“Brothers, pray for us.” So Paul wrote to the churches (Eph. 6:19, Col. 4:3, 1 Thess. 5:25, 2 Thess. 3:1). Though he was an apostle, he knew that he needed the prayers of the saints for his perseverance and the spread of the gospel. Likewise, all ministers today need the prayers of their people. This was a constant theme of Spurgeon’s ministry. Once, when asked by a group of American visitors about the secret of his success, he responded, “My people pray for me.”[1]
But how were the members of the Metropolitan Tabernacle to pray for their pastor? During a prayer meeting in 1881, Spurgeon gave these three ways they could be praying for him, “There are two or three matters for which I desire to ask your earnest prayers just now.”
Pray for the salvation of the lost
Spurgeon feared that his many absences due to illness would drive away visitors, but the opposite had happened. People came to prize his preaching even more so that the Tabernacle was filled with visitors every time he preached. Spurgeon saw this as God’s kind providence, and he urged his people to pray that he would be enabled to preach with power and that the Spirit would save thousands.
Do pray for a very large blessing on the congregation here. In the early summer weeks I thought that this house was not so full as usual, and I was greatly troubled about it; but the fact was that the major part of our friends had taken their holidays early. Of late the crowds have exceeded those of past years, and we are all amazed at the attendance at the prayer-meeting and the lecture. The sickness of the minister, no doubt, tended to make the public fearful of not hearing him, and his continued health has reassured them, so that now our great building will not hold all who come. We have the people to our heart’s content; do you wonder that I tremble lest the opportunity should be lost in any measure ? Do pray that I may preach with power. Plead with the Holy Ghost to convert these eager thousands. Persons of all nations, ranks, ages, and religions come hither. I beseech you, agonize in prayer that they may be saved. Let it not be true, in their case, that we have not because we ask not.
Pray for financial provision for the ministries of the church
The financial needs of the Pastors’ College and the Stockwell Orphanage constantly weighed on Spurgeon. The college represented the Tabernacle’s pastoral training, church planting, and missionary sending efforts. And the orphanage was a cooperative effort among evangelicals, led by Spurgeon, to care for orphans in London. The livelihood and future of these hundreds of young men and orphans rested on Spurgeon’s shoulders. But he did not bear this burden alone. Through the prayers of his people, they bore the load with him, and they brought all their needs to Jehovah Jireh.
Again, all through the summer weather, when friends go out into the country, and to the seaside, they generally forget to send any subscriptions for the Orphanage, College, and other enterprises. This is often a trial of my faith. I see the waters ebbing out, and at times the tops of the rocks are left bare, and I can see the weeds and the mud, and I do not enjoy the sight at all; I had rather see a good depth of sailing water for the fleet of charity. I bless God we have never come into actual debt, but I have wished that there was a little more regularity in the giving. Soon we shall have as many girls as boys in the Orphanage, and I say to myself, “I do not see any more people taking a share in the work,” and the question arises, “However will you keep them?” I do not know, but God does, and there I leave it, believing that he will find the means. It is not like him to cast away any good work that is undertaken for his sake; but still I beg you to pray about it, lest it should be true that we have not because we ask not. I do not speak thus because I have any unbelieving anxiety, but because the Lord has said, “For this will be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” The College and the Colportage are as much in need of help as the Orphanage, and they are equally useful agencies: I beg you to commend them all to the Most High, for whose glory they exist. By one or by another, by the living or by the dead, by the rich or by the poor, the Lord will provide; but I beg you to join with me in my prayer for these institutions— “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Pray for strength for the pastor to lead and care for the church
As important as the salvation of the lost and the ministries of the church are, Spurgeon never lost sight of his primary calling: to shepherd the huge congregation of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. As a pastor, Spurgeon bore the responsibility not only of preaching, but of membership interviews, church discipline cases, elders’ meetings, equipping new elders and deacons, pastoral visitation, leading prayer meetings and members’ meetings, and much, much more. Additionally, other pastors and churches looked to Spurgeon for leadership and guidance as they faced various challenges. He often felt crushed under the load. No man could do this work on his own strength. He needed the prayers of his people.
Greatly do I need your prayer for the work and ministry of this huge church. What a load rests upon me ! Here are about 5,500 of you, and with all the help I have, I find I have enough upon me to crush me unless heaven sustains me. My brother and the elders do for me what the elders in the wilderness church did for Moses, else should I utterly faint; but the more difficult cases, and the general leadership, make up a burden which none can carry unless the Lord gives strength. I loathe to speak thus about myself, and yet I must, for there is need. Beside all this, there cometh upon me the care of many another church, and of all sorts of works for our Lord. There, you do not know all, but you may guess; if you love me, if you love my Master, I implore you, pray for me. A good old man prayed before I came to London that I might always be delivered from the bleating of the sheep. I did not understand what he meant; but I know now when hour by hour all sorts of petitions, complaints, bemoanings, and hard questions come to me. The bleating of the sheep is not the most helpful sound in the world, especially when I am trying to get the food ready for the thousands here, there, and everywhere, who look for it to come to them regularly, week by week. Sometimes I become so perplexed that I sink in heart, and dream that it were better for me never to have been born than to have been called to bear all this multitude upon my heart. Especially do I feel this when I cannot help the people who come to me, and yet they look that I should do impossibilities. Moreover, it is not easy to give wise advice in such complicated affairs as those which came before me, and I hope I shall never be content without using my best judgment at all times. Frequently I can do nothing but bring the cases before God in prayer, and bear them as a burden on my heart. These burdens are apt to press very hard on a sympathizing heart, and cause a wear and tear which tell upon a man. I only say this because I want more and more the sympathy of God’s people, and perhaps I may not have even this if I ask not for it.
Conclusion
Spurgeon concluded with these words,
If you put me in so difficult a position you must uphold me by your prayers. If I have been useful to you in any measure, pray for me; it is the greatest kindness you can do me.
Pastor, do you ask your people to pray for you? Do they know that you need their prayers? If the apostle Paul needed the prayers of the saints, how much more do you! The ministry of the church cannot be borne alone by the pastor, or even by the elders, but must be carried by the entire church in prayer. Lead your people in this, so that if anyone asks you for the secret of your success, you can joyfully say, “My people pray for me.”
[1] Hayden, Highlights, 49.