A Guide to Prayer (Isaac Watts)

Description

Isaac Watts' book A Guide to Prayer, is a helpful and practical guide to prayer. To Isaac Watts, prayer was more than a duty required in the worship of God. It was 'the conversation which God allows us to maintain with himself above, while we are here below…in which the soul of a saint often gets near to God, experiences great delight and, as it were, dwells with his heavenly Father for a short time before he comes to heaven.'

But Watts knew that most Christians need help in the use of this great privilege, so that our prayers should be both acceptable to God and ‘a delightful and profitable exercise to our own souls and to those that join with us’.

Watts deals in turn with the nature of prayer, prayer viewed as a gift which can be developed, prayer as dependent on the fruits of divine grace, and the assistance of the Spirit of God in prayer. In his final chapter he brings forward several arguments to persuade all Christians to develop and use 'this holy skill of conversation with God'.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Introduction 8

CHAPTER 1: THE NATURE OF PRAYER 10

Invocation 10

Adoration 11

Confession 13

Petition 16

Leading 20

Profession, or Self-Dedication 26

Thanksgiving 29

Blessing 32

Amen, or the Conclusion 33

CHAPTER 2: THE GIFT OF PRAYER 34

What the Gift of Prayer Is 34

Forms of Prayer, Free or Conceived Prayer, and Praying Extempore 36

The Content of Prayer 49

The Method of Prayer 62

Expression in Prayer 68

The Voice in Prayer 86

Gesture in Prayer 92

General Directions on the Gift of Prayer 102

CHAPTER 3: THE GRACE OF PRAYER 109

The Grace of Prayer, and How It Differs from the Gift 109

General Graces of Prayer 113

Graces that Belong to Particular Parts of Prayer 115

Directions to Attain the Grace of Prayer 119

CHAPTER 4: THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER 124

Proofs of the Assistance of the Spirit of God in Prayer 125

How the Spirit Assists Us in Prayer 134

Cautions about the Influences of the Spirit 147

Directions to Obtain and Keep the Spirit of Prayer 157

CHAPTER 5: PERSUASIVE ARGUMENTS TO LEARN TO PRAY 167

Product Details

Title: A Guide to Prayer 

Author: Isaac Watts

Publisher: Banner of Truth

Pages: 192

Binding: Cloth-bound

Size: 19.5 x 12.8 x 1.9 cm

ISBN: 9781848719491