Essentials of prayerBounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Religion
Essentials of prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Prayer -- Christianity
Man is a trinity in one, and yet man is neither a trinity nor a dual
creature when he prays, but a unit. Man is one in all the essentials
and acts and attitudes of piety. Soul, spirit and body are to unite in
all things pertaining to life and godliness. The body, first of all,
engages in prayer, since it assumes the praying attitude in prayer.
Prostration of the body becomes us in praying as well as prostration
of the soul. The attitude of the body counts much in prayer, although
it is true that the heart may be haughty and lifted up, and the mind
listless and wandering, and the praying a mere form, even while the
knees are bent in prayer.
Daniel kneeled upon his knees three times a day in prayer. Solomon
kneeled in prayer at the dedication of the temple. Our Lord in
Gethsemane prostrated Himself in that memorable season of praying just
before His betrayal. Where there is earnest and faithful praying the
body always takes on the form most suited to the state of the soul at
the time. The body, that far, joins the soul in praying.
The entire man must pray. The whole man, life, heart, temper,
mind, are in it. Each and all join in the prayer exercise. Doubt,
double-mindedness, division of the affections, are all foreign to the
closet. Character and conduct, undefiled, made whiter than snow, are
mighty potencies, and are the most seemly beauties for the closet hour,
and for the struggles of prayer.
A loyal intellect must conspire and add the energy and fire of its
undoubting and undivided faith to that kind of an hour, the hour of
prayer. Necessarily the mind enters into the praying. First of all, it
takes thought to pray. The intellect teaches us we ought to pray. By
serious thinking beforehand the mind prepares itself for approaching
a throne of grace. Thought goes before entrance into the closet and
prepares the way for true praying. It considers what will be asked for
in the closet hour. True praying does not leave to the inspiration
of the hour what will be the requests of that hour. As praying is
asking for something definite of God, so, beforehand, the thought
arises――“What shall I ask for at this hour?” All vain and evil and
frivolous thoughts are eliminated, and the mind is given over entirely
to God, thinking of Him, of what is needed, and what has been received
in the past. By every token, prayer, in taking hold of the entire man,
does not leave out the mind. The very first step in prayer is a mental
one. The disciples took that first step when they said unto Jesus at
one time, “Lord, teach us to pray.” We must be taught through the
intellect, and just in so far as the intellect is given up to God in
prayer, will we be able to learn well and readily the lesson of prayer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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