The Urgency in 3AM Prayer Meetings

It is of grace that we are compelled to conclude the church's three-day prayer meeting, deliberately appointed for the solemn hour of three of the clock in the morning. By this inconvenience, we intend to emphasize the dire urgency in petitioning the hand of the Lord to bestow upon us greater spiritual blessings, most especially in the sacred area of prayer itself. It is common practice to offer God the spare remnants of our time; yet, to truly apprehend the evil of these days, we must relinquish the hours allotted for ease and rest, choosing instead to knock early upon the door of the just Judge. He is one who not only doth not slumber, but who takes a peculiar and great pleasure in answering those who stand confidently at His divine courts, firmly believing that He will perform His promise. The effective execution of the children's church, the power of our public preaching, the fervency of private devotions, the profitable reading of the Scripture in family worship: all these spiritual enterprises, and countless more, are utterly dependent upon God's hand moving. For the desire to labor for God, if coupled with the temptation to achieve it through the arm of the flesh, is a thief that steals from His glory. The work is wholly His. The Christian laborer is His. The power that animates the ministry is His. Therefore, the glory should be His alone. All that the humble believer can justly claim as his own is the honor and inestimable privilege to shine as a lamp for his great Lord and Redeemer. It must be solely through the workings of the Holy Spirit of God that these matters are elevated above the visible realm, where the humanly impossible is rendered utterly possible. In every labor, our work is simply to point to Christ, whose all-sufficient Spirit works powerfully in and through us.

It is utterly pointless to petition from God for those blessings which, by the exertion of human effort, we might well secure for ourselves. Nay, the very essence of faithful prayer is that we should dare to ask for the impossible—those magnificent works that lie entirely beyond the arm of the flesh! 

We approach the Throne to plead for the turning of hearts to Christ in true repentance; for the constant preservation of our Christian witness against the clamor of the world; for victory over besetting sin that chains the soul; for the lifting up of the downcast spirit; and for the spread of the glorious Gospel throughout the whole earth.

All these, and every other request that touches the eternal realm, are only possible when we approach the throne of grace with a boundless, unshakeable confidence. We must believe that our God is able and eternally willing to bestow far more than whatever common or temporal blessings we may presume to ask in His holy name. For the true measure of our prayer is the measure of the impossible we entrust to the Omnipotent.

Master Bounds writes: We may excuse the spiritual poverty of our preaching in many ways. But, the true reason for it is the lack of urgent prayer for God's presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. There are innumerable preachers who can deliver masterful sermons, but the effects are short-lived. They do not affect the regions of the spirit where the fearful war between God and Satan, heaven and hell, is being waged, because they are not made powerfully militant and spiritually victorious by prayer. 

The preachers who gain mighty results for God are the men who have prevailed in their pleadings with God before venturing to plead with men. The preachers who are the mightiest in their closets with God are the mightiest in their pulpits with men. 

Preachers are human, and are often exposed to or involved in the strong currents of human emotions and problems. Praying is spiritual work, and human nature does not like taxing, spiritual work. Human nature wants to sail to heaven under a pleasant breeze and a full, smooth sea. Prayer is humbling work. It abases intellect and pride, crucifies vainglory, and signals our spiritual bankruptcy. All these are hard for flesh and blood to bear. It is easier not to pray than to bear them. 

So, we come to one of the crying evils of these times, maybe of all times: little or no praying. Of these two evils, perhaps little praying is worse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of make-believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion. 

The little regard we give prayer is evident from the little time we spend in it. The time given to prayer by the average preacher scarcely counts in light of how the remaining time is delegated to daily chores. Not infrequently, the preacher's only praying is by his bedside in his nightdress, ready for bed. Perchance, he gets in a few additional prayers before he is dressed in the morning. How feeble, vain, and little is such praying compared with the time and energy devoted to praying by holy men in and out of the Bible! How poor and meager our petty, childish praying is beside the habits of the true men of God in all ages! God commits the keys of His kingdom to men who think that praying is their main business, and devote time to it according to this high estimate of its importance. By these men, He works His spiritual wonders in this world. 

Great praying is the sign and seal of God's great leaders. It is the most earnest of the conquering forces with which God will crown their labors. 

The preacher is commissioned to pray as well as to preach. His mission is incomplete if he does not do both well. The preacher may speak with all the eloquence of men and of angels, but unless he can pray with a faith that draws all heaven to his aid, his preaching will be "as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (1 Cor. 13:1). It will be useless for permanent, God-honoring, soul-saving purposes.