Take Up the Cross

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
— Habakkuk 2:1

I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.
— Isaiah 57:19

Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
— Psalm 50:5

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
— Psalm 130:4

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
— Proverbs 26:11

Common Directions Helpful in All Cases and Prayers, by Thomas Goodwin. The following contains Chapter Five of his work, “The Return of Prayers: How to Discern God’s Answers to Prayers.”

I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
— Psalm 85:8

Common directions helpful in all cases and prayers.—First, from such observations as may be taken from before, and in praying.

Having premised these cases, I come now to more general and common directions to help you in discerning and observing the mind of God, and his answers to you in your prayers. All which directions are such as may be helpful in all the forementioned cases, and in all sorts of prayers whatever. And they are taken from observations to be made upon your prayers, &c., both before, in, and after praying.

First, before praying; when God bespeaks a prayer, as I may so speak,— that is, when God secretly speaks to the heart to pray much about a thing. I express it thus according to that phrase of David, Ps. 27:8, ‘Thou saidst, Seek my face, and I said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’ Now God then speaks to the heart to pray when not only he puts upon the duty by saying to the conscience, This thou oughtest to do; but God’s speaking to pray is such as his speech at first was, when he made the world, when he said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light:’ so he says, Let there be a prayer, and there is a prayer; that is, he pours upon a man a spirit of grace and supplication, a praying disposition; he puts in motives, suggests arguments and pleas to God; all which you shall find come in readily, and of themselves, and that likewise with a quickening heat and enlargement of affections, and with a lingering, and longing, and restlessness of spirit to be alone, to pour out the soul to God, and to vent and form those motions and suggestions into a prayer, till you have laid them together and made a prayer of them. And this is a speaking to the heart. And observe such times when God doth thus, and neglect them not, then to strike whilst the iron is hot; thou hast then his ear; it is a special opportunity for that business, such a one as thou mayest never have the like. Suitors at court observe mollissima fandi tempora, their times of begging when they have kings in a good mood, which they will be sure to take the advantage of; but especially if they should find that the king himself should begin of himself to speak of the business which they would have of him: and thus that phrase of Ps. 10:17 is understood by some, that God prepares the heart, and causeth the ear to hear; that is, he fashions it, and composeth it into a praying frame. And sure it is a great sign that God means to hear us when himself shall thus indite the petition.

And by the way let me give this note of difference between these speakings to the heart and those whereby Satan puts us upon such duties at unseasonable hours and times; as when we are otherwise necessarily to be employed in our callings, to eat, or to sleep, &c.; then to put upon praying is a device of his he useth to tire out new converts with. The difference will appear in this: the devil comes in a violent imperious manner upon the conscience, but enlargeth not the heart a whit unto the duty; but whensoever God at such extraordinary by-times doth call upon us, he fits and prepares the heart, and fills the soul with holy suggestions, as materials for the duty; for whatsoever he calls to, he gives abilities withal to the thing he calls for.

And thus usually, when he will have any great matters done and effected, he sets men’s hearts a-work to pray by a kind of gracious preinstinct; he stirs them up and toucheth the strings of their hearts by his Spirit sent down upon them. Thus against the return of the captivity he stirred up Daniel’s heart, chap. 9:1; he knowing by books the time to be near expiring, was stirred up to seek God. And so he that made this psalm, ‘salvation being then nigh,’ Ps. 85:9, 10; then God stirred him up to pray, and pen this prayer for their return; which God had foretold he would do, Jer. 29:10–12. For having promised, ver. 10, I will cause you to return after seventy years; ‘then,’ says he, ver. 12, ‘shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.’ He speaks it not only by way of command, what it was they ought to do, but as prophesying also what they should do; for then he meant to stir up their hearts, as then he did, as appears by those forementioned instances. Therefore observe what things God thus, by an instinct, doth enlarge thy heart to pray for at times, and sometimes at extraordinary by-times, when haply thou didst not think to pray about any such thing; yet he then stirred thee up most, it may be, as thou wert walking, &c., and having spare time, he draws thee into his presence, and moves thee in that manner specified.

Now, secondly, as God thus speaks to the heart to pray, so also in praying; and his speaking to the heart in prayer may be discerned by these particulars:—

1. When God quiets, and calms, and contents the heart in prayer, which is done by speaking something to the heart, though what is spoken be not always discerned. If you should see one who was an earnest and importunate suitor, and exceeding anxious when he went in to a great man, but beheld him after coming out from him contented, and quieted, and cheerful in his spirit, you would conceive that certainly something had been said to him which gave him encouragement, satisfaction, and contentment in his suit. Thus when thou goest to God, and hast been importunate in a business,—as suppose for Christ: O give me Christ, or else I die!—and thy desires were exceedingly up for it; but thou risest up with thy mind calmed and satisfied, and feelest the anxiousness, the solicitude of thy heart about the thing taken off and dispelled: this is a good sign that God hath heard thy prayer, and hath spoken something to thy heart which makes it thus composed. When Hannah, out of much bitterness and with strong desires, which by a long delay had been made more violent, so as her heart was much disquieted,—for, Prov. 13:12, ‘hope,’ and by the same reason desire also, ‘deferred makes the soul sick,’—when out of the abundance of her grief she had poured her soul out before the Lord, 1 Sam. 1:16, Eli the priest joining in prayer also for her, ‘The Lord grant thy petition;’ after that prayer she found her heart so quieted, that ‘she looked no more sad,’ as the text says there, she arose quieted and calmed, and it was that prayer that did both fill Eli’s mouth with that word of prophecy and her heart with quietness, and a secret word from God accompanying it that did still those waves: and accordingly God gave her a son, a son of her desires.

And the like God doth now, by speaking, as I said, something to the heart: as by dropping in some promise or other into the heart, or some like consideration; saying, as it were, to the heart, even as Eli from God did to her, ‘The Lord grants thy petition.’ As to St Paul, when he was earnest with God about removing his buffetings by Satan, which whether they were the stirring up a lust, or temptations of blasphemy, I do not now dispute; ‘I besought God thrice,’ that is, earnestly, says he, ‘that it might depart;’ and to this he had an answer in the meantime given him, till it should be taken away, enough to still and quiet him: so 2 Cor. 12:8, 9. ‘And he said,’—that is, in prayer the Lord did put in this consideration and promise into his thoughts,—’And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, and my power is made perfect in weakness.’ This answer thus coming in, this promise thus seasonably suggested, stayed and quieted Paul’s heart. In like manner, thou hast, it may be, been long praying against poverty or the like distress, and God lets fall this or the like promise into thy heart, ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,’ Heb. 13:5, which quiets and contents thy mind. This is an answer; and observe such answers, for they are precious.

2. If whilst thou art a-praying God doth draw nigh to thy soul, and revealeth himself to it in and upon such or such a particular petition: as in case thou didst mainly intend, when thou didst begin to pray, to set thyself to beg some temporal mercy at his hands, some great matter for the good and prosperity of the church,—as Daniel, chap. 9, did set himself to seek God for the return of the captivity,—and even before thou comest to ask it, or in asking it, God smiles upon thee, welcomes thee, falleth about thy neck and kisseth thee; this thou art to observe as a sign he hears thy prayer, and accepteth both thee and it. When there is such a strong sense of God’s favour and presence whilst thou art upon such a suit and request, more than at other times or than in other passages of the same prayer, this is a token God hears thee in that particular, and thou art to observe this his speaking to thy heart; when thus thou shalt no sooner come into his presence to inquire of him, but he says, ‘Here I am,’ as the promise is, Isa. 58:9. Therefore, Ps. 69:17, 18, ‘Hear me speedily,’ says David; ‘and,’ that I may know thou hearest me, ‘draw nigh to me.’ Therefore when God draws nigh to thee, it is a sign he hears thee. Daniel having fasted and prayed for three weeks together, chap. 10:2, 3, then an angel came, and one of the three Persons came and told him he was ‘a man greatly beloved,’ ver. 11, 19. When, in like manner, God by his Spirit comes down, and meets thee, and tells thy heart in secret that thou art his beloved and he is thine, then thy prayers are certainly heard; for if he accepts thy person, much more thy prayers, 1 John 5:13, 14. Men, false men,—false upon the balance, as David speaks, when they come to be tried and weighed,—they will, out of cunning, use suitors most kindly then when they mean to put them off, and deny them their requests; but God, who is truth and faithfulness itself, doth not use so to deal, but when he means to answer the prayer, he withal sometimes reveals his free grace most, to the end they may see and acknowledge the fountain of all to be his everlasting love, and so take the thing granted as a fruit of it, and thereby come to be the more abundantly thankful.

Only let me add this caution, which may be of great use to you: That it is not always infallibly true that when God draws nigh to you in a particular request, that that request in particular shall be granted in that manner you desired; but it is a certain evidence that thy prayer is heard, and that the thing thon askest is agreeable to his will, and that he approves of thee and thy request exceedingly, and thinketh the better of thee for it, and he will give thee it, or something that is better. There may be herein, and sometimes is, a mistake of God’s meaning, to think that always then the thing shall be granted when God draws nigh to a man: experience sometimes shews the contrary.

Quest.—But you will say, Why doth God draw so nigh if he means not to grant it?

Ans. 1.—He shews thereby his approving will of the thing prayed for. Now God approves many things he decrees not. There is his approving will and his decreeing will. God may shew his approving will of the thing thou askest,—as suppose it be in view a matter which is of great consequence to the church,—which he doth for thy encouragement; but yet it follows not that his decreeing will is for the accomplishment of that very thing in particular.

Ans. 2.—God may accept the person and the prayer when he doth not grant the thing prayed for; and by that drawing nigh witness his acceptation of thy person and thy prayer. Yea—

Ans. 3.—That revealing of himself is oftentimes all the answer he intended to such a prayer; and it is answer enough, too, to enjoy in the stead of a particular mercy the assurance of God’s love. As suppose thou didst pray against some evil coming upon his church, which he yet intends to bring, which he did set thy heart a-work to pray against, thereby to manifest the sincerity thereof, and then he, seeing thee thus sincere, draws nigh to thee, and tells thee, however, it shall go well with thee, and that thou art greatly beloved of him: thou art sometimes to take this for all the answer he means to give. And this he doth sometimes also to content the heart, and prepare it for a denial in the thing; whereas otherwise the denial of what a Christian hath been earnest in might occasion, as in many it doth, a questioning and doubting of God’s love.

3. When God stirs up in the heart a particular faith in a business, as sometimes he doth, and upholds the heart to wait for it, maugre all discouragements. So he did in David, Ps. 27:3. David was then in great hazards by reason of Saul, or Absalom, and those such and so often, as that to sense and outward probabilities he was like never to live quietly again at Jerusalem, and enjoy God’s ordinances there in peace; but for this David had prayed, and had made it as the grand request of his whole life,—as every man hath some one great request of all other, even as he hath some special grace above all other, or gift, &c., so request to God, next to his salvation, as haply for his ministry, or the like, therefore says David, ver. 4, ‘This one thing have I desired,’—and accordingly God gave him a special faith in this thing above all other, because it was his great request; ‘In this will I be confident,’ ver. 3. And though a host of men should again and again encompass me, says he, yet in this I will be confident, that I shall still escape, and see Jerusalem again, and enjoy the ordinances and live in peace. And though his faith failed him often, as in the persecution of Saul it did, for he said he should ‘one day perish by the hand of Saul,’ 1 Sam. 27:1, yet at other times his faith was marvellously upheld, and he was confident in this. He used not to be so in other requests thus absolutely, particularly, and distinctly; and therefore he says, ‘In this,’ &c. As there is a witness of the Holy Ghost immediate to the heart, sealing up adoption to a man’s person, so in some cases there is the like testimony for the obtaining of some eminent thing we have asked. Which particular special faith doth in a kind of similitude answer to the faith of miracles of old, whereby a man had a particular confidence that God would do such a miracle by him. So in and by means of prayer, in some things there may be a particular strengthening and assuring the heart, that God will do such a thing for a man: which I confess is rare and extraordinary, as also that immediate testimony concerning our persons is, which many want that go to heaven. And haply this other, concerning the accomplishment of special mercies, is much more rare, and but in some businesses, and is a thing which some men are not acquainted with, but yet may be in some cases existent to some men’s spirits, as it was to David’s in the thing mentioned.

And concerning this also I will also add a caution, as about the former: That it doth not always fall out upon all such kind of evidences made to a man’s spirit, and that by God, that the thing prayed for doth come to pass. For these very persuasions stirred up by God, may be and are often but conditional, though thus immediately made to a man’s spirit, and are so to be understood, and not peremptory and absolute. It cannot be imagined that all these should always be of greater absoluteness and peremptoriness than were many of those revelations made by God to the prophets, wherein he manifested his gracious purpose towards such a man or people, either to vouchsafe them such a mercy, or bring such a judgment; which forewarning, though they were particular and express, yet limited and intended with a condition, according to the performance or not performance of which it fell out, either the judgment expressly threatened was diverted, or that good thing which was as directly and fully promised was not bestowed: as it was in the case of Jonah threatening the destruction of Nineveh; and so in the promise concerning Eli’s house, 1 Sam. 2:30, ‘I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever:’ but now the Lord says it shall not be so, for they had broken the condition which was implied in it, they had despised the Lord; ‘and them that despise me,’ says God there, ‘I will despise.’

In like manner is God’s meaning expressed towards us in such like persuasions wrought in us by prayer, to be understood: as that such mercies will surely come to pass, but still under a condition of obedience, and performing of those vows which a man joined with those his petitions, to move the Lord to grant the things; which if a man fail in, or ceaseth to go on to believe, it may and doth often come to pass that things fall out contrary to that persuasion; and then we are apt to question whether it was from God or no; which it might be, and truly wrought by his Spirit, and yet not always absolutely meant,—that was your mistake so to take it,—but conditionally only. For in such great requests of the soul unto God, there use to pass mutual covenants between God and us, and indentures are drawn and sealed unto by us—that is, we in prayer offer and promise to do thus and thus, if God will vouchsafe us such a mercy, and plead it to God to move him to bestow it; and God, he thereupon, it may be, seals a covenant on his part to grant the thing, and works such an undoubted persuasion; but if we, in that interim of waiting for that mercy, do deal falsely in that covenant which we have made, and this even whilst we are yet in dependence upon God for it, whereby it appears that we would have done so much more after we should have received it once,—in this case God denies the thing, and yet notwithstanding that persuasion and evidence was from God that heard the prayer. He said indeed he would do thus and thus for thee,—as he told David, ‘I would have given thee much more,’—because thou saidst to him, thou wouldst walk thus and thus, or didst vow this or that to him: thou failest in thy word, upon which God uttered his; and thereupon, says God, as to Eli, ‘Now it shall not be so,’ and yet God had spoken it afore, and not Satan, nor thine own heart only.

4. When God doth put a restless importunity into the heart, maugre all discouragements. So in that Psalm 27:4, ‘One thing I have desired, and I will seek after it,’—that is, as I have sought it, so I will not leave seeking to God for it. When God maintains this in the heart, it is a sign he hears and will answer; for you know the parable, that the unjust judge heard her for her importunity: therefore when God puts an importunity into the heart, he means to hear.

Only this likewise is to be added in this, there is a double importunity: one out of such an inordinate desire to a thing, as the heart knows not how to be without such a mercy, and so continues to ask, but ‘asketh amiss, and so receives not,’ James 4:3. But there is an importunity joined with a subjection to God’s will, which, when it runs along with it, then God hath stirred it up; and then look for something to come: otherwise you may be importunate, as ‘they seek me daily,’ when yet God heard not, Isa. 58:2.

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