Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

We continue our series of excerpts from “Matthew Henry on a Practical Method of Daily Prayer.”¹ These will be without the usual comments and study references. My hope is that people will be like the Bereans, as described in Acts 17:11, and will put Henry’s writing to the test.

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Directions for Praying All Day

Henry wrote in his diary, “I love prayer. It is that which buckles on all the Christian’s armour.” Since the Christian must wear God’s armor at all times, he must pray without ceasing. According to Henry, the access that Christians have to God in Christ gives them;

        1)      “a companion ready in all their solitudes, so that they are never less alone than when alone. Do we need better society than fellowship with the Father?”

        2)      “a counsellor ready in all their doubts, … a guide (Ps. 73:24), who has promised to direct with his eye, to lead us in the way wherein we should go.”

        3)      “a comforter ready in all their sorrows … [to] support sinking spirits, and be the strength of a fainting heart.”

        4)      “a supply ready in all their wants. They that have access to God have access to a full fountain, an inexhaustible treasure, a rich mine.”

        5)      “a support ready under all their burdens. They have access to him as Adonai [my Lord], my stay and the strength of my heart (Ps. 73:26).”

        6)      “a shelter ready in all their dangers, a city of refuge near at hand. The name of the Lord is a strong tower (Prov. 18:10).”

        7)      “strength ready for all their performances in doing work, fighting work. He is their arm every morning (Isa. 33:2).”

        8)      “salvation insured by a sweet and undeceiving earnest.… If he thus guides us by his counsel he will receive us to glory.”

Since God has made Himself available to us so fully, we should go to Him throughout the day. Henry wrote, “David solemnly addressed himself to the duty of prayer three times a-day, as Daniel did; ‘Morning and evening, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud,’ Ps. 55:17. Nay, he doth not think that enough, but ‘seven times a day will I praise thee, Ps. 119:164.” Accordingly, Henry wrote three discourses of directions for prayer: beginning the day with God, spending the day with God, and closing the day with God.

Joel R. Beeke, “Matthew Henry on a Practical Method of Daily Prayer,” in Taking Hold of God: Reformed and Puritan Perspectives on Prayer, ed. Brian G. Najapfour (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2011), 143–144.