The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds: Power Through Prayer, The Reality of Prayer, The Essentials of Prayer, The Weapon of Prayer, Satan: His Personality, Power And Overthrow and More

by E.M. Bounds

Prayer honours God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence and secures His aid.

To do nothing but pray fails to do the praying, for the antecedent, coincident and subsequent conditions of prayer are but the sum of all the energized forces of a practical working piety.

He did trust God in everything. And the Father honoured the trust of His child."--Robert

God wants, and must have, all that there is in man in answering his prayers.

No man with a divided allegiance to God, and the world and self, can do the praying that is needed.

Holiness is wholeness, and so God wants holy men, men whole-hearted and true, for His service and for the work of praying.

Man is a trinity in one, and yet man is neither a trinity nor a dual creature when he prays, but a unit. Man is one in all the essentials and acts and attitudes of piety. Soul, spirit and body are to unite in all things pertaining to life and godliness.

The attitude of the body counts much in prayer, although it is true that the heart may be haughty and lifted up, and the mind listless and wandering, and the praying a mere form, even while the knees are bent in prayer.

Where there is earnest and faithful praying the body always takes on the form most suited to the state of the soul at the time. The body, that far, joins the soul in praying.

The entire man must pray. The whole man, life, heart, temper, mind, are in it.

First of all, it takes thought to pray. The intellect teaches us we ought to pray.

Thought goes before entrance into the closet and prepares the way for true praying.

True praying does not leave to the inspiration of the hour what will be the...

By every token, prayer, in taking hold of the entire man, does not leave out the mind.

We must be taught through the intellect, and just in so far as the intellect is given up to God in prayer, will we be able to learn well and readily the lesson of prayer.

It takes the whole man to embrace in its god-like sympathies the entire race of man--the sorrows, the sins and the death of Adam's fallen race. It takes the whole man to run parallel with God's high and sublime will in saving mankind. It takes the whole man to stand with our Lord Jesus Christ as the one Mediator between God and sinful man.

It is man's business to pray; and it takes manly men to do it. It is godly business to pray and it takes godly men to do it. And it is godly men who give over themselves entirely to prayer.

No half-hearted, half-brained, half-spirited effort will do for this serious, all-important, heavenly business.

one word, the entire man without reservation must love God. So it takes the same entire man to do the praying which God requires of men.

Upon these whole-hearted ones God's approval rests.

Because it requires the whole man to pray, praying is no easy task. Praying is far more than simply bending the knee and saying a few words by rote.

"'Tis not enough to bend the knee, And words of prayer to say; The heart must with the lips agree, Or else we do not pray."

Body, soul and spirit are taxed and brought under tribute to prayer.

It is of the nature of a great battle, a conflict to win, a great battle to be fought. The praying Christian, as the soldier, fights a life-and-death struggle. His honour, his immortality, and eternal life are all in it.

Food and raiment, health and bodily vigour, come in answer to praying. Clear mental action, right thinking, an enlightened understanding, and safe reasoning powers, come from praying. Divine guidance means God so moving and impressing the mind, that we shall make wise and safe decisions. "The meek will he guide in judgment."

So we repeat, that as the entire man comes into play in true, earnest effectual praying, so the entire man, soul, mind and body, receives the benefits of prayer.

Self-abasement belongs to humility.

Modesty is one of its most prominent characteristics.

God puts a great price on humility of heart. It is good to be clothed with humility as with a garment.

That which brings the praying soul near to God is humility of heart.

That which gives wings to prayer is lowl...

That which gives ready access to the throne of grace is ...

He who would come to God must approach Him with self hid from his eyes. He must not be puffed-up with self-conceit, nor be possessed with an over...

Our prayers must be set low before they can ever rise high. Our prayers must have much of the dust on them before they can ever have much of the glory of the skies in them.

Here we see by sharp contrast the utter worthlessness of self-righteousness, self-exaltation, and self-praise in praying, and the great value, the beauty and the Divine commendation which comes to humility of heart, self-depreciation, and self-condemnation when a soul comes before God in prayer.

Humility flourishes in the soil of a true and deep sense of our sinfulness and our nothingness.

"Let the world their virtue boast, Their works of righteousness; I, a wretch undone and lost, Am freely saved by grace; Other tide I disclaim, This, only this, is all my plea, I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me."

As a ship is made for the sea, so prayer is made for humility, and so humility is made for prayer.

Humility is not abstraction from self, nor does it ignore thought about self. It is a many-phased principle. Humility is born by looking at God, and His holiness, and then looking at self and man's unholiness. Humility loves obscurity and silence, dreads applause, esteems the virtues of others, excuses their faults with mildness, easily pardons injuries, fears contempt less and less, and sees baseness and falsehood in pride. A true nobleness and greatness are in humility. It knows and reveres the inestimable riches of the Cross, and the humiliations of Jesus Christ. It fears the lustre of those virtues admired by men, and loves those that are more secret and which are prized by God. It draws comfort even from its own defects, through the abasement which they occasion. It prefers any degree of compunction before all light in the world.

Neither pride nor vanity can pray.

To be clothed with humility is to be clothed with a praying garment.

Humility is just feeling little because we are little. Humility is realising our unworthiness because we are unworthy, the feeling and declaring ourselves sinners because we are sinners. Kneeling well becomes us as the attitude of prayer, because it betokens humility.

Humility is the first and last attribute of Christly religion, and the first and last attribute of Christly praying.

There is no Christ without humility. There is no praying without humility. If thou wouldst learn well the art of praying, then learn well the lesson of humility.

"O that now I might decrease! O that all I am might cease! Let me into nothing fall! Let my Lord be all in all."

Devotion is the particular frame of mind found in one entirely devoted to God. It is the spirit of reverence, of awe, of godly fear. It is a state of heart which appears before God in prayer and worship. It is foreign to everything like lightness of spirit, and is opposed to levity and noise and bluster. Devotion dwells in the realm of quietness and is still before God. It is serious, thoughtful, meditative.

God can wonderfully use such men, for devout men are His chosen agents in carrying forward His plans.

Prayer promotes the spirit of devotion, while devotion is favourable to the best praying. Devotion furthers prayer and helps to drive prayer home to the object which it seeks. Prayer thrives in the atmosphere of true devotion.

God dwells where the spirit of devotion resides.

All the graces of the Spirit are nourished and grow well in the environment created by devotion.