Bounds E. M. - How to Live a Life of Prayer: Classic Christian Writers on the Divine Privilege of Prayer

2018 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Compiled and edited by Donna K. Maltese.

Print ISBN 978-1-68322-563-8

eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-68322-801-1
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Text taken from How to Pray by John Wesley, A 31-Day Guide to Prayer and Teach Me to Pray by Andrew Murray, Quiet Talks on Prayer by S. D. Gordon, and Possibilities in Prayer by E. M. Bounds, all published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Some of the text of these writings has been lightly updated for modern readers.

All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

This text includes John Wesleys original paraphrases of scripture.

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Our mission is to inspire the world with the life-changing message of the Bible.

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God will answer those who believe in Him and His power when they come to Him, asking, seeking, and knocking with their entire beings. His Son Jesus is the conduit of their voices. His Holy Spirit, the interpreter. Thus, this thing called prayer is the believers vital link and lifeline to the all-powerful Trinity in which they live, move, and have their being.

S. D. Gordon calls prayer a spirit force, and those who pray spirit beings. He writes, prayer is really projecting my spirit, that is, my real personality, to the spot concerned and doing business there with other spirit beings! E. M. Bounds calls prayer an energetic force, writing, Prayer moves men because it moves God to move men. Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.

Then theres John Wesley, who writes about the vitalness of continual prayer: Gods command to pray without ceasing is founded on the necessity we have of his grace to preserve the life of God in the soul, which can no more subsist one moment without it, than the body can without air. Of the life-forming importance of prayer, Andrew Murray writes, In Jesus prayer life He manifested two things to us: first, Gods Word supplies us with material for prayer and encourages us in expecting everything from God; second, it is only by prayer that we can live such a life so that every word of God can be fulfilled in us.

But how many people know who exactly they are praying to or what prayer really is? How many know when or where to pray? How many know why they should pray or, even more importantly, how to pray?

To help you find your own way into this vital lifeline and hone your current methods, we invite you into How to Live a Life of Prayer. This collection of readings by the four classic Christian authors quoted above gives you the means, method, and motive to navigate your way through the who, what, when, where, why, and how of prayer and its power. These authors are: E. M. (Edward McKendree) Bounds (18351913), an American preacher, author, and attorney; S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon (18591936), an American author, speaker, and lay minister; Andrew Murray (18281917), a South African pastor, preacher, author, and missions speaker; and John Wesley (17031791), an English preacher, author, and composer.

As you put the knowledge and precepts herein presented into practice with consistency and confidence, our hope is that you will experience the amazing power of prayer in your inner and the outer world. And our ongoing prayer is that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ye may know what is the hope of [Gods] calling, and what [are] the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power (Ephesians 1:1819).

Prayer is not a solo endeavor. Several alive and active beingsGod, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Word, you, and othersare involved, each with a particular role to play and special relationship to each other. Although the supernatural participants remain the same, the prayers prayer is forever changing and evolving in response to the circumstances and growth of the petitioner and those for whom he or she is praying and according to the answers and provisions received. Pray that God would make all this and more clear to you as you consider whos who in the cast of prayer participants.

God

A Personal God

E. M. B OUNDS

Prayer ascends to God by an invariable law, even by more than law, by the will, the promise and the presence of a personal God. The answer comes back to earth by all the promise, the truth, the power, and the love of God.

All the Attributes of God

E. M. B OUNDS

God holds all good in His own hands. That good comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ because of His all-atoning merits, by asking it in His name. The sole command in which all the others of its class belong is ask, seek, knock. And the one and sole promise is its counterpart, its necessary equivalent and results: It shall be given, ye shall find, it shall be opened unto you.

God is so much involved in prayer and its hearing and answering, that all of His attributes and His whole being are centered in that great fact. It distinguishes Him as peculiarly beneficent, wonderfully good, and powerfully attractive in His nature. O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come (Psalm 65:2).

Not only does the Word of God stand surety for the answer to prayer, but all the attributes of God conspire to the same end. Gods veracity is at stake in the engagements to answer prayer. His wisdom, His truthfulness, and His goodness are involved. Gods infinite and inflexible rectitude is pledged to the great end of answering the prayers of those who call upon Him in time of need. Justice and mercy blend into oneness to secure the answer to prayer. It is significant that the very justice of God comes into play and stands hard by Gods faithfulness in the strong promise God makes of the pardon of sins and of cleansing from sins pollutions in 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Gods kingly relation to man, with all of its authority, unites with the fatherly relation and with all of its tenderness to secure the answer to prayer.

Who God Is

S. D. G ORDON

There are five common, everyday words I want to bring you to suggest something of who God is. The first is the word father.