Power Through Prayer

 

Prayer and Praying Men

 

Purpose in Prayer

 

The Essentials of Prayer

The Necessity of Prayer

The Possibilities of Prayer

The Reality of Prayer

The Weapon of Prayer

His full name is Edward McKendree Bounds. Here is a short bio:

Edward McKendree Bounds (1835-1913)

E. M. Bounds was a Methodist Pastor around the time of the American Civil War. At the age of 58, and for the next nineteen years (till he went home to be with the Lord at age 77), he started and continued to write books. The rest of his time was spent in intercessory prayer and in an itinerant revival ministry. It is said that he prayed daily from 4 A.M. to 7 A.M. before he would begin work on his writings.

E. M. Bounds was born in Missouri in 1835. He studied deeply in the scriptures, and was greatly inspired by the writings of John Wesley. At the age of twenty-four he felt called to be a preacher, and became pastor of a small Methodist congregation in Monticello, Missouri.

In 1861 he was arrested by Union troops, and held with other non-combatants in a Federal prison for a year and a half. Released after a year and a half in a prisoner trade, he became a Chaplain with the Confederacy. After the war, he became Associate Editor of the Christian Advocate. This was the official weekly paper for the entire Methodist Episcopal Church.

Thus far, I'm only about 25 pages into his first book. I find that he writes very clearly in short, powerful sentences. His writing is very easy to understand. He has the ability to drive his point home very clearly.

Here is a sample of his writing:

The character of the inner life is a condition of effectual praying. As is the life, so will the praying be. An inconsistent life obstructs praying and neutralizes what little praying we may do. Always, it is "the prayer of the righteous man which availeth much." Indeed, one may go further and assert, that it is only the prayer of the righteous which avails anything at all -- at any time. To have an eye to God's glory; to be possessed by an earnest desire to please Him in all our ways; to possess hands busy in His service; to have feet swift to run in the way of His commandments -- these give weight and influence and power to prayer, and secure an audience with God. The incubus of our lives often breaks the force of our praying, and, not unfrequently, are as doors of brass, in the face of prayer.

Praying must come out of a cleansed heart and be presented and urged with the "lifting up of holy hands." It must be fortified by a life aiming, unceasingly, to obey God, to attain conformity to the Divine law, and to come into submission to the Divine will.

Let it not be forgotten, that, while life is a condition of prayer, prayer is also the condition of righteous living. Prayer promotes righteous living, and is the one great aid to uprightness of heart and life. The fruit of real praying is right living. Praying sets him who prays to the great business of "working out his salvation with fear and trembling;" puts him to watching his temper, conversation and conduct; causes him to "walk circumspectly, redeeming the time;" enables him to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called, with all lowliness and meekness;" gives him a high incentive to pursue his pilgrimage consistently by "shunning every evil way, and walking in the good."

Posted by rebnora at January 13, 2007 7:07 PM | TrackBack