Prayer, The Foundation Of Life

The Possibilities of Prayer text by E. M. Bounds

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The Possibilities of Prayer
BY

E. M. Bounds,
1835-1913

From the uncopyrighted MOODY PRESS EDITION, 1980 ISBN 0-8024-6724-5 This etext is in the public domain. Reformatted by Katie Stewart

"HOW vast are the possibilities of prayer! How wide is its reach!What great things are accomplished by this divinely appointed means of grace! It lays its hand on Almighty God and moves Him to do what He would not otherwise do if prayer was not offered. It brings things to pass which would never otherwise occur. The story of prayer is the story of great achievements. Prayer is a wonderful power placed by Almighty God in the hands of His saints, which may be usedto accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results. Prayer reaches to everything, takes in all things great and small which are promised by God to the children of men. The only limits to prayer are the promises of God and His ability to fulfill those promises. 'Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.'" --E. M. Bounds
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Table of Contents
I. THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER II. PRAYER AND THEPROMISES III. PRAYER AND THE PROMISES (Continued) IV. PRAYER -- ITS POSSIBILITIES V. PRAYER -- ITS POSSIBILITIES (Continued) VI. PRAYER -- ITS POSSIBILITIES (Continued) VII. PRAYER -- ITS WIDE RANGE VIII. PRAYER -- FACTS AND HISTORY IX. PRAYER -- FACTS AND HISTORY (Continued)

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The Possibilities of Prayer text by E. M. Bounds

X. ANSWERED PRAYER XI. ANSWERED PRAYER (Continued) XII.ANSWERED PRAYER (Continued) XIII. PRAYER MIRACLES XIV. WONDERS OF GOD THROUGH PRAYER XV. PRAYER AND DIVINE PROVIDENCE XVI. PRAYER AND DIVINE PROVIDENCE (Continued)

I. THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER
"Prayer should be the breath of our breathing, the thought of our thinking, the soul of our feeling, and the life of our living, the sound of our hearing, the growth of our growing. Prayer in its magnitude islength without end, width without bounds, height without top, and depth without bottom. Illimitable in its breadth, exhaustless in height, fathomless in depths and infinite in extension."
--

Homer W. Hodge

THE ministry of prayer has been the peculiar distinction of all of God's saints. This has been the secret of their power. The energy and the soul of their work has been the closet. The needof help outside of man being so great, man's natural inability to always judge kindly, justly, and truly, and to act the Golden Rule, so prayer is enjoined by Christ to enable man to act in all these things according to the Divine will. By prayer, the ability is secured to feel the law of love, to speak according to the law of love, and to do everything in harmony with the law of love. God canhelp us. God is a Father. We need God's good things to help us to "do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God." We need Divine aid to act brotherly, wisely, and nobly, and to judge truly, and charitably. God's help to do all these things in God's way is secured by prayer. "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." In the marvellousoutput of Christian graces and duties, the result of giving ourselves wholly to God, recorded in the twelfth chapter of Romans, we have the words, "Continuing instant in prayer," preceded by "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation," followed by, "Distributing to the necessity of the saints, given to hospitality." Paul thus writes as if these rich and rare graces and unselfish duties, so sweet,bright, generous, and unselfish, had for their center and source the ability to pray. This is the same word which is used of the prayer of the disciples which ushered in Pentecost with all of its rich and glorious blessings of the Holy Spirit. In Colossians, Paul presses the word into the service of prayer again, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." The word in its background...