Word of Encouragement (5/14/2020)
Today, we will continue our meditation on prayer and great faith. For that, I’d like to share some quotes from E.M. Bounds. I found them convicting and inspiring. I hope you do, too!
“Without the promise [of God] prayer is eccentric and baseless. Without prayer, the promise is dim, voiceless, shadowy, and impersonal. The promise makes prayer dauntless and irresistible. The Apostle Peter declares that God has given to us "exceeding great and precious promises.” (Isn’t that true? If we really believe in the promise of God regarding our prayer, prayer will be irresistible [because if we don’t pray, it will be our loss!] and dauntless [or, undaunted or bold].)
“The promises of God are ‘exceeding great and precious,’ words which clearly indicate their great value and their broad reach, as grounds upon which to base our expectations in praying. Howsoever exceeding great and precious they are, their realization, the possibility and condition of that realization, are based on prayer. How glorious are these promises to the believing saints and to the whole Church! How the brightness and bloom, the fruitage and cloudless midday glory of the future beam on us through the promises of God! Yet these promises never brought hope to bloom or fruit to a prayerless heart.” (It is not that God doesn’t give us anything unless we pray. Our heavenly Father knows what we need even before we ask Him [Matt. 6:8] and He has provided so much more than what we have asked for! But something profound happens in our relationship with God when we offer up our desires to God according to God’s promise and God graciously grants them to us in fulfillment of His promise!)
God's promises cover all things which pertain to life and godliness, which relate to body and soul, which have to do with time and eternity. These promises bless the present and stretch out in their benefactions to the illimitable and eternal future. Prayer holds these promises in keeping and in fruition. Promises are God's golden fruit to be plucked by the hand of prayer. Promises are God's incorruptible seed, to be sown and tilled by prayer. (A~men!)
Our prayers are too little and feeble to execute the purposes or to claim the promises of God with appropriating power. Marvelous purposes need marvelous praying to execute them…. How great, how sublime, and how exalted are the promises God makes to His people! How eternal are the purposes of God! Why are we so impoverished in experience and so low in life when God's promises are so ‘exceeding great and precious’?... ‘We have not because we ask not.’ ‘We ask and receive not because we ask amiss.’” (How challenging! The prayer of those who know how great God is will reflect the greatness of God.)
“Prayer is based on the purpose and promise of God. Prayer is submission to God. Prayer has no sigh of disloyalty against God's will. It may cry out against the bitterness and the dread weight of an hour of unutterable anguish: ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.’ But it is surcharged [overwhelmed or overcome] with the sweetest and promptest submission. ‘Yet not my will, but thine be done.’”
“But prayer in its usual uniform and deep current is conscious conformity to God's will, based upon the direct promise of God's Word, and under the illumination and application of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is surer than that the Word of God is the sure foundation of prayer. We pray just as we believe God's Word. Prayer is based directly and specifically upon God's revealed promises in Christ Jesus. It has no other ground upon which to base its plea. All else is shadowy, sandy, fickle. Not our feelings, not our merits, not our works, but God's promise is the basis of faith and the solid ground of prayer.” (That prayer is submission to God is a great reminder, isn’t it? We are praying because God commands us to pray and promises to answer our prayers according to His wisdom and goodness. So then, we are praying in submission to God. If so, shouldn’t we show our submission in what we pray for as well?)
Have a blessed day as you medicate on these thoughts and spend time in prayer!