The Essentials of Prayer

How Christians Ought to Pray

E. M. Bounds

• Publisher: Aneko Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781622455553
• eBook ISBN: 9781622455560
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Updated and annotated edition.And the very God of peace sanctify you completely, that your spirit, soul, and body be preserved whole without reprehension for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5: 23) Christians who pray well, who bring the largest things to pass, and who move God to do great things, are those who are entirely given over to God in their praying. God wants, and must have, all that there is in us. We must be wholehearted people through whom he can work out his purposes and plans concerning us. God must have us in our entirety. No double-minded people need apply. No vacillating person can be used. No person with a divided allegiance to God, the world, and self can do the praying that is needed. Holiness is wholeness, and so God wants holy people – wholehearted and true – for his service and for the work of praying. This book challenges the reader to first make sure he is ready to pray, and it also shows from Scripture when and how we ought to pray. E. M. Bounds examines the lack of prayer and its causes, but he also includes examples of answered prayer to give hope to those who feel like their prayers aren't being answered. Some may experience guilt for their lack and inconsistency of prayer, but sincere Christians will also be stirred in their heart to pray, and to pray well.

Chapter 5

Prayer and Trouble

“He will.” It may not be today,

That God Himself shall wipe our tears away,

Nor, hope deferred, may it be yet tomorrow

He’ll take away our cup of earthly sorrow;

But, precious promise, He has said He will,

If we but trust Him fully – and be still.

We, too, as He, may fall, and die unknown;

And e’en the place we fell be all unshown,

But eyes omniscient will mark the spot

Till empires perish and the world’s forgot.

Then they who bore the yoke and drank the cup

In fadeless glory shall the Lord raise up.

God’s word is ever good; His will is best: –

The yoke, the heart all broken – and then rest.

– Claudius L. Chilton

Trouble and prayer are closely related to each other. Prayer is of great value to trouble. Trouble often drives people to God in prayer, while prayer is but the voice of those in trouble. There is great value in prayer in the time of trouble. Prayer often delivers out of trouble and even more often gives strength to bear trouble, ministers comfort in trouble, and brings about patience in the midst of trouble. The one who knows his or her true source of strength and who doesn’t fail to pray is wise in the day of trouble.

Trouble belongs to the present state of people on earth. Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble (Job 14:1). Trouble is common to mankind. There is no exception in any age or climate or station. Rich and poor alike, the educated and the ignorant – one and all are partakers of this sad and painful inheritance of the fall of man. No temptation has taken you but such as is common to man (1 Corinthians 10:13). A day of trouble dawns on everyone at some time in his or her life. The evil days come, and the years draw near when the heart feels its heavy pressure.

When Trouble Comes

Those who expect nothing but sunshine and look only for ease, pleasure, and flowers have an entirely false view of life and show supreme ignorance. They are sadly disappointed and surprised when trouble breaks into their lives. These are the ones who do not know God, who know nothing of his disciplinary dealings with his people, and who are prayerless.

What an infinite variety there is in the troubles of life! How diversified the experiences of people in the school of trouble! No two people have the same troubles under similar environments. God deals with no two of his children in the same way. And as God varies his treatment of his children, so trouble is varied. God does not repeat himself. He does not run in a rut. He does not have one pattern for every child. Each trouble is proportioned to each child. Each one is dealt with according to their own peculiar case.

Trouble is God’s servant that does his will unless he is defeated in the execution of that will. Trouble is under the control of Almighty God and is one of his most efficient agents in fulfilling his purposes and perfecting his saints. God’s hand is in every trouble that breaks into the lives of humans. Not that he directly and arbitrarily orders every unpleasant experience of life. Not that he is personally responsible for every painful and afflicting thing that comes into the lives of his people. But no trouble is ever turned loose in this world and comes into the life of saint or sinner that doesn’t come with divine permission. It is allowed to exist and do its painful work with God’s hand in it or on it, carrying out his gracious designs of redemption.

All things are under divine control. Trouble is neither above God nor beyond his control. It is not something in life independent of God. No matter the source from which it springs or when it arises, God is sufficiently wise and able to lay his hand on it without assuming responsibility for its origin and work it into his plans and purposes to attain the highest welfare of his saints. This is the explanation of that gracious statement in Romans that is so often quoted, but the depth of its meaning has rarely been sounded: And we now know that unto those who love God, all things help them unto good, to those who according to the purpose are called to be saints (Romans 8:28).

Even the evils brought about by the forces of nature are his servants that carry out his will and fulfill his designs. God even claims the locusts, the inchworm, and the caterpillar are his servants; my great army, he calls them in Joel 2:25, used by him to correct his people and discipline them.

Trouble belongs to the disciplinary part of the moral government of God. This is a life of probation where the human race is on probation. It is a season of trial. Trouble is not punitive in its nature. It belongs to what the Scriptures call “chastening.” For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges everyone whom he receives as a son (Hebrews 12:6). Speaking accurately, punishment does not belong to this life. Punishment for sin will take place in the next world. God’s dealings with people in this world are of the nature of discipline. They are corrective processes in his plans concerning man. It is because of this that prayer comes in when trouble arises. Prayer belongs to the discipline of life.

As trouble is not sinful in itself, neither is it the evidence of sin. Good and bad alike experience trouble. As the rain falls alike on the just and unjust, so drought comes to the righteous and the wicked. Trouble is no evidence whatsoever of the divine displeasure. Numerous Scripture instances disprove any such idea. Job is a case in point where God showed explicit testimony to his deep piety, and yet God permitted Satan to afflict Job beyond any other man for wise and benevolent purposes. Trouble has no power in itself to interfere with the relations of a saint to God. Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? (Romans 8:3...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Editor’s Foreword
• Prayer Takes in the Whole Person
• Prayer and Humility
• Prayer and Devotion
• Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving
• Prayer and Trouble
• Prayer and Tribulation
• Prayer and God’s Work
• Prayer and Consecration
• Prayer and a Definite Religious Standard
• Prayer Born of Compassion
• Concerted Prayer
• The Universality of Prayer
• Prayer and Missions
• E. M. Bounds – A Brief Biography