|
Prayer
Foundation / Prayer
/ God's
Word / FYI
/ Monks / Features
/ Books / Movies /
Search Our Site /
Home
/ Site
Map / Become
A Monk / Contributors
Gifts / Contact Us
![[Back]](back.gif)
A
"Prayer Tip" from E. M. Bounds:
 Much time spent
with God is the secret of all successful praying.
While
many private prayers, in the nature of things, must be short; while
public prayers, as a rule, ought to be short and condensed; while there
is ample room for and value put on ejaculatory prayer -- yet in our
private communions with God time is a feature essential to its value.
Much time spent with God is the secret of all successful praying.
Prayer which is felt as a mighty force is the mediate or immediate
product of much time spent with God. Our short prayers owe their
point and efficiency to the long ones that have preceded them.
The
short prevailing prayer cannot be prayed by one who has not prevailed
with God in a mightier struggle of long continuance. Jacob's
victory of faith could not have been gained without that all-night
wrestling. God's acquaintance is not
made by pop calls. God does not bestow his gifts on the casual or
hasty comers and goers. Much time with God alone is the secret of
knowing him and of influence with him. He yields to the
persistency of a faith that knows him. He bestows his richest
gifts upon those who declare their desire for and appreciation of those
gifts by the constancy as well as earnestness of their importunity.
...our purpose is to
impress on our minds the necessity of being much alone with God...
Christ,
who in this as well as other things is our Example, spent many whole
nights in prayer. His custom was to pray much. He
had his habitual place to pray. Many long seasons of praying make
up his history and character. Paul prayed day and night. It
took time from very important interests for Daniel to pray three times a
day. David's morning, noon, and night praying were doubtless on
many occasions very protracted. While we have no specific account
of the time these Bible saints spent in prayer, yet the indications are
that they consumed much time in prayer, and on some occasions long
seasons of praying was their custom.
We
would not have any think that the value of their prayers is to be
measured by the clock, but our purpose is
to impress on our minds the necessity of being much alone with God; and
that if this feature has not been produced by our faith, then our faith
is of a feeble and surface type.
Luther said:
"If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil
gets the victory through the day.
The
men who have most fully illustrated Christ in their character, and have
most powerfully affected the world for him, have been men who spent so
much time with God as to make it a notable feature of their lives.
Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four
till eight in the morning to God. Mr. Wesley spent two hours daily in
prayer. He began at four in the morning. Of him, one who knew him
well wrote: "He thought prayer to be more his business than
anything else, and I have seen him come out of his closet with a
serenity of face next to shining."
John Fletcher stained the walls of his room by the breath of his
prayers. Sometimes he would pray all night; always, frequently, and with
great earnestness. His whole life was a
life of prayer. "I would not rise from my seat," he
said, "without lifting my heart to God." His greeting to
a friend was always: "Do I meet you praying?" Luther
said: "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the
devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I
cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer."
He had a motto: "He that has prayed well has studied well."
-E. M. Bounds, "Power
Through Prayer" (excerpt from Chapter 7) ____________________________________________
Related Pages:
Prayer
Tips (Index) E.
M. Bounds On Prayer Prayer
Heroes: E. M. Bounds Prayer
Heroes (Index) ____________________________________________ See
the Bible verses concerning how
to be saved, and how to know
that you are saved, on our page: Plan
of Salvation. Also
see: The Prayer Foundation ™
Statement
of Faith..
___________________________________________ Text
is in the Public Domain. Photos
& Layout: Copyright © 2002 S.G.P. All rights reserved.
Next Next
Topic PRAYER
Category 
|
Prayer
Tips:
E.
M.
Bounds 
