Home » Isaac Watts » Page 2

Tag: Isaac Watts

What To Do When You Don’t Feel Like Praying

If you find your heart so very dry and unaffected with the things of religion that you can say nothing at all to God in prayer, that no divine content occurs to your thoughts, go and fall down humbly before God and tell him with a grievous complaint that you can say nothing to him, that you can do nothing but groan and cry before him. Go and tell him that without, his Spirit you cannot speak one expression, that without immediate assistance from his grace you cannot proceed in this worship.Tell him humbly that he must lose a morning or an evening sacrifice if he does not condescend to send down fire from heaven upon the altar.

– Isaac Watts, A Guide to Prayer

Profess your powerlessness. Admit your inability. Plead your prayerlessness. You will find that you are praying.

John Calvin writes,

It is, therefore, by the benefit of prayer that we reach those riches which are laid up for us with the Heavenly Father. For there is a communion of men with God by which, having entered the heavenly sanctuary, they appeal to him in person concerning his promises in order to experience, where necessity so demands, that what they believed was not vain, although he had promised it in word alone. Therefore we see that to us nothing is promised to be expected from the Lord, which we are not also bidden to ask of him in prayers. So true is it that we dig up by prayer the treasures that were pointed out by the Lord’s gospel, and which our faith has gazed upon (Institutes 3.20.1).

In other words, to my point, it is by pleading our inability that we dig up the riches of prayer itself. It is by pleading our prayerlessness that we call down the blessing of prayer. For God promises, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zech. 12:10). The Spirit is the Spirit of supplication. And we plead with him therefore, to give us the grace of prayer. And as we do so, he is already at work, for in our pleading about prayerlessness, we are already praying.

Sunday Hymn: Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun

This Isaac Watts (I love Isaac Watts for the record) hymn is based on the second half of Psalm 72, which includes the words (in verse 17), His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.” If you’re interested in how the language of the sun traveling (running successive journeys) jives with modern science, then read about solar orbit HERE. The ‘Solar Orbit’ post has received very little traffic, but it is actually one of my favorite posts, and I refer to it fairly regularly in conversation as an example of how scientific opinion is always changing.

This version is not great. It is a song that is meant to be sung by congregations more than individuals, but it’s the best I could find that included the lyrics.

Treating All People As Teachers

Can you be humble enough to realize that everyone has something to teach you?

If you happen to be in company with a merchant or a sailor, a farmer or a mechanic, a milk-made or a spinster, lead them into a discourse of the matters of their own peculiar province or profession; for every one knows, or should know, his own business best. In this sense a common mechanic is wiser than a philosopher. By this means you may gain some improvement in knowledge from every one you meet.

-Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind, p. 80

The above quote from Isaac Watts is one of the best pieces of advice that I have ever received. I use it virtually every day of my life, and I cannot tell you how much it has helped me and enriched my existence in this world. It is one of the ways in which we can ‘become as little children.’

 

Isaac Watts’ Rules for Prayer

When Isaac Watts speaks, I listen. He is the reason this blogs exists (see the About page) and could paraphrase psalms like no one else (i.e. O God Our Help In Ages Past, Jesus Shall Reign Wher’er the Sun). He gives his teaching on prayer in his book, A Guide to Prayer. Below I will quote his six rules for prayer and then offer a short summary at the end.

1. Strive to know God and yourself in light of the Scripture

Rule 1: Strive for a large acquaintance with all things that belong to religion, for there is nothing that relates to religion but may properly make some part of the content of our prayer. This is therefore the most general advice and the most universal rule that can be given in this case. Let us daily seek after a more extensive and a more affecting knowledge of God and of ourselves. A great acquaintance with God in his nature, in his persons, in his perfection, in his works and in his Word will supply us with abundant furniture for invocation, adoration, praise, thanksgiving and blessing; and will suggest to us many arguments in pleading with God for mercy. An intimate acquaintance with ourselves and a lively sense of our own frames of spirit, our needs, our sorrows and our joys will also supply us with proper thoughts for confession, for petition and for giving thanks.We should acquaint ourselves therefore with the Word of God in a great degree, for it is there he reveals himself to us and there he reveals us also to ourselves. Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you in all wisdom, that you may be furnished with petitions and praises.

2. Use methods to guide you

Rule 2: Let the nature of this duty of prayer, as divided into its several parts, be impressed upon our hearts and dwell in our memories. Let us always remember that it contains in it these several parts of worship, namely, invocation, adoration, confession, petition, pleading, profession (or self-resignation), thanksgiving, and blessing. That we may retain them better in our minds, they may be summed up in these four lines: Call upon God, adore, confess, Petition, plead, and then declare You are the Lord’s, give thanks and bless, And let Amen confirm the

Note: I teach my children to use the acronym ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication

3. Be specific

Rule 3. If you wish to be furnished with larger supplies of material, do not content yourselves merely with generalities, but go into particulars in your confessions, petitions and thanksgiving. Enter into a particular consideration of the attributes, the glories, the graces and the relations of God. Express your sins, your wants and your sorrows, with a particular sense of the mournful circumstances that attend them.

4. Read, discuss, and meditate first

Rule 4: In order to furnish our minds with content for: prayer, it is very convenient at solemn times of worship to read some part of the Word of God, or some spiritual treatise written by holy men; or to converse with fellow Christians about divine things; or to spend some time in recollection or meditation of things that belong to religion.

5. Read the prayers of the Bible, especially the Psalms

Rule 5: If after all we find our hearts very barren and hardly know how to frame a prayer before God of ourselves, it has often been useful to take a book in our hand which contains some spiritual meditations in a petitionary form, some devout reflections or excellent patterns of prayer: above all, the psalms of David, some of the prophecies of Isaiah, some chapters in the Gospels, or any of the Epistles.

6. Pray about your inability to pray

Rule 6: If you find your heart so very dry and unaffected with the things of religion that you can say nothing at all to God in prayer, that no divine content occurs to your thoughts, go and fall down humbly before God and tell him with a grievous complaint that you can say nothing to him, that you can do nothing but groan and cry before him. Go and tell him that without, his Spirit you cannot speak one expression, that without immediate assistance from his grace you cannot proceed in this worship.Tell him humbly that he must lose a morning or an evening sacrifice if he does not condescend to send down fire from heaven upon the altar.

I wanted to make an acronym for the points but found it difficult. So I give this summary:

  • Know God and yourself through study and observation
  • Use a method
  • Be specific in everything
  • Meditate first
  • Read the Psalms and other biblical prayers
  • Pray your weakness

Notice the first point is very broad, the second is more specific, and the third very specific. The final three points are helps for those who might struggle. I was especially helped by Watts’ encouragement for those with ‘dry and unaffected’ hearts to pray their weakness and inability. That leaves me with essentially no excuses. Even when I don’t feel like praying, I should be telling God that I don’t feel like praying and seeking his help.

You can read the ebook for free HERE. For related posts, see my post on Jesus Shall Reign HERE and my post on John Owen and prayer HERE.

We’re Marching to Zion, Just Sayin’

This one goes in the ‘just sayin” department:

Tonight, I was meditating on the biblical teaching of ‘glorification’ and began to think of Isaac Watts’ great line:

‘The men of grace have found
Glory begun below;
Celestial fruits on earthly ground
From faith and love may grow.”

I then listened to the hymn, We’re Marching to Zion, and thought about its entirety, which leaves me just sayin’: I don’t know if there is a more beautiful hymn in the history of hymnody, and I don’t think I’ve ever actually sung it in a church service. I’m going to see if I can change that this coming Lord’s Day. Here are the lyrics and a video for your pleasure:

  1. Come, we that love the Lord,
    And let our joys be known;
    Join in a song with sweet accord,
    And thus surround the throne.

    • Refrain:
      We’re marching to Zion,
      Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
      We’re marching upward to Zion,
      The beautiful city of God.
  2. The sorrows of the mind
    Be banished from the place;
    Religion never was designed
    To make our pleasures less.
  3. Let those refuse to sing,
    Who never knew our God;
    But children of the heav’nly King
    May speak their joys abroad.
  4. The men of grace have found
    Glory begun below;
    Celestial fruits on earthly ground
    From faith and hope may grow.
  5. The hill of Zion yields
    A thousand sacred sweets
    Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
    Or walk the golden streets.
  6. Then let our songs abound,
    And every tear be dry;
    We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground
    To fairer worlds on high. (via Timeless Truths)