It is the burning lava of the soul that has a furnace within--a very volcano of grief and sorrow-it is that burning lava of prayer that finds its way to God. No prayer ever reaches God's heart which does not come from our hearts.
Interpretation
True prayers stem from genuine emotions of grief and sorrow, and only those that convey deep feelings reach God.
In this quote, Charles Spurgeon emphasizes the importance of heartfelt prayer. He likens sincere prayers to the intense and molten lava of a volcano, suggesting that true communication with God is born from profound feelings of grief and sorrow. It conveys the message that prayers lacking genuine emotion cannot truly connect with the divine.
In practice
In a sermon addressing the importance of sincere prayer, one might quote Spurgeon to illustrate emotional connection with God.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
For Ragamuffins, God's name is Mercy. We see our darkness as a prized possession because it drives us into the heart of God. Without mercy our darkness would plunge us into despair - for some, self-destruction. Time alone with God reveals the unfathomable depths of the poverty of the spirit. We are so poor that even our poverty is not our own: It belongs to the mysterium tremendum of a loving God.
However one might pray - in any verbal way or completely without words - is unimportant to God. What matters is the heart's intent.
He chose to honor us with His priesthood. So we honor Him by honoring His priesthood - both its power and those who bear it.
Those who worship and adore the Lord through the Guru's Word forget all their pain and suffering.
The words were unexpected, but so incisively true. So much of prayer is like that - an encounter with a truth that has sunk to the bottom of the heart, that wants to be found, wants to be spoken, wants to be elevated into the realm of sacredness.
God's grace comes in all shapes, sizes, and circumstances as God continues to unfold something magnificent in me.
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