spurgeon?
July 20, 2016
Some really wonderful thoughts on prayer.
October 27, 2023
“As for me, I believe my Lord to be such a Savior that I can trust my soul entirely to Him. I can trust Him without difficulty. And I will tell you something else: if I had the soul of every reader in my body, I would trust them all to Jesus. Yes, if I had a million sinful souls of my own, I would freely trust the Lord Christ with all of them. I would say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12).”
December 3, 2017
Very convicting read.
November 17, 2020
I need it
December 13, 2021
A must read for those that are ready to face a God Who desires an intimate relationship.
November 30, 2023
Captivating work from Spurgeon.
September 1, 2025
Great insight into your prayer life
January 23, 2014
Seems to be written more for those in EXTREME troubles, or non-Christians.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews