E.M. Bounds > Quotes

“The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use -- men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men -- men of prayer.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“A prepared heart is much better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“God’s revelation does not need the light of human genius, the polish and strength of human culture, the brilliancy of human thought, the force of human brains to adorn or enforce it; but it does demand the simplicity, the docility, humility, and faith of a child’s heart.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still. He will never talk well and with real success to men for God who has not learned well how to talk to God for men.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Preaching never edifies a prayerless soul.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage that never fails.”
― E.M. Bounds

“Men and women are needed whose prayers will give to the world the utmost power of God; who will make His promises to blossom with rich and full results. God is waiting to hear us and challenges us to bring Him to do this thing by our praying. He is asking us, to-day, as He did His ancient Israel, to prove Him now herewith." Behind God's Word is God Himself, and we read: "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, his Maker: Ask of me of things to come and concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me." As though God places Himself in the hands and at the disposal of His people who pray - as indeed He does. The dominant element of all praying is faith, that is conspicuous, cardinal and emphatic. Without such faith it is impossible to please God, and equally impossible to pray.”
― E.M. Bounds, The Weapon of Prayer

“True prayers are born of present trials and present needs. Bread for today is bread enough. Bread given for today is the strongest sort of pledge that there will be bread tomorrow. Victory today is the assurance of victory tomorrow. Our prayers need to be focused upon the present. We must trust God today, and leave the morrow entirely with Him. The present is ours; the future belongs to God. Prayer is the task and duty of each recurring day -- daily prayer for daily needs.”
― E.M. Bounds

“Public prayers of are of little value unless they are founded on or followed up by private praying.”
― E.M. Bounds

“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 seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day.”
― E.M. Bounds

“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.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.”
― E.M. Bounds

“God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God's method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. ”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Nothing is well done without prayer for the simple reason that it leaves God out of the account.”
― E.M. Bounds, The Weapon of Prayer

“Prayers are deathless. They outlive the lives of those who uttered them.”
― E.M. Bounds

“Our devotions are not measured by the clock, but time is of the essence. The ability to wait, and stay, and press belongs essentially to our intercourse with God.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“The Word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer is placed, and by which things are mightily moved.”
― E.M. Bounds

“The praying which makes a prayerful ministry is not a little praying put in as we put flavor to give it a pleasant smack, but the praying must be in the body, and form the blood and bones. Prayer is no petty duty, put into a corner; no piecemeal performance made out of the fragments of time which have been snatched from business and other engagements of life; but it means that the best of our time, the heart of our time and strength must be given.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Short devotions are the bane of deep piety. Calmness, grasp, strength, are never the companions of hurry.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by supplication and prayer, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." That is the Divine cure for all fear, anxiety, and undue concern of soul, all of which are closely akin to doubt and unbelief.”
― E.M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer

“Another scheme of Satan is to eliminate from the church all the humble, self-denying ordinances that are offensive to unsanctified tastes and unregenerate hearts. He seeks to reduce the church to a mere human institution—popular, natural, fleshly, and pleasing.”
― E.M. Bounds, Guide to Spiritual Warfare

“The preacher must have, "bonds of a servant with the spirit of a king, a king in high, royal, independent bearing, with the simplicity and sweetness of a child.”
― E.M. Bounds

“Whatever affects the intensity of our praying affects the value of our work.”
― E.M. Bounds, The Weapon of Prayer

“We have emphasized sermon-preparation until we have lost sight of the important thing to be prepared—the heart. A prepared heart is much better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“Pray for "all men." We usually pray more for things than we do for men. Our prayers should be thrown across their pathway as they rush in their downward course to a lost eternity.”
― E.M.Bounds

“When we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," we are, in a measure, shutting tomorrow out of our prayer. We do not live in tomorrow but in today. We do not seek tomorrow's grace or tomorrow's bread. They thrive best, and get most out of life, who live in the living present. They pray best who pray for today's needs, not for tomorrow's, which may render our prayers unnecessary and redundant by not existing at all!”
― E.M. Bounds

“It is not great talents nor great learning nor great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God -- men always preaching by holy sermons in the pulpit, by holy lives out of it.”
― E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“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. He is devoted to God. His aim, aspirations, ambition are for God and to God, and to such prayer is as essential as food is to life.”
― E. M. Bounds, The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds

“The ministry of prayer, if it be anything worthy of the name, is a ministry of ardor, a ministry of unwearied and intense longing after God and after his holiness.”
― E.M.Bounds