E.M. Bounds - Necessity of Prayer - Chapter 6 & 7

From E.M. Bounds - Book 1 - The Necessity of Prayer - Chapters 6 & 7- Prayer & Importunity

Below are the sentences that jumped off the page at me:

Our Lord Jesus declard that 'men ought always to pray and not to faint,' and the parable in which his words occur, was taught with the intention of saving men from faintheartedness and weakness in prayer. Our Lord was seeking to teach that laxity must be guarded against, and persistence fostered and encouraged.

Importunate prayer is a mightly movement of the soul towards God. It is a stirring of the deepest forces of the soul, toward the throne of heavenly grace.

Virtually, it is the intercession of the Spirit of God, in us; it is moreover, 'the effectual, fervent prayer, which availeth much.' The diving Spirit informing every element within us, with the energy of his own striving, is the essence of the importunity which urges our praying at the mercy seat, to continue until the fire falls and the blessing descends.

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 people are prayerful, the worldly-minded, prayerless. But even the Christian had need to cultivate continual prayer. Prayer must be habitual, but much more than a habit. It is duty, yet one which rises far above, and goes beyound the ordinary implications of the term.

It has everything to do with bringing the soul into complete communion with God. That man cannot possibly be called a Christian, who does not pray. By no possible pretext can he claim any right to the term, nor its implied significance. If he does not pray, he is a sinner, pure and simple, for prayer is the only way in which the sould of man can enter into fellowship and communion with the source of all Christlike spirit and energy. Hence, if he prays not, he is not of the household of the faithful.

Many night during his earthly life did the blessed Savior spend in prayer. In Gethsemane he presented the same petition, three times, with unabated, urgent,yet submissive importunity, which involved every element of his soul and issued in tears and bloody sweat. His life crises were distinctly marked, his life victories all won, in hours of importunate prayer. And the servant is not greater than his Lord.

The tenor of Christ's teachings, is to declare that men are to pray earnestly - to pray with an earnestness that cannot be denied. Energy, courage, and persistent perseverance must back the prayers which heaven respects, and God hears.

Laxity, faintheartedness, impatience, timidity will be fatal to our prayers.

Importunate praying is the earnest, inward movement of the heart toward God. It is the throwing of the entire force of the spiritual man into the exercise of prayer.

Forcelss prayers have no power to overcome difficulties, no power to win marked results, or to gain complete victories. We must win God, ere we can win our plea.

Importunate praying has patience to wait and strength to continue. It never prepares itself to quite praying, and declines to rise from its knees until an answer is received.

"Ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." These are the ringing challenges of our Lord in regard to prayer, and his intimation that true praying must stay, and advance in effort and urgency, till prayer is answered, and the blessing sought, received. In the three words ask, seek, knock, in the order in which he places them, Jesus urges the necessity of importunity in prayer. Asking, seeking, knocking, are ascending rounds in the ladder of successful prayer.

We have need, too, to give thought to that mysterious fact of prayer - the certainly that there will be delays, denials, and seeming failures, in connection with its exercise. We are to prepare for these, to brook these, and cease not in our urgent praying.

Posted by rebnora at January 12, 2008 5:59 AM | TrackBack