E. M. Bounds wrote:
“The prayers of God’s saints strengthen the unborn generation against the desolating waves of sin and evil. Woe to the generation of sons who find their own censers empty of the rich incense of prayer, whose fathers have been too busy or too unbelieving to pray, and who have inexpressible perils and untold consequences for their heritage! They whose fathers and mothers have left them a wealthy legacy of prayer are very fortunate, indeed.”
Such strong and provocative language only makes sense if we possess an exalted understanding of prayer. If prayer is just something that we do in order to be seen to be faithful in God’s eyes, then the language Bounds uses seems preposterous. After all, prayer that is inconsequential makes prayerlessness equally inconsequential. If it makes no difference if we do pray, then, conversely, it makes no difference if we don’t pray.
Bounds sees it quite differently. Prayer is the incredible grace of communicating with the living God - the prelude to powerful, world-changing acts of God. We do not have because we do not ask. And, we often only receive exactly what we request - sometimes nothing more - when more could have been asked for. If we are able to receive great things from God through prayer, then not to pray is to rob the world of those great things. Jeremy Taylor wrote:
“The prayers of holy men appease God’s wrath, drive away temptations, resist and overcome the Devil, procure the ministry and service of angels, rescind the decrees of God. Prayer cures sickness and obtains pardon; it arrests the sun in its course and stays the wheels of the chariot of the moon; it rules over all gods and opens and shuts the storehouses of rain; it unlocks the cabinet of the womb and quenches the violence of fire; it stops the mouths of lions and reconciles our suffering and weak faculties with the violence of torment and violence of persecution; it pleases God and supplies all our need.”
Therefore, if this is true, then not to pray for these things is equivalent to bringing a curse. If we do not pray for these things, then we might as well be against them. We must avoid the terrible consequences of prayerlessness.
No Responses
No comments yet.