E.M. Bounds - Necessity of Prayer - Chapter 9 & 10

From E.M. Bounds - Book 1 - The Necessity of Prayer - Chapter 9 & 10 - Prayer & Obedience

What is obedience? It is doing God's will: it is keeing his commandments. How many of the commandments constituted obedience? To keep half of them, and to break the other half - is that real obedience? To keep all the commandments but one - is that obedience? On this point, James the apostle is most explicit: "Whosoever shall keep the whole law," he declares, "and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." The spirit which prompts a man to break one commandment is the spirit which may move him to break them all. God's commandments are a unit, and to break one stirkes at the principle which underlies and runs through the whole.

But can we keep all of God's commandments? Can a man receive moral ability such as enable him to obey every one of them? Certainly he can. By every token, man can, through prayer, obtain ability to do this very thing.

Does God give commandments which men cannot obey? Is he so arbitrary, so sever, so unloving, as to issue commandments which cannot be obeyed? The answer is that in all of the annals of Holy Scripture, not a single instance is recorded of God having commanded any man to do a thing, which was beyond his power.

Far be it from our heavenly Father, to demand impossibilites of his children.

It is really much easier to please him than to please men. Moreover, we may know when we please Him. This is the witness of the Spirit - the inward divine assurance, given to all the children of God that they are doing their Father's will, and that their ways are well-pleasing in his sight.

God's commandments are righteous and founded in justice and wisdom. God's commendments, then, can be obeyed by all who seek supplies of grace which enable them to obey. These commandments must be obeyed.

An obedient life helps prayer. It speeds prayer to the throne. God cannot help hearing the prayer of an obedient child.

If you have an earnest desire to pray well, you must learn how to obey well. If you have a desire to learn to pray, then you must have an earnest desire to learn how to do God's will. If you desire to pray to God, you must first have a consuming desire to obey him.

He who would pray, must obey. He who would get anything out of his prayers, must be in perfect harmony with God.

An obedient life is a great help to prayer.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, 'holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,' had full liberty of approach and ready access to God in prayer. And he had this free and full access because of his unquestioning obedience to his Father.

Loving obedience puts us where we can 'ask anything in his name,' with the assurance, that 'He will do it.'

This obedience which not only qualifes but foreruns prayer, must be lving, constant, always doing the Father's will, and cheerfully following the path of God's commands.

A righteous man is an obedient man, and he it is, who can pray effectually, who can accomplish great things when he betakes himself to his knees.

Prayer is not a mere form of words, it is not just calling upon a name. Prayer is obedience.

If the will of God does not master the life, the praying will be nothing but sickly sentiment. If prayer does not inspire, sanctify and direct our work, then self-will enters, to ruin both work and worker.

Whee the spirit of obedience fully impregnates the soul; where the will is perfectly surrended to God; where there is a fixed, unalterable purpose to obey God, faither almost believes itself. The difficulity in prayer is not with faither, but with obedience, which is faith's foundation.

The lack of obedience in our lives breaks down our praying.

The will must be surrendered to God as a primary condition of all successful praying.

Posted by rebnora at January 14, 2008 5:55 AM | TrackBack