Today, Sunday September 19
Prayer, Desperate For Help 1 John 5:14-15 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
How desperate are you for a miracle, for God to do something supernatural in your life or the life of a friend? Over the years I’ve read dozens of books written on the subject of prayer and studied as many passages in scripture as I could, that referenced prayer. If there is one conclusion I have come to, it is that prayer is simply a “sense of helplessness.” Prayer is getting into the presence of God and letting Him know how much you desperately need Him.
I love reading at least five chapters from the Book of Psalms every day. These chapters are always filled with the psalmist pleading for God’s mercy and help! As I read these Psalms, I personalize them and they become my cry for God to hear and answer my prayer! Reading books on the subject of prayer have also “primed the pump”, so to speak, to motivate and drive me to my knees to pray!
Someone wrote years ago, “The story of prayer is the story of great achievements. Prayer is a wonderful power placed by Almighty God in the hands of His saints, which may be used to accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results. Prayer reaches to everything, takes in all things great and small which are promised by God to the children of men. The only limits to prayer are the promises of God and His ability to fulfill those promises.”
One of my favorite authors on prayer is E.M. Bounds. Edward McKendree Bounds (1835-1913) practiced law for three years until he was called to preach the gospel. While serving as chaplain during the Civil War, he was captured and held prisoner in Nashville, Tennessee. After his release, he held several pastorates. His books on prayer have been continual best-sellers for years.
E.M. Bounds did not merely pray well that he might write well about prayer. He prayed because the needs of the world were upon him. He prayed, for long years, upon subjects which the easy-going Christian rarely gives a thought, and for objects which men of less thought and faith are always ready to call impossible. From his solitary prayer-vigils, year by year, there arose teaching equaled by few men in modern Christian history. He wrote transcendently about prayer, because he was himself, transcendent in its practice. As breathing is a physical reality to us so prayer was a reality for Bounds. He took the command, “Pray without ceasing” almost as literally as animate nature takes the law of the reflex nervous system, which controls our breathing.
Today I want to encourage you discover for yourself the infinite possibilities of prayer by reading as many of E.M. Bounds’ books as possible. All of them will help you understand what can be accomplished if we will only pray. They are a practical, challenging look at prayer and its power. Over a hundred years ago he wrote in his book, “Power Through Prayer”: “God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”
The complete works of E.M. Bounds on prayer in one volume is available on Amazon Kindle Edition for only $1.99. Just click on this link!
Desperate people are praying people! God always hears the prayers of desperate people!
God bless!