Purpose in PrayerBounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Religion
Purpose in Prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Prayer -- Christianity
Men are to pray—to pray for the advance of God’s cause. Prayer puts God
in full force in the world. To a prayerful man God is present in
realised force; to a prayerful Church God is present in glorious power,
and the Second Psalm is the Divine description of the establishment of
God’s cause through Jesus Christ. All inferior dispensations have merged
in the enthronement of Jesus Christ. God declares the enthronement of
His Son. The nations are incensed with bitter hatred against His cause.
God is described as laughing at their enfeebled hate. The Lord will
laugh; The Lord will have them in derision. “Yet have I set My King upon
My holy hill of Zion.” The decree has passed immutable and eternal:
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son;
This day have I begotten Thee.
_Ask of Me_, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance,
And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
_Ask of Me_ is the condition—a praying people willing and obedient.
“And men shall pray for Him continually.” Under this universal and
simple promise men and women of old laid themselves out for God. They
prayed and God answered their prayers, and the cause of God was kept
alive in the world by the flame of their praying.
Prayer became a settled and only condition to move His Son’s Kingdom.
“Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall
be opened.” The strongest one in Christ’s kingdom is he who is the best
knocker. The secret of success in Christ’s Kingdom is the ability to
pray. The one who can wield the power of prayer is the strong one, the
holy one in Christ’s Kingdom. The most important lesson we can learn is
how to pray.
Prayer is the keynote of the most sanctified life, of the holiest
ministry. He does the most for God who is the highest skilled in prayer.
Jesus Christ exercised His ministry after this order.
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_That we ought to give ourselves to God with regard to things both
temporal and spiritual, and seek our satisfaction only in the
fulfilling His will, whether He lead us by suffering, or by
consolation, for all would be equal to a soul truly resigned.
Prayer is nothing else but a sense of God’s presence._
—BROTHER LAWRENCE.
_Be sure you look to your secret duty; keep that up whatever you
do. The soul cannot prosper in the neglect of it. Apostasy
generally begins at the closet door. Be much in secret fellowship
with God. It is secret trading that enriches the Christian._
_Pray alone. Let prayer be the key of the morning and the bolt at
night. The best way to fight against sin is to fight it on our
knees._
—PHILIP HENRY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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