The Spirit of Prayer (Father in the Mighty Name)

Charles Wesley’s "For the Spirit of Prayer" is a five-verse plea built around a single repeated line, "only give me power to pray." It asks for nothing else, not comfort, not relief, not even an end to suffering, only the ability to pray at all.

This is episode seven of Wesley's Hidden Gems - old classic Charles Wesley works that were never put to music, but that I think are beautiful and that I really want to still sing and listen to. I found another one in the 1742 Hymns and Sacred Poems - a stunning song about prayer. It's a short hymn; a lot of Wesley's are very long, but this one is five verses, and it's all about prayer.

The reason I really like this song is because it helps me stay motivated to pray. Prayer is probably the biggest challenge in my spiritual life. It can be wonderful, and then it can be really hard, and it seems to go up and down like that for me. This song really helps me to just ask God for the spirit of praying - for the strength to pray and for the desire to pray. My hope is that you might use it and listen to it here and there, so that you can be drawn to prayer more.

I read a lot of the prayer warriors of the last century. I love to read Leonard Ravenhill, Wesley Duewel - guys like that who prophetically called the church to prayer, and I always get really motivated to pray by their writing. Here's a song that I hope is going to help you as well to capture the spirit of prayer. It's called "For the Spirit of Prayer" in the hymnal. Let me take you through the lyrics before I sing my version.

What Do the Lyrics of "The Spirit of Prayer" Mean?

Verse 1

Father, in the mighty name
Of Thy well-beloved Son,
One of all Thy gifts I claim,
All my wants I speak in one,
Let me for the promise stay,
Only give me power to pray.

Praying in the name of the well-beloved Son - always a good start to your prayer. He's saying: of all the gifts You can give me, and of all my wants, I'm only bringing one today, because I want the power to pray. "Let me for the promise stay" - tarry, you might say in older language - to wait for Your promise and to spend some time in prayer so that Your Spirit may fall on me and my prayers may be powerful. Give me power to pray.

And this is the refrain through every part of the song. He keeps ending by saying: "Only give me power to pray." Whatever other gifts, at least let me be praying. Have you ever gone to God and said, "Of all the gifts and all the things I want, Lord, only one do I really need - and that's the power to pray"? I think that's a really deep thing to be asking of God.

Verse 2

Sensible delights on me,
Peace or joy, if Thou bestow,
Thankful I receive from Thee,
Or let all my comforts go.
Take Thy other gifts away,
Only give me power to pray.

That word "sensible" is not the way we would use it today - he's talking about the senses being activated in prayer. Let Your delights of peace and joy be in my affections, in my body. Let me feel You in myself as I pray. If You bestow these things on me, I'll be thankful - but "I’ll let all my comforts go." I'm not here just to get comfortable. I'm here to let go of whatever I need to let go of so that I can feel You in Your peace and Your joy, and I'll receive that with thankfulness.

"Take Thy other gifts away, only give me power to pray" - I'm not here to be comforted by Your other gifts; I only want the power to pray. This passion for prayer is really remarkable to me, and it reminds me of fasting. Fasting is when you say: take the gift of food away from me today - all I want is to pray. Jesus in Luke 5 said that there will come a time when the bridegroom is taken away, and then His people will fast. We need to fast so that we can feel that effect of Him in our bodies and in our souls in prayer. Sometimes we have to get rid of the other gifts - fast food, fast technology, fast whatever - so that you can really feel and experience Him in prayer.

Verse 3

See Thy poor afflicted child,
Patient and resigned in pain;
Let me wander o'er the wild,
Nevermore will I complain.
Here forever let me stay,
Only give me power to pray.

Even in pain, he's going to do this. Even if he is afflicted and suffering, he says: I will not complain, but I'll be patient, and I will stay in Your presence and be prayerful. This might be your message today as you watch this. Maybe it is for this reason that you found this - because in your pain, you need to remain with God and cry out to Him. Maybe for the person resigned to pain, or stuck in pain - sometimes our health problems make us stuck in pain - the call is to be patient, to wander through this wilderness without complaining, unlike the Israelites, but to love being in this place with God and to pray more. Don't let your pain keep you from prayer; let it drive you deeper into prayer and desire God in prayer even more.

Verse 4

Let the pangs that fill my breast
Fully all to Thee be known;
Griefs that cannot be expressed,
Let me tell Thee in a groan.
Haste to help me, or delay,
Only give me power to pray.

Whatever struggles I'm going through, I'm going to let them be known to You. If I'm not only physically in pain but also struggling with grief and lament - my heart filled with lament and pain - I will come to You and let them out. And if I have no words, Lord, let the Spirit groan for me. This is great imagery from Romans 8, where Paul says the Spirit groans for us when we have no words - the Spirit takes our prayers to God on our behalf in groans. Even if I'm groaning through my struggles, give me the strength to pray.

"Haste to help me, or delay" - whether it comes quickly or whether it takes time, just let me sit here and pray and spend this time with You.

Verse 5

Grant me comfort, or deny,
Visit, or from me depart;
Only let Thy Spirit cry
Abba, Father, in my heart.
Abba, Father, would I say,
Only give me power to pray.

Whether You comfort me or not, whether You feel close to me or You don't - let my spirit cry, "Abba, Father." Let me know You as my wonderful, beautiful, close Father and friend and God. And there's that repeat: "Abba, Father, would I say, only give me power to pray." This is what prayer is - connecting with God as your Father.

Whatever's going on in your life, pray, pray, pray. That's what it's all about.

Conclusion

In this hymn, Wesley renounces his own wants and says, "Just give me power to pray." He renounces his need for any other gift - he just wants to pray. Even through his suffering and the griefs in his heart, he says: I just want to pray. I just want to know You as my Father.

Do you have that sort of intense desire to pray? I hope the song might give it to you. That's why I wrote my own tune for it - so that I could sing this and let it inform my prayer life. I'm going to sing it now. I hope you like it, and I hope you'll come back to it again and again.

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