It is easier to talk about prayer than it is to pray. Yet it is necessary to talk about it. Still, it is better to do both. This did E. M. Bounds (1835-1913), who wrote 8 books on prayer, all of which are convicting. But it is a necessary conviction. If you don't have it, there is a wonderful collection of his works all under one cover for an unbelievably low price! It's a great gift item! Or, you can read him online.
The following excerpts come from The Weapon of Prayer, Chapter 6 - "Praying Men Are at a Premium."
No insistence in the Bible is more pressing than the injunction it lays upon men to pray. . . .Languid praying, without heart or strength, with neither fire nor tenacity, defeats its own avowed purpose. The prophet of olden times laments that in a day which needed strenuous praying there was no one who “stirred up himself to take hold of God” [Isaiah 64:7]. Christ charges us “not to faint” in our praying [Luke 18:1]. Laxity and indifference are great hindrances to prayer, both to the practice of praying and the process of receiving; it requires a brave, strong, fearless and insistent spirit to engage in successful prayer. . . .These days of ours have sore need of a generation of praying men, a band of men and women through whom God can bring His great and His greatest movements more fully into the world. The Lord our God is not straitened [i.e., restricted] within Himself, but He is straitened in us, by reason of our little faith and weak praying. A breed of Christian is greatly needed who will seek tirelessly after God,—who will give Him no rest, day and night, until He hearken to their cry. The times demand praying men who are all athirst for God’s glory, who are broad and unselfish in their desires, quenchless for God, who seek Him late and early, and who will give themselves no rest until the whole earth be filled with His glory.
Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment