THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER By E.M. BOUNDS (Excerpts)
"Faith in Christ's ability to do and to do greatly, is the faith which prays greatly."
Mat_9:28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.
"It was to inspire faith in His ability to do that Jesus left behind Him, that last, great
statement, which, in the final analysis, is a ringing challenge to faith. "All power," He
declared, "is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." (Mat_28:18)
"Yet faith is called upon, and that right often to wait in patience before God, and is
prepared for God's seeming delays in answering prayer. Faith does not grow
disheartened because prayer is not immediately honoured; it takes God at His Word,
and lets Him take what time He chooses in fulfilling His purposes, and in carrying on
His work. There is bound to be much delay and long days of waiting for true faith, but
faith accepts the conditions -- knows there will be delays in answering prayer, and
regards such delays as times of testing, in the which, it is privileged to show its mettle,
and the stern stuff of which it is made."
*******
My thoughts-
Truly our doubting God is revealing a lack of faith. When things go bad in our lives we are always tempted to cry out- 'Why, God?! Why?' And that is a cry of despair, of questioning, of doubting. People will quickly tell you it's fine to doubt God, and yet that doubt chips away at the faith we have. If we aren't careful the chips at our faith which we allow will eventually destroy all our faith. It's not fine to doubt God. When we doubt we need to ask forgiveness for that doubting, not tell ourselves it's perfectly fine, perfectly normal. We will doubt, that's in our flesh nature, but our spirit nature counters that with the realization it is wrong to doubt. We must repent of our doubting and seek forgiveness. We must BELIEVE, we must have FAITH, and we must PRAY. Some will find that while they are busy questioning God, and holding fast to their doubt that it becomes harder and harder to pray.
I've known people who have left a very rich prayer life because of their anger and doubt at God because their lives took a tragic turn. Would I do the same? It's very possible, I'm not trying to get the speck out of their eye while ignoring the beam in my own. I could very well react the same given the same circumstance and by God's grace alone, may I never be tested in such a way.
Prayer can strengthen our faith, and it's through faith we pray. We believe and so we pray, we doubt and our prayers suffer.
Bounds writes that, "There is bound to be much delay and long days of waiting for true faith, but faith accepts the conditions and knows there will be delays in answering prayer, and regards such delays as times of testing…"
This is truth.
We ask for things in prayers and all too often expect immediate replies because our request is for a situation requiring immediacy. Yet, some things we asked for are not given because we ultimately pray for God's will to be done, meaning God who sees the end from the beginning knows how all things work together for good, we cannot know that. We can see Point A and how is might connect to Point B but we would find it hard to comprehend where Point X fits in when it is so many points away from Point A.
One person's tragedy could be another's blessing- we find this often in organ transplants. One person's faith rewarded while another is crushed. I say crushed but what it really is being called to do is to be TESTED, not crushed. The test can be horrifically painful but we are to be tried and tested, we are called to endure much suffering, we were never told it would be painless. We are told it is endurable all through CHRIST, through believing that our Savior is.
Yes, believing that our Savior is. That He exists and is able to do all that He's promised this is faith, this is prayer.
By YOUR grace LORD, by YOUR GRACE!
"Faith in Christ's ability to do and to do greatly, is the faith which prays greatly."
Mat_9:28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.
"It was to inspire faith in His ability to do that Jesus left behind Him, that last, great
statement, which, in the final analysis, is a ringing challenge to faith. "All power," He
declared, "is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." (Mat_28:18)
"Yet faith is called upon, and that right often to wait in patience before God, and is
prepared for God's seeming delays in answering prayer. Faith does not grow
disheartened because prayer is not immediately honoured; it takes God at His Word,
and lets Him take what time He chooses in fulfilling His purposes, and in carrying on
His work. There is bound to be much delay and long days of waiting for true faith, but
faith accepts the conditions -- knows there will be delays in answering prayer, and
regards such delays as times of testing, in the which, it is privileged to show its mettle,
and the stern stuff of which it is made."
*******
My thoughts-
Truly our doubting God is revealing a lack of faith. When things go bad in our lives we are always tempted to cry out- 'Why, God?! Why?' And that is a cry of despair, of questioning, of doubting. People will quickly tell you it's fine to doubt God, and yet that doubt chips away at the faith we have. If we aren't careful the chips at our faith which we allow will eventually destroy all our faith. It's not fine to doubt God. When we doubt we need to ask forgiveness for that doubting, not tell ourselves it's perfectly fine, perfectly normal. We will doubt, that's in our flesh nature, but our spirit nature counters that with the realization it is wrong to doubt. We must repent of our doubting and seek forgiveness. We must BELIEVE, we must have FAITH, and we must PRAY. Some will find that while they are busy questioning God, and holding fast to their doubt that it becomes harder and harder to pray.
I've known people who have left a very rich prayer life because of their anger and doubt at God because their lives took a tragic turn. Would I do the same? It's very possible, I'm not trying to get the speck out of their eye while ignoring the beam in my own. I could very well react the same given the same circumstance and by God's grace alone, may I never be tested in such a way.
Prayer can strengthen our faith, and it's through faith we pray. We believe and so we pray, we doubt and our prayers suffer.
Bounds writes that, "There is bound to be much delay and long days of waiting for true faith, but faith accepts the conditions and knows there will be delays in answering prayer, and regards such delays as times of testing…"
This is truth.
We ask for things in prayers and all too often expect immediate replies because our request is for a situation requiring immediacy. Yet, some things we asked for are not given because we ultimately pray for God's will to be done, meaning God who sees the end from the beginning knows how all things work together for good, we cannot know that. We can see Point A and how is might connect to Point B but we would find it hard to comprehend where Point X fits in when it is so many points away from Point A.
One person's tragedy could be another's blessing- we find this often in organ transplants. One person's faith rewarded while another is crushed. I say crushed but what it really is being called to do is to be TESTED, not crushed. The test can be horrifically painful but we are to be tried and tested, we are called to endure much suffering, we were never told it would be painless. We are told it is endurable all through CHRIST, through believing that our Savior is.
Yes, believing that our Savior is. That He exists and is able to do all that He's promised this is faith, this is prayer.
By YOUR grace LORD, by YOUR GRACE!
