Saturday, February 7, 2009

E.M. Bounds on Prayer



We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. It surmounts or removes all obstacles, overcomes every resisting force and gains its ends in the face of invincible hindrances.

God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. They outlive the lives of those who uttered them.

Non-praying is lawlessness, discord, anarchy.

The goal of prayer is the ear of God, a goal that can only be reached by patient and continued and continuous waiting upon Him, pouring out our heart to Him and permitting Him to speak to us. Only by so doing can we expect to know Him, and as we come to know Him better we shall spend more time in His presence and find that presence a constant and ever-increasing delight.

The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be; the mightier the forces against evil everywhere.

Our praying, to be strong, must be buttressed by holy living. The life of faith perfects the prayer of faith.

Men would pray better if they lived better. They would get more from God if they lived more obedient and well-pleasing to God.

Jesus taught that perseverance is the essential element of prayer. Men must be in earnest when they kneel at God's footstool. Too often we get faint-hearted and quit praying at the point where we ought to begin. We let go at the very point where we should hold on strongest. Our prayers are weak because they are not impassioned by an unfailing and resistless will

I think Christians fail so often to get answers to their prayers because they do not wait long enough on God. They just drop down and say a few words, and then jump up and forget it and expect God to answer them. Such praying always reminds me of the small boy ringing his neighbor's door-bell, and then running away as fast as he can go.

Prayer is our most formidable weapon, the thing which makes all else we do efficient.

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