E.M. Bounds:Classic Collection on Prayer

by E.M. Bounds

Faith A dear friend of mine who was quite a lover of the chase, told me the following story: “Rising early one morning,” he said, “I heard the baying of a score of deerhounds in pursuit of their quarry. Looking away to a broad, open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making its way across, and giving signs, moreover, that its race was well-nigh run. Reaching the rails of the enclosure, it leaped over and crouched within ten feet from where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over, when the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and round, fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs in the West could not, and should not capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my strength.” So is it, when human helplessness appeals to Almighty God. Well do I remember when the hounds of sin were after my soul, until, at last, I ran into the arms of Almighty God. (A. C. Dixon)

A dear friend of mine who was quite a lover of the chase, told me the following story: “Rising early one morning,” he said, “I heard the baying of a score of deerhounds in pursuit of their quarry. Looking away to a broad, open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making its way across, and giving signs, moreover, that its race was well-nigh run. Reaching the rails of the enclosure, it leaped over and crouched within ten feet from where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over, when the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and round, fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs in the West could not, and should not capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my strength.” So is it, when human helplessness appeals to Almighty God. Well do I remember when the hounds of sin were after my soul, until, at last, I ran into the arms of Almighty God. (A. C. Dixon)

Moreover, when faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.

Faith does the impossible because it brings God to undertake for us, and nothing is impossible with God.

Prayer projects faith on God, and God on the world. Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God.

Thus faith is kept alive by prayer, and every step taken in this adding of grace to grace is accompanied by prayer.

Faith in Christ’s ability to do and to do greatly is the faith that prays greatly. Thus the leper laid hold upon the power of Christ. “Lord, if thou wilt,” he cried, “thou canst make me clean.”[6]

True prayers are born of present trials and present needs.

As every day demands its bread, so every day demands its prayer. No amount of praying done today will be sufficient for tomorrow’s praying.

Faith is not an aimless act of the soul, but a looking to God and a resting upon His promises.

Faith is not believing just anything; it is believing God, resting in Him, trusting His Word.

Doubt and fear are the twin foes of faith.

Our eyes should be taken off self, removed from our own weakness, and allowed to rest implicitly upon God’s strength.

Faith grows by reading and meditating upon the Word of God. Most, and best of all, faith thrives in an atmosphere of prayer.

“Would you be freed from the bondage to corruption?” he asks. “Would you grow in grace in general and grow in grace in particular? If you would, your way is plain. Ask of God more faith. Beg of Him morning, and noon and night, while you walk by the way, while you sit in the house, when you lie down and when you rise up. Beg of Him simply to impress divine things more deeply on your heart, to give you more and more of the substance of things hoped for and of the evidence of things not seen.”[22]

The trust that infuses prayer centers in a Person.

Being much on our knees in private communion with God is the only guarantee that we will have Him with us in our personal struggles or in our efforts to convert sinners. Whenever

Holy desire is greatly helped by devout meditation. Meditation on our spiritual need and on God’s readiness and ability to supply it[5] helps desire to grow.

Nothing short of being red hot for God can keep the glow of Heaven in our hearts these chilly days.

Desire is intense, but narrow; it cannot spread itself over a wide area. It wants a few things, but it wants them badly. So badly, in fact, that nothing but God’s willingness to answer can bring it relief or content.

The indispensable requirement for all true praying is a deeply seated desire that seeks after God himself, and remains unsatisfied until the choicest gifts in Heaven have been richly and abundantly granted.

It is not in our power, perhaps, to create fervency of spirit at will, but we can ask God to implant it.

It takes years, sometimes, to answer a prayer and when it is answered, and we look backward we can see that it was. But God knows all the time, and it is His will that we pray and pray and still pray, and so come to know what it is to pray without ceasing.

Nothing distinguishes the children of God so clearly and strongly as prayer. It is the one infallible mark and test of being a Christian. Christian

On one occasion Daniel fasted and pressed his case for three weeks before the answer and the blessing came.[12]

Negligence, faint-heartedness, impatience, or timidity is fatal to our prayers. Waiting for our persistent and insistent prayers is the Father’s heart, the Father’s hand, the Father’s infinite power, and the Father’s infinite willingness to hear and give to His children.

It is not great talents, great learning, or great preachers that God needs, but men and women who are great in holiness, faith, love, and faithfulness—in