The Puritans, at their best, cultivated a communion with the living God that flowed naturally into prayer. Moreover, as Christlike pastors, they prayed Christlike prayers, reflecting the desires and priorities of their Savior for his people.

In learning prayer from the Puritans, we are not seeking to become mere mimics. We do not live in the seventeenth century; we may not live in those places where the Puritans walked. We are not trying to simply ape their vocabulary and the cadence of their intercessions. At the same time, we do want to understand how they prayed — from pulpits and in prisons, among their families, and in their churches. It is not carnal to ask, “Teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). We learn well by listening to those who pray well, not with empty eloquence but with heavenly fervor.

As we listen to Puritan and Puritanesque praying, putting our ears to their doors, what do we hear? What can we seek to imitate?

Pray with Intelligence

We hear, first of all, intelligence. I do not mean that their prayers sounded clever, displayed their academic learning, or impressed with their oratory and vocabulary. I mean that they prayed from true knowledge.

First, they possessed a knowledge of God — an experiential and affectionate knowledge of their God and Father. Have you ever heard someone pray who walks with God, who is accustomed to communion with him, who knows what it is to be in the presence of the Almighty and returns there by familiar paths? I have sat stunned as a praying man seems to take me by the hand and lead me with him into the presence of God. That cannot be manufactured.

In addition, the Puritans show intelligence in their thinking about prayer. The Westminster Catechisms define prayer like this: “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.” A succession of further questions delves into the nature of prayer.

John Bunyan wrote a treatise exploring this definition: “Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God hath promised, or according to the Word, for the good of the church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God” (Prayer, 13).

William Gurnall said that “prayer is called a ‘pouring out of the soul to God.’ The soul is the well, from which the water of prayer is poured; but the Spirit is the spring that feeds, and the hand that helps to pour it forth; the well would have no water without the spring, neither could it deliver itself without one to draw it” (The Christian in Complete Armour, 467).

Puritans distinguished between public and family and private prayer; between personal and pastoral intercession; between regular habits of prayer, special seasons of prayer, and sudden cries in prayer; between feeble, faithful, and fervent prayer. They argued about scripted prayers as opposed to extemporaneous prayers. They did this not to bewilder or confound, but because they wanted to honor God in their praying. So, they studied the spirit and substance of true prayer according to God’s revelation.

Pray with Reverence and Confidence

The Puritans’ knowledge of God led them to pray also with reverence. Puritans knew that they approached a high and holy God. Like the publican in the temple, they were conscious that sinners like them could approach the throne of the Almighty only through the blood of sacrifice.

In Thomas Cobbet’s language, “No sooner do the saints essay to draw near unto God, than the beams of the glory of God reflect upon their souls, which do thus awe and abase them; they see in the glass of that excellency their own vileness” (Gospel Incense, 212). This is true humility, a profound awareness that coming to God under the terms of the new covenant does not in any way diminish a sense of his holiness but rather enhances it (Hebrews 12:22–29). They realized that nothing but the blood of Jesus could open a way for sinners to come to the God of light.

But such reverence is matched by confidence. Alongside that holy fear was a holy familiarity. Because Puritans came to God by Christ, they had “confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.” And having “a great priest over the house of God,” they drew near “with a true heart in full assurance of faith” — their “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and [their] bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19–22).

Trusting in Christ for their reception, and assured that they were accepted in the Beloved, the Puritans came to their Father in heaven, crying out to him as beloved sons, in tones at once intimate and expectant: “Let us . . . with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). For them, the promises of Luke 11:9–13 were no empty rhetoric, but the very basis on which they came with large petitions.

They loved to speak of coming to a throne of grace, to the mercy seat where God both displays and dispenses his favor to those who come in faith: “As long as God hath a mind to give mercy and grace, as long as any of the children of men are sensibly needy of grace and mercy, and askers and receivers thereof from the Lord, (and that will be till the heavens be no more), this throne of grace will be plied and praised” (The Works of Robert Traill, 1:14).

Pray with Substance

When they came to the throne of grace, we also hear the substance of Puritan prayers. Several collections of prayers by the Puritans and others of their spirit demonstrate this substance (for example, The Valley of Vision, Piercing Heaven, The Pastor in Prayer, or Into His Presence).

It is one thing to theorize about the Puritans at prayer; it is another to read them teaching and preaching about praying; it is something else altogether to lurk at their shoulder as they approach God on behalf of his people. One is tempted to say, “If this is how they spoke with the Lord in public, what must have been their communion with him in private?” These are men who deal with God, who plead the promises of Scripture, who wrestle with a tenacity learned from Jacob (Genesis 32:28), with a humility and dignity that has something of Christ himself about it.

If you read a prayer like Daniel’s in chapter 9 of his history and prophecy, you see the whole woven together from strands drawn from previous revelation. The Puritans do likewise. Their prayers, therefore, reflect divine priorities and concerns. Such scriptural substance gives their intercessions richness and depth, and underscores their confidence because they are asking for what God has already promised.

Some Puritans offered helps for prayer, sometimes culling Scripture (or, at least, “bibline”) phrases from the word of God to supply the saints with appropriate vehicles for their wants and needs, their praises and their pleas (such as Matthew Henry’s A Method for Prayer). They loved the Psalms and similar portions of Scripture as fruitful expressions of a praying heart; they explored the recorded prayers of Christ and his apostles. This scriptural familiarity gave their prayers at once a glorious variety (for they plucked their flowers from the whole field of revelation) and a delightful simplicity (for the language they used — while of its time — is earthy and potent). They drive straight at the mercy seat, echoing God’s word back to him.

To the Throne of Grace

Without wishing or needing to become anachronistic mimics, the Puritans can teach us to pray. They teach us what prayer is, to consider it intelligently, to engage in it reverently, to pursue it confidently, and to deal with God substantially.

At root, if you had asked a Puritan how to pray, I suspect they would have said to study God in Christ. Why? Because when we thus perceive God by faith, we become praying people. The spirit and substance of our prayers should be conditioned by our coming through the gracious Spirit by the beloved Son to the almighty Father, seated on a throne of grace. Here we arrive at the very heart of true prayer, and here we begin all true eloquence.

http://rss.desiringgod.org/link/10732/15754111/a-text-for-the-day-the-doctor-says-cancer

Audio Transcript

What future judgment will Christians face? The apostle Paul, writing to a church of believers, said to them, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). To Christians he said that. And he included himself — “we must all appear”! In another place, he interrogated Christians by asking them, “Why do you despise your brother?” Despising other believers is ridiculous. Why? “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God,” again speaking of believers and including himself here — “we will all” (Romans 14:10). Those pointed texts arrest our attention and cause us to think about a future judgment to come for Christians. So, no surprise, come loads of questions to us about these and other texts, like this email from a listener named Mae: “Pastor John, can you explain what kind of judgments Christians will face when Jesus returns?”

Well, let’s start with the absolutely glorious news about the judgment that we will not face. I mean, the accomplishment of Christ in dying for us and rising for us can be stated positively and negatively. Positively, he died to “bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The enjoyment of the presence of God forever is the positive achievement of the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus.

No Longer Under Wrath

But the New Testament reminds us over and over again that we can state the good news negatively as well as positively — namely, we do not come under the wrath of God. He achieved a negative thing. This is not going to happen. Christ bore our sins. We won’t be punished for them. John 5:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has [that’s now] eternal [that’s forever] life. He does not come into judgment” — whoa — “but has passed from death to life.” What a verse.

That doesn’t mean we don’t go to court in the last day. It means we won’t be condemned in court in the last day. We’re already acquitted, and the court will prove it. Romans 8:1: “There is . . . now” — and forever — “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Or Romans 8:33: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” There will be no successful charge against us at the judgment — none. First John 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life.”

“If we are believing in Jesus, his death was our death. His punishment was our punishment.”

So, the judgment of wrath and punishment and final death are passed. They’re over for us. Jesus endured all of that for us if we are in Christ. If we are believing in him, united to him, his death was our death. His punishment was our punishment. God’s wrath was exhausted on him toward us. Therefore, Paul exults (with the verse I go to sleep on almost every night), “God has not destined us for wrath” — sweet — “but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.” I love those two verses. That’s 1 Thessalonians 5:9–10.

How God Judges Christians

So, if there is a judgment that will not condemn Christians, what other kind of judgment is there for us? That’s what’s being asked, I think. There is a dimension to the judgment that does not call into question our eternal life but determines what varieties of blessing or reward we will enjoy in the age to come.

And I know this can be disturbing to some people because “varieties of rewards” sounds like some people are going to be happy and others are not. But it’s plain from the Bible: there will be no unhappiness in heaven — none — no unhappiness in the age to come. Everyone will be as happy as he can be — all tears wiped away in the presence of the all-satisfying God (Revelation 21:4). But some people will evidently have greater capacities for happiness or greater avenues of happiness. Now, why do we think that? Why do we talk like that? We talk like that because the Bible teaches that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we will be rewarded differently, yet everybody will be perfectly happy. That’s why we talk like that.

Remember Jesus’s parable? For example, the king goes away and then he returns, and he gives different rewards to those who invested his money differently. This is Luke 19:16–19. The first servant came to him, saying, “Lord, your mina . . .” Now, a mina is one hundred drachmas, and a drachma is about the price of a sheep. “Your mina has made ten minas more.” And he said to him, “Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.” And a second came to him saying, “‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’ And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’” Now, that’s a picture, I think, of differing rewards in the last day of how we stewarded our lives for Christ in this world.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.” So, the judgment will take into account our heart motivations, not just our outward deeds themselves.

In Ephesians 6:8, Paul says one of the most amazing things about the final judgment for believers. He says, “Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.” In other words, every single large or tiny good thing you have ever done as a Christian, whether any other human knows about it or not, will come back to you for good at the last day. “Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.” What a great incentive not to worry about who sees us in what we do or what rewards we get in this life. Everything’s written down, and God will make sure that any good deed we’ve ever done, seen or unseen, will be properly rewarded.

God’s Response to Our Evil

Then in 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul says, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” And that last word, “evil” — whoa! What does that mean? The new question that text raises is, What does Paul mean when he talks about us receiving what is due for evil things we’ve done? Now, if our sins are forgiven, which they are, and we’re acquitted in the court of heaven, which we are, does this mean there will be punishment to Christians for sins they’ve done? That doesn’t make sense, right? No, it doesn’t mean that.

I think Paul explains what he means in 1 Corinthians 3:11–15. It’s a very familiar text, but let me suggest this angle on it.

No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day [that is, the day of judgment] will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

What I think Paul meant when he said in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “each one [will] receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” — what he meant was that the way one receives evil is by having his bad deeds burned up, meaning, he loses the reward he would have received if he had acted otherwise. This is not viewed by Paul as punishment but as loss of reward. It’s not owing to God’s wrath against his child. Mark that: It’s not owing to God’s wrath against his child. It is simply a fact that it would be unfitting for God to reward the sins of his children. They know that, we know that, Paul knew that.

Now, mark this: True Christians, when that happens — when some of their life is burned up because it was worthless — when that happens, true Christians will not begrudge God for this loss. They will rejoice in the grace that they do receive, and their cup of blessing will be full.

So, that’s my sketch of the coming judgment. We will not enter into condemnation or punishment, but we will receive varieties of blessing, varieties of reward, different avenues of joy, different sizes of cups — but every cup full.