By E.M. Bounds
Reading about praying will not necessarily get one praying, but reading E.M. Bounds sure helps. The man prayed daily from 4:00 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. I think I need to sit under his tutelage. The Weapon of Prayer is biblical, pastoral, and experiential. Here are several of the powerful and helpful words from this saint who graduated from his knees to the foot of the throne.
Key lines by Bounds on prayer:
1. Prayer necessary to God's work: "Sacred work,--Church activities--may so engage and absorb us as to hinder praying, and when this is the case, evil results always follow. It is better to the work go by default than to let the praying go by neglect. . . . Nothing is well done without prayer for the simple reason that it leaves God out of the account" (13t).
2. The effects of prayer: "Prayer affects three spheres of existence--the divine, the angelic and the human. It puts God to work, it puts angels to work, and it puts man to work. It lays its hands upon God, angels and men. What a wonderful reach there is in prayer!" (22).
3. The definition of prayer: "Prayer is but faith resting in, acting with, and leaning on and obeying God. This is why God loves it so well . . . " (24).
4. What God does with and through praying people: "Praying men are essential to Almighty God in all His plans and purposes. God's secrets, councils and cause have never been committed to prayerless men. Neglect of prayer has always brought loss of faith, loss of love, and loss of prayer. . . . As praying men are a help to God, so prayerless men are a hindrance to Him" (33).
5. On praying without ceasing: "Art thou praying in everything without ceasing, in the closet, hidden from the eyes of men, and praying always and everywhere? That is the personal, pertinent and all-important question for every soul" (34).
6. The power of prayer: "Even the fishes of the great deep are subject to the law of prayer (Jonah). Likewise the birds of the air are brought into subjection to this same law (Elijah)."
7. On praying men: "Praying men are the one commanding need of this day, as of all other days, in which God is to have or make a showing. Men who pray are, in reality, the only religious men, and it takes a full-measured man to pray. Men of prayer are the only men who do or can represent God in this world" (40).
8. On Christ and prayer: "What an inspiration and command to prayer is Christ's life! What a comment on its worth! How he shames our lives by his praying! His leadership was one of prayer"(42).
"He said little or nothing about how to preach or what to preach. But He spent His strength and time in teaching men how to speak to God, how to commune with Him, and how to be with Him. He knew full well that he who has learned the craft of talking to God, will be well versed in talking with men" (79).
9. The power of prayer: "Everything secured by Gospel promise, defined by Gospel measure, and represented by Gospel treasure are to be found in prayer. All heights are scaled by it, all doors are opened to it, all victories are gained through it, and all grace distills on it. Heaven has all its good and all its help for men who pray" (49).
10. Prayer and the church: "The Church upon its knees would bring heaven upon the earth" (57).
11. On self-centered prayer: "When prayer is confined to self and to the sphere of one's personal needs, it dies by reason of its littleness, narrowness and selfishness. Prayer must be broad and unselfish or it will perish. Prayer is the soul of a man stirred to plead with God for men" (59).
12. On praying and preaching: He "who ploughs not in his closet, will never reap in his pulpit" (80).
13. On the difference of prayer in pathos and unction: This is a lengthy passage, but it is so good, and it sums well Bound's heart for and rationale for prayer. Speaking of preaching and unction (the work of the Spirit of God) and pathos (emotional engagement) he writes:
"Power from on high" means "the unction of the Holy One" resting on and abiding in the preacher. This is not so much a power which bears witness to a man being the child of God as it is a preparation for delivering the Word to others. Unction must be distinguished from pathos. Pathos may exist in a sermon while unction is entirely absent. So also, may unction be present and pathos absent. Both may exist together; but they are not be confused, nor be made to appear to be the same thing. Pathos promotes emotion, tender feeling, sometimes tears. Quite often it results from the relation to an affecting incident, or when the tender side is particularly appealed to. But pathos is neither the direct or indirect result of the Holy Spirit resting upon the preacher as he preaches (105-106).
14. On David Brainerd and prayer: Brainerd, though barely 30 when he died, had a profound impact on the Indians to whom he ministered (see story of drunken interpreter on pages 134-135). Bounds writes of Brainard and his impact of Carey, Payson and Murry McCheyne: "But all I care is simply to enforce this thought, that the hidden life, a life whose days are spent in communion with God, in trying to reach the source of power, is the life that moves the world" (135).
Key verses on prayer:
1 Chronicles 21:7
2 Chronicles 7:12-15
Psalm 50:15
Isaiah 58:9
Jeremiah 33:3
Jeremiah 33:3
Matthew 6:9
Acts 6:1-8
Romans 12:12
Ephesians 6:18-20
Colossians 4:12
E.M. Bounds' The Weapon of Prayer is helpful tool, an encouraging word, and at times a necessary rebuke, but always so I appropriately wield God's "weapon of prayer."
