Robinson Crusoe's Text

I'm currently reading Desiring God, by John Piper. An excellent book on how to live life for the joy that comes from following Christ. A book of extreme power that will surely change the way you think about your life with Christ; a book I highly recommend you read. Here is a passage from the book where Piper talks about the two-way nature of prayer:

"Charles Spurgeon once preached a sermon on this very topic (prayer to glorify God) and called it 'Robinson Cursoe's Text.' He began like this:

'Robinson Crusoe has been wrecked. He is left on the desert island all alone. His case is a very pitiable one. He goes to bed, and he is smitten with fever. This fever lasts upon him long, and he has no one to wait upon him-none even to bring him a drink of cold water. He had been accustomed to sin, and had all the vices of a sailor; but his hard case brought him to think. he opens a Bible which he finds in his chest, and he lights upon this passage, "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." That night he prayed for the first time in his life, and ever after there was in hope in God, which marked the birth of the heavenly life.'*

Robinson Crusoe's text was Psalm 50:15. It is God's way of getting glory for Himself-Pray to Me! I will deliver you! And the result will be that you will glorify Me!
Spurgeon's explanation is penetrating:

'God and the praying man takes shares...First here is you share: "Call upon me in the day of trouble." Secondly, here is God's Share: "I will deliver thee." Again, you take a share-for you shall be delivered. And then again it is the Lord's turn-"Thou shalt glorify me." Here is a compact, a covenant that God enters into with you who pray to him, and whom he helps. He says, "You shall have the deliverance, but I must have the Glory..." Here is a delightful partnership: we obtain that which we so greatly need, and all that God getteth is the glory which is due unto his name.'

A delightful partnership indeed! Prayer is the very heart of Christian Hedonism. God gets the glory; we get delight. He gets the glory precisely because He shows Himself full and strong to deliver us into joy. And we attain fullness of joy precisely because He is the all-glorious source and goal of life.
Here is a great discovery: We do not glorify God by providing His needs, buy by praying that He would provide ours-and trusting Him to answer."**

Again, the book is "Desiring God", by John Piper. I highly, highly recommend it.

*Charles Spurgeon, Twelve Sermons on Prayer (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1971), 105.
**John Piper, Desiring God (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2003), 162-163.