Essentials of prayerBounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Religion
Essentials of prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Prayer -- Christianity
X. PRAYER BORN OF COMPASSION 101
XI. CONCERTED PRAYER 111
XII. THE UNIVERSALITY OF PRAYER 121
XIII. PRAYER AND MISSIONS 129
I
PRAYER TAKES IN THE WHOLE MAN
“Henry Clay Trumbull spoke forth the Infinite in the terms
of our world, and the Eternal in the forms of our human
life. Some years ago, on a ferry-boat, I met a gentleman
who knew him, and I told him that when I had last seen Dr.
Trumbull, a fortnight before, he had spoken of him. ‘Oh,
yes,’ said my friend, ‘he was a great Christian, so real,
so intense. He was at my home years ago and we were talking
about prayer.” “Why, Trumbull,” I said, “you don’t mean to
say if you lost a pencil you would pray about it, and ask
God to help you find it.” “Of course I would; of course I
would,” was his instant and excited reply.’ Of course he
would. Was not his faith a real thing? Like the Saviour, he
put his doctrine strongly by taking an extreme illustration
to embody his principle, but the principle was fundamental.
He did trust God in everything. And the Father honoured the
trust of His child.”――ROBERT E. SPEER.
Prayer has to do with the entire man. Prayer takes in man in his
whole being, mind, soul and body. It takes the whole man to pray, and
prayer affects the entire man in its gracious results. As the whole
nature of man enters into prayer, so also all that belongs to man is
the beneficiary of prayer. All of man receives benefits in prayer.
The whole man must be given to God in praying. The largest results
in praying come to him who gives himself, all of himself, all that
belongs to himself, to God. This is the secret of full consecration,
and this is a condition of successful praying, and the sort of praying
which brings the largest fruits.
The men of olden times who wrought well in prayer, who brought the
largest things to pass, who moved God to do great things, were those
who were entirely given over to God in their praying. God wants, and
must have, all that there is in man in answering his prayers. He must
have whole-hearted men through whom to work out His purposes and plans
concerning men. God must have men in their entirety. No double-minded
man need apply. No vacillating man can be used. No man with a divided
allegiance to God, and the world and self, can do the praying that is
needed.
Holiness is wholeness, and so God wants holy men, men whole-hearted
and true, for His service and for the work of praying. “And the very
God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and
soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” These are the sort of men God wants for leaders of the hosts
of Israel, and these are the kind out of which the praying class is
formed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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