The Complete Collection of E. M. Bounds on Prayer

Heavenly citizenship and heavenly homesickness are in prayer;

Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they…

Christ made disciples and kept them disciples by praying.

Then it was He urged upon His disciples the injunction, ' Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest,' dearly teaching them that it belonged to God to call into the ministry men w…

We often end praying just where we ought to begin. We quit praying when God waits and is waiting for us to really pray.

Crucified preaching can come only from a crucified man.

The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because…

The character of our praying will determine the character of our preaching. Light praying will make light preaching.

THE men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seekin…

A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully. The desire for God that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at the b…

Prayer is an ardent and believing cry to God for some specific thing. God's rule is to answer by giving the specific thing asked for.

Is there any work, higher work for the disciple to do than His Lord did? Is there any loftier employment, more honourable, more divine, than to pray for men? To take their woes, their sins, and their perils before God; t…

Not to pray is not simply a privation, an omission, but a positive violation of law, of spiritual life, a crime, bringing disorder and ruin. Prayer is law world-wide and eternity-reaching.

To Christ Jesus prayer occupied no secondary place, but was exacting and paramount, a necessity, a life, the satisfying of a restless yearning and a preparation for heavy responsibilities.

His victories were gained in the struggles and communion of His all night praying.

Prayer is the condition by which all foes are to be overcome and all the inheritance is to be possessed.

The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the little time we give to it.

The preacher must be surrendered to God in the holiest devotion. He is not a professional man, his ministry is not a profession; it is a divine institution, a divine devotion.

Volumes have been written laying down the mechanics and taste of sermon-making, until we have become possessed with the idea that this scaffolding is the building. The young preacher has been taught to lay out all his st…

Preachers are preeminently God's leaders. They are primarily responsible for the condition of the Church. They shape its character, give tone and direction to its life.

Everything is tame and feeble because our praying is so tame and feeble. God

WE are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to…

Always does not mean that we are to neglect the ordinary duties of life; what it means is that the soul which has come into intimate contact with God in the silence of the prayer-chamber is never out of conscious touch w…

May a physician in plague-time take any more relaxation or recreation than is necessary for his life, when so many are expecting his help in a case of life and death?

is suggestive in James 5:15 that ' The prayer of faith shall save the sick,' the word translated means a vow.

Nothing is too hard for prayer because nothing is too hard for God.

closet. The man' God's man'is made in the closet. His life and his profoundest convictions were born in his secret communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of his spirit, his weightiest and sweetest messages we…

Short devotions are the bane of deep piety. Calmness, grasp, strength, are never the companions of hurry. Short devotions deplete spiritual vigor, arrest spiritual progress, sap spiritual foundations, blight the root and…

God must help man by prayer. He who does not pray, therefore, robs himself of God's help and places God where He cannot help man.

If prayer puts God to work on earth, then, by the same token, prayerlessness rules God out of the world's affairs, and prevents Him from working. And if prayer moves God to work in this world's affairs, then prayerlessne…

Prayer affects three different spheres of existence'the divine, the angelic and the human. It puts God to work, it puts angels to work, and it puts man to work. It lays its hands upon God, angels and men.

Prayer puts God's work in His hands, and keeps it there. It looks to Him constantly and depends on Him implicitly to further His own cause. Prayer is but faith resting in, acting with, and leaning on and obeying God. Thi…

The dispensation of the Holy Spirit is a dispensation of prayer, in a preeminent sense.

While Jesus Christ practiced praying Himself, being personally under the law of prayer, and while His parables and miracles were but exponents of prayer, He laboured directly to teach His disciples the specific art of pr…

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…

It is only when the whole heart is gripped with the passion of prayer that the life-giving fire descends, for none but the earnest man gets access to the ear of God.

David Livingstone lived in the realm of prayer and knew its gracious influence. It was his habit every birthday to write a prayer, and on the next to the last birthday of all, this was his prayer: ' O Divine one, I have…

Two things,' says his biographer, 'he seems never to have ceased from'the cultivation of personal holiness and the most anxious efforts to win souls.' The two are the inseparable attendants on the ministry of prayer.

Men who can set the Church ablaze for God, not in a noisy, showy way, but with an intense and quiet heat that melts and moves every thing for God.

It is the effectual, fervent prayer that influences God.

All the true revivals have been born in prayer.

Whitfield once thus prayed, ' O Lord, give me souls or take my soul.' After much closet pleading, 'he once went to the Devil's fair and took more than a thousand souls out of the paw of the lion in a single day.

Around us is a world lost in sin, above us is a God willing and able to save; it is ours to build the bridge that links heaven and earth, and prayer is the mighty instrument that does the work.

I do not mean that every prayer we offer is answered exactly as we desire it to be. Were this the case, it would mean that we would be dictating to God, and prayer would degenerate into a mere system of begging.

When we calmly reflect upon the fact that the progress of our Lord's Kingdom is dependent upon prayer, it is sad to think that we give so little time to the holy exercise. Everything depends upon prayer, and yet we negle…

Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honors God and brings Him into active aid.

For prayer is of transcendent importance. Prayer is the mightiest agent to advance God's work. Praying hearts and hands only can do God's work. Prayer succeeds when all else fails. Prayer has won great victories, and res…

One of Satan's wiliest tricks is to destroy the best by the good.

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 c…

Praying saints are God's agents for carrying on His saving and providential work on earth. If His agents fail Him, neglecting to pray, then His work fails.