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The Essentials of Prayer
Prayer has to do with the entire man. Prayer takes in man in his whole being, mind, soul and body. It takes the whole man to pray, and prayer affects the entire man in its gracious results. As the whole nature of man enters into prayer, so also all that belongs to man is the beneficiary of prayer. All of man receives benefits in prayer. The whole man must be given to God in praying. The largest results in praying come to him who gives himself, all of himself, all that belongs to himself, to God. This is the secret of full consecration, and this is a condition of successful praying, and the sort of praying which brings the largest fruits.
88 pages, Paperback
Published March 26, 2009
56 people are currently reading
264 people want to read
About the author
E.M. Bounds
328 books225 followersEdward McKendree Bounds was a Methodist minister, revivalist, author and lawyer.
Unsuccessful in the California gold rush of 1849, E.M. Bounds returned home to Missouri and became the state’s youngest practicing attorney at age 19. In his early twenties he was deeply impacted by the Third Great Awakening, and at age 24 he was ordained for ministry. During his lifetime he pastored churches, traveled as an evangelist, served as a Civil War chaplain, edited a Christian periodical and was a devoted husband and father. But E.M. Bounds is best known for prayer. His daily habit was to spend the time between 4 am and 7 am praying. His writings on prayer are widely acclaimed to be among the finest of any author before or since.
Unsuccessful in the California gold rush of 1849, E.M. Bounds returned home to Missouri and became the state’s youngest practicing attorney at age 19. In his early twenties he was deeply impacted by the Third Great Awakening, and at age 24 he was ordained for ministry. During his lifetime he pastored churches, traveled as an evangelist, served as a Civil War chaplain, edited a Christian periodical and was a devoted husband and father. But E.M. Bounds is best known for prayer. His daily habit was to spend the time between 4 am and 7 am praying. His writings on prayer are widely acclaimed to be among the finest of any author before or since.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 10, 2019
While some of the points are excellent and the book overall is helpful, I’d recommend it to more mature Christians because of a few theological gripes such as the misconception that you cannot talk to God from anywhere if it’s “too sinful or too worldly” like a “saloon or dance hall.” Thank goodness God hears my prayers no matter where my body may be located! See Psalm 189 to counteract this misguided idea. There were a few others of the sort, but this was the most memorable to me.
August 19, 2023
Very good, short, convicting book on prayer.
Has some revivalistic moments, but otherwise great.
Has some revivalistic moments, but otherwise great.
January 4, 2015
E.M. Bounds' books on prayer are masterpieces. This one is a great place to start - and return to again and again. Fair warning: it was written well over 100 years ago, from a standpoint of deeply held conviction - and opinion. Nevertheless it is a gold mine of truth for a prayer life with vitality.
October 22, 2011
I have been wanting to read the complete works of E.M. Bounds for a few years now. I have started a few times, but only managed to get through a book or two before finding the project abandoned for one reason or another. This time I have successfully incorporated reading a chapter each day, and this has served me quite well in progressing through the roster. In Chapter 1 he challenges us to a prayer life that requires the genuine investment of the all - the complete man. It is sober, methodical, purposed - not some emotional roller coaster ride; not left to frivolous chance. In Chapter 2, he talks about humility - how obedience is an angel's joy, humility of heart demands a great price, and is a rare commodity among believers. In this we are like the angels, if we obey, for we are happy and find satisfaction within our soul. To truly learn how to pray one learns humility, for pride shuts the door of prayer entirely. Chapter 3 talks about devotion: the stillness before God, the absence of the bustling spirit that invades the cultures and daily lives of our world. I love the quote, "modern Christianity is a jewel-case with the precious jewel missing". This is such a perfect illustration of what is wrong with the church today. I take away the overriding idea that it is a genuine community God is seeking with us, individually. We are not incomplete when there is God and man. We do not need apparatus, process, theology or material resource. Activity is not the gauge by which we determine productivity in God's will. "Work is not zeal" and "Moving about is not devotion." In fact, Bounds admits openly, "activity is often the unrecognized symptom of spiritual weakness." Too much running around, too much here and there, but little genuine power, within and among the Church.
Bounds then goes in to describe aspects of prayer: how gratitude is the essential generator of thanksgiving and praise, how trouble is the trigger for prayer and sanctification. This sanctification (to be made holy) is [should be] "the desire of every christian". A Christian not growing in holiness is not a Christian, and "material prosperity is not the infallible sign of spiritual prosperity" that we were hoping it would be.
He speaks directly to the problem: "we have put the external for the internal" and this is due to "the decline of prayer" in our lives. The Church has lost its power because its emphasis is no longer on the work of prayer but on the work of men. We no longer desire consecration, and those who pay it lip service do so without the continual blanket of prayer consecration requires.
Our priorities are not aligned with God's. We see a life of prayer as illegitimate, as lacking any real substantive end. Yet, to God, a life devoted to prayer is of utmost importance. Prayer is to mold the structure of our religious life - of our life in general. Our prayer is to be a vocation, not a side note on a large tapestry of activity. For all activity other than prayer is self-driven, self-centered and self-enthralled. All good work originates out of prayer.
Bounds warns that a Church that is "careless of discipline will likewise be careless in praying". If only we were to have prayer back in the church - much prayer, mutual prayer - this would bring the Church back to Scriptural standards, for what we have today is not up to that standard. And, yet, prayer is the universal in the bible. It is the gift open to all, it is even that which is available to sinners, non-believers, and saint alike. It is the mission work on the forefront of the battle, even though we be in diverse places and understand complex and unheard of languages. In fact, Bounds contends that the "key of all missionary success is prayer" and that key is in the hands of the home church.
He puts out the clarion call. "Today there is great need of intercessors, first, for the needy harvest-fields of earth, born of a Christly compassion for the thousands without the Gospel; and then intercessors for laborers to be sent fourth by God into the needy fields of earth."
Many points along the way, this little book stopped me in my tracks - illuminating for me how terrible a man I really am.
Bounds then goes in to describe aspects of prayer: how gratitude is the essential generator of thanksgiving and praise, how trouble is the trigger for prayer and sanctification. This sanctification (to be made holy) is [should be] "the desire of every christian". A Christian not growing in holiness is not a Christian, and "material prosperity is not the infallible sign of spiritual prosperity" that we were hoping it would be.
He speaks directly to the problem: "we have put the external for the internal" and this is due to "the decline of prayer" in our lives. The Church has lost its power because its emphasis is no longer on the work of prayer but on the work of men. We no longer desire consecration, and those who pay it lip service do so without the continual blanket of prayer consecration requires.
Our priorities are not aligned with God's. We see a life of prayer as illegitimate, as lacking any real substantive end. Yet, to God, a life devoted to prayer is of utmost importance. Prayer is to mold the structure of our religious life - of our life in general. Our prayer is to be a vocation, not a side note on a large tapestry of activity. For all activity other than prayer is self-driven, self-centered and self-enthralled. All good work originates out of prayer.
Bounds warns that a Church that is "careless of discipline will likewise be careless in praying". If only we were to have prayer back in the church - much prayer, mutual prayer - this would bring the Church back to Scriptural standards, for what we have today is not up to that standard. And, yet, prayer is the universal in the bible. It is the gift open to all, it is even that which is available to sinners, non-believers, and saint alike. It is the mission work on the forefront of the battle, even though we be in diverse places and understand complex and unheard of languages. In fact, Bounds contends that the "key of all missionary success is prayer" and that key is in the hands of the home church.
He puts out the clarion call. "Today there is great need of intercessors, first, for the needy harvest-fields of earth, born of a Christly compassion for the thousands without the Gospel; and then intercessors for laborers to be sent fourth by God into the needy fields of earth."
Many points along the way, this little book stopped me in my tracks - illuminating for me how terrible a man I really am.
February 7, 2023
Bounds is a well-read writer on prayer. This book is part of an 8 part series he wrote exploring the depths of a prayer life.
He writes with great devotion, citing biblical examples and adding quotes that echo his emphasis on the lifestyle of an intercessor. This work had several chapters that were inspiring.
While the book's language is stylistically different from modern works on the subject matter, the intensity of the writer evokes deep respect from the reader. Bounds is not exploring prayer as an abstract theological topic; he exudes a spirit of intimacy with God that is at the heart of all true Christ followers.
He writes with great devotion, citing biblical examples and adding quotes that echo his emphasis on the lifestyle of an intercessor. This work had several chapters that were inspiring.
While the book's language is stylistically different from modern works on the subject matter, the intensity of the writer evokes deep respect from the reader. Bounds is not exploring prayer as an abstract theological topic; he exudes a spirit of intimacy with God that is at the heart of all true Christ followers.
August 28, 2018
Another wonderful book by Edward McKendree Bounds. I must say that this particular work read a bit slower than the previous ones. A few of the chapters which I found particularly interesting concerned God’s use of tribulation in the life of believers and also the importance of prayer in the work of missions.
May 31, 2014
excellent book. must read for anyone serious about his walk with God. I found it a little drier than his first book...until the last couple of chapters. the last chapter, in particular, spoke deeply. all pastors and missionaries should read at least the last chapter of this book.
June 7, 2010
Awesome, life altering book on the nature of prayer.
Read
July 26, 2012In my opinion, it has flaws--but also helpful points as well.
Read
August 2, 2012Read this in staff meeting was really good for conversations and we grew a lot from it.
October 15, 2013
One of the best books on prayer ever. I highly recommend it.
February 9, 2017
Love books on prayer, this was excellent
March 5, 2025
This is one of the books in a well-known series of E.M. Bounds' works on prayer.
It includes the following chapters:
1. Prayer Takes in the Whole Man
"God cannot tolerate a divided heart in the love He requires of men, neither can He bear with a divided man in praying."
2. Prayer and Humility
"Happy are they who have no righteousness of their own to plead and no goodness of their own of which to boast."
3. Prayer and Devotion
"We say our prayers by rote, as a schoolboy recites his lesson, and are not sorry when the Amen is uttered."
4. Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving
"Gratitude and thanksgiving forever stand opposed to all murmurings at God's dealings with us, and all complaining at our lot. Gratitude and murmuring never abide in the same heart at the same time."
5. Prayer and Trouble
"The good or evil of trouble is always determined by the spirit in which it is received. Troubles proves a blessing or a curse, just according as it is received and treated by us."
6. Prayer and God's Work
"Not that we are to do holy, but rather to be holy. Being must precede doing. First be, then do. First, obtain a holy heart, then live a holy life."
7. Prayer and Consecration
"Consecration is not so much the setting one's self apart from sinful things, and wicked ends, but rather it is the separation from worldly, secular and even legitimate things, if they come in conflict with God's plans, to holy uses."
8. Prayer and a Definite Religious Standard
"We cannot possibly mark our advances in religion if there is no point to which we are definitely advancing."
9. Prayer Born of Compassion
"Compassion may not always move men, but is always moved toward men. Compassion may not always turn men to God, but it will, and does, turn God to men."
"It is not sin to feel the pain and realize the darkness on the path into which God leads."
10. Concerted Prayer
"The purity of the church is put in the background in the craze to secure numbers, and to pad the church rolls and make large figures in statistical columns."
11. The Universality of Prayer
"No little man can pray. No man with narrow views of God, of His plan to save men, and of the universal needs of all men, can pray effectually. It takes a broadminded man, who understands God and His purposes in the atonement, to pray well."
12. Prayer and Missions
"No prayerless church can transport to heathen lands a praying religion."
It includes the following chapters:
1. Prayer Takes in the Whole Man
"God cannot tolerate a divided heart in the love He requires of men, neither can He bear with a divided man in praying."
2. Prayer and Humility
"Happy are they who have no righteousness of their own to plead and no goodness of their own of which to boast."
3. Prayer and Devotion
"We say our prayers by rote, as a schoolboy recites his lesson, and are not sorry when the Amen is uttered."
4. Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving
"Gratitude and thanksgiving forever stand opposed to all murmurings at God's dealings with us, and all complaining at our lot. Gratitude and murmuring never abide in the same heart at the same time."
5. Prayer and Trouble
"The good or evil of trouble is always determined by the spirit in which it is received. Troubles proves a blessing or a curse, just according as it is received and treated by us."
6. Prayer and God's Work
"Not that we are to do holy, but rather to be holy. Being must precede doing. First be, then do. First, obtain a holy heart, then live a holy life."
7. Prayer and Consecration
"Consecration is not so much the setting one's self apart from sinful things, and wicked ends, but rather it is the separation from worldly, secular and even legitimate things, if they come in conflict with God's plans, to holy uses."
8. Prayer and a Definite Religious Standard
"We cannot possibly mark our advances in religion if there is no point to which we are definitely advancing."
9. Prayer Born of Compassion
"Compassion may not always move men, but is always moved toward men. Compassion may not always turn men to God, but it will, and does, turn God to men."
"It is not sin to feel the pain and realize the darkness on the path into which God leads."
10. Concerted Prayer
"The purity of the church is put in the background in the craze to secure numbers, and to pad the church rolls and make large figures in statistical columns."
11. The Universality of Prayer
"No little man can pray. No man with narrow views of God, of His plan to save men, and of the universal needs of all men, can pray effectually. It takes a broadminded man, who understands God and His purposes in the atonement, to pray well."
12. Prayer and Missions
"No prayerless church can transport to heathen lands a praying religion."
December 15, 2023
This was shaping out to be one of my favorite books on prayer so far… until the second to last chapter, which almost dropped it to 3-stars for me.
I loved Bounds’ chapters on Trouble and how it relates to the universal life of prayer as a neutral force, capable of ushering in the best and the worst depending on the posture of the receiver. Here’s a quote I liked: “If trouble fails in its mission, it is either because of prayerlessness or unbelief or both.” I have found this to be profoundly true in my own life! It honestly got even better for me at chapter 9, where the title is “Prayer and a Definite Religious Standard”. This chapter helped me unpack a lot of my own thoughts as of late in regard to the pro’s of certainty and dogma, here defined as “definiteness”. I am always shocked and humbled to see these things nuanced in books that came so many generations before us - there is truly nothing new under the sun!
And then we get to chapter 12, which I strongly disagree with. The chapter’s title is deceiving a bit, in that it’s called “The Universality of Prayer”. Bounds opens the chapter by saying that “it takes more a work of the Spirit to…” make a setting like the home or the pub holy than it is to make the church building holy. He then goes on to suggest that our personal holiness is directly correlated to which places we frequent, and their own level of worldliness. While I grant that there is less accessibility to make somewhere like a pub a place of prayer, and even that we should monitor what we spend time around and how it is forming us, even so I disagree that we should therefore keep our distance from those “worldly” things. Were we not created to be in the world and not of the world? Further, I’ve learned you will find no luck in avoiding the world - you were created to be a part of its maintenance and restoration, after all. And finally, “if light can’t reach into shadows, how can we be found?” (-Phinehas)
This review has gone on long enough - this is a good book on prayer, but with an asterisk by it. 🙏🏻
I loved Bounds’ chapters on Trouble and how it relates to the universal life of prayer as a neutral force, capable of ushering in the best and the worst depending on the posture of the receiver. Here’s a quote I liked: “If trouble fails in its mission, it is either because of prayerlessness or unbelief or both.” I have found this to be profoundly true in my own life! It honestly got even better for me at chapter 9, where the title is “Prayer and a Definite Religious Standard”. This chapter helped me unpack a lot of my own thoughts as of late in regard to the pro’s of certainty and dogma, here defined as “definiteness”. I am always shocked and humbled to see these things nuanced in books that came so many generations before us - there is truly nothing new under the sun!
And then we get to chapter 12, which I strongly disagree with. The chapter’s title is deceiving a bit, in that it’s called “The Universality of Prayer”. Bounds opens the chapter by saying that “it takes more a work of the Spirit to…” make a setting like the home or the pub holy than it is to make the church building holy. He then goes on to suggest that our personal holiness is directly correlated to which places we frequent, and their own level of worldliness. While I grant that there is less accessibility to make somewhere like a pub a place of prayer, and even that we should monitor what we spend time around and how it is forming us, even so I disagree that we should therefore keep our distance from those “worldly” things. Were we not created to be in the world and not of the world? Further, I’ve learned you will find no luck in avoiding the world - you were created to be a part of its maintenance and restoration, after all. And finally, “if light can’t reach into shadows, how can we be found?” (-Phinehas)
This review has gone on long enough - this is a good book on prayer, but with an asterisk by it. 🙏🏻
April 22, 2022
I could do without journaling section and poems were lackluster. I also prefer author use Bible references for scriptures he used because some of it was in KJV. I enjoyed this book because it emphasized the importance of believers state of mind during prayer. It clarified some spiritual terminology such as humility, devoted, and consecration. Felt convicted with some topics. It talked about how having a spiritual mindset is developed by meditating on God’s grace and mercy. Favorite chapter was on devotion. It talks about religious performances such as going to church or reading Bible out of habit without having any heart in it. It talked about having nonchalant attitude towards church service rather than looking at it as a divine opportunity for God to speak to us through preacher.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2023
Bounds sets my heart on fire. With conviction. With love for God. With a desire to pray.
Read this several times before. Finished it again today, reading it out loud one chapter at a time to our church men's prayer group.
Read this several times before. Finished it again today, reading it out loud one chapter at a time to our church men's prayer group.
February 25, 2024
The author makes some interesting points on prayer. Since it is a short book it is worth reading. I did find the writing style was sometimes difficult for me to follow, and it did not always flow that well.
February 1, 2023
Important ook for every believer.
Want to read
March 28, 2023Bought March 24, 2023 at Newmarket Mission Store
February 14, 2024
Excellent book on the importance of prayer and praying.
April 29, 2024
I had to read this for school and it took me almost a month. That is how difficult it is to get through.
December 12, 2025
Nice audiobook listen through getting reminders about why and how we pray.
November 12, 2018
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Aneko Press. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]
If there is anyone who would be qualified to write a book about how the sincerity and depth of one's prayers is not always connected, immediately or otherwise, with one's conditions in life, the author would have expertise in this matter. A man of the 19th century who did not marry until his forties and a chaplain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, the author no doubt knew disappointment pretty well and seriously. Intriguingly enough, this personal context is not mentioned directly in the book, although a strain of compassion goes through the book that is likely to have been involved with the author's own personal struggles regarding prayer [1]. Prayer is by no means an unusual subject for people to write about, but the author's approach certainly allows him a distinctive perspective that is well worth remembering, especially given the seriousness he takes the subject and the way he balances hope and compassion on the one hand with some rather pointed comments on reasons why prayer requires holiness on the part of believers.
In terms of its contents, this book contains thirteen chapters as well as an editor's foreword and a biography of the author that combined take up a bit more than 150 pages of reading. The author begins by talking about how prayer takes in the whole person (1). After this the author discusses prayer in association with various qualities, starting with humility (2) and devotion (3). He moves on to prayer's connection with praise and thanksgiving (4), trouble (5), and tribulation (6). In discussing these matters the author is quick to point out that often people are the cause of their own trouble and that tribulation is a complex matter. There are discussions about the relationship of prayer and God's work (7), prayer and consecration (8), which the author defines as the human aspect of setting the will towards the holiness that comes from God, as well as a definite religious standard of righteousness (9). The author then closes with chapters on prayer born out of compassion (10), concerted and focused prayer (11), before looking at the universality of prayer (12) and the relationship between prayer and missions (13). Throughout the book as a whole the author combines a focus on practical matters with a deep interest in prayer as it appears in all of its complexity in both the Bible and and in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, that complexity is a hallmark of this book. The author's discussion is like a bracing cup of cold water that reminds one of the seriousness of matters that are often taken for granted. As someone who has personal experience in the way that many people try to avoid giving prayers--especially public prayers--and are not particularly willing to gain practice in such matters, this book is the sort of book that I find deeply interesting. As someone whose prayer life was pretty complicated--witness his likely long unanswered prayers regarding finding a good wife as well as his prayers on behalf of the wicked cause for which he fought in the Civil War--it is not surprising that the author would have compassion on others whose prayers are born out of trouble and tribulation and frustration, as those were likely serious aspects of his own prayer life. However, in stark contrast to the way that such matters would be addressed in contemporary books on the subject, the author points the reader to examples of other believers as well as the Bible rather than seeking to discuss his own personal life, showing an admirable level of restraint in doing so.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
If there is anyone who would be qualified to write a book about how the sincerity and depth of one's prayers is not always connected, immediately or otherwise, with one's conditions in life, the author would have expertise in this matter. A man of the 19th century who did not marry until his forties and a chaplain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, the author no doubt knew disappointment pretty well and seriously. Intriguingly enough, this personal context is not mentioned directly in the book, although a strain of compassion goes through the book that is likely to have been involved with the author's own personal struggles regarding prayer [1]. Prayer is by no means an unusual subject for people to write about, but the author's approach certainly allows him a distinctive perspective that is well worth remembering, especially given the seriousness he takes the subject and the way he balances hope and compassion on the one hand with some rather pointed comments on reasons why prayer requires holiness on the part of believers.
In terms of its contents, this book contains thirteen chapters as well as an editor's foreword and a biography of the author that combined take up a bit more than 150 pages of reading. The author begins by talking about how prayer takes in the whole person (1). After this the author discusses prayer in association with various qualities, starting with humility (2) and devotion (3). He moves on to prayer's connection with praise and thanksgiving (4), trouble (5), and tribulation (6). In discussing these matters the author is quick to point out that often people are the cause of their own trouble and that tribulation is a complex matter. There are discussions about the relationship of prayer and God's work (7), prayer and consecration (8), which the author defines as the human aspect of setting the will towards the holiness that comes from God, as well as a definite religious standard of righteousness (9). The author then closes with chapters on prayer born out of compassion (10), concerted and focused prayer (11), before looking at the universality of prayer (12) and the relationship between prayer and missions (13). Throughout the book as a whole the author combines a focus on practical matters with a deep interest in prayer as it appears in all of its complexity in both the Bible and and in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, that complexity is a hallmark of this book. The author's discussion is like a bracing cup of cold water that reminds one of the seriousness of matters that are often taken for granted. As someone who has personal experience in the way that many people try to avoid giving prayers--especially public prayers--and are not particularly willing to gain practice in such matters, this book is the sort of book that I find deeply interesting. As someone whose prayer life was pretty complicated--witness his likely long unanswered prayers regarding finding a good wife as well as his prayers on behalf of the wicked cause for which he fought in the Civil War--it is not surprising that the author would have compassion on others whose prayers are born out of trouble and tribulation and frustration, as those were likely serious aspects of his own prayer life. However, in stark contrast to the way that such matters would be addressed in contemporary books on the subject, the author points the reader to examples of other believers as well as the Bible rather than seeking to discuss his own personal life, showing an admirable level of restraint in doing so.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
June 9, 2022
This was more on par with my earlier readings of Bounds. He still uses strong terms to describe the man of prayer but he also backs it up with Scripture. There is less the leaning toward Armenian theology in this book and therefore I have rated it higher than the last one I reviewed.
I was particularly struck with his chapter on missions and his perspective on worship.
Missions:
The Lord does not pray for the harvest and the church does not call the missionary. Sort your job out and do it. The Lord directed his followers to pray for the workers and he said he would call them. I have a missionary friend that has been on deputation for many years and I sadly have deprived him of my prayers because I thought they would be ineffectual. Well no more. I will pray for his support to be complete and I will let God work out the particulars.
Worship:
This nineteenth/twentieth century perspective on worship is of incredible relevance to our 21st century world. He mentions the songs sung by paid choirs. Now we have worship leaders and the people in the seats are watching them as though they were in attendance at the theater. Amazing how even though things change, everything stays the same.
I was particularly struck with his chapter on missions and his perspective on worship.
Missions:
The Lord does not pray for the harvest and the church does not call the missionary. Sort your job out and do it. The Lord directed his followers to pray for the workers and he said he would call them. I have a missionary friend that has been on deputation for many years and I sadly have deprived him of my prayers because I thought they would be ineffectual. Well no more. I will pray for his support to be complete and I will let God work out the particulars.
Worship:
This nineteenth/twentieth century perspective on worship is of incredible relevance to our 21st century world. He mentions the songs sung by paid choirs. Now we have worship leaders and the people in the seats are watching them as though they were in attendance at the theater. Amazing how even though things change, everything stays the same.
May 13, 2018
E.M.Bounds gives an in depth look at the need of prayer in a believers life-specifically how it builds our relationship with God. He starts with the need of prayer in the individual and then builds up to the need of prayer in the church, and in the missionaries/pastors life. Also essential is the need of the church to pray for those who are missionaries: pray to the the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field (Matt 9:38)
August 28, 2019
A great book for those who believe in God and ironically for those who don't. It is great for converstations in church or talking sessions about faith and prayer. It reflects author's own struggles with prayer; it is an usual subject but the author has produced a great balance of love and compassion and reasons why prayer requires you to be holy if you are a believer. I think it is a classic, life altering book and the author does seem to have good expertise.
October 3, 2018
E.M. Bounds was really a man of prayer. This year I've learnt a lot from this man of God about prayer; this being the third of his books. The depth of his books are astounding considering their length. This is a must read for every christian, not only now, but for the generations to come as well. All Glory belongs to God for raising up such a man.
April 28, 2017
Even though the language and some of the attitudes are dated, it is amazing how the problems and deficiencies that Bounds noted in the church of his day very closely parallel the the problems and deficiencies of the church in our own day. This is a very inspirational book.
June 18, 2018
I absolutely love reading books from preachers and teachers written many years ago. This IS one of those books. This book is written with deep convictions about living a prayerful life and having an unconditional love for God and those who need Him!
April 13, 2018
Not as good as his Preacher and Prayer. There are some really good thoughts in here, though.
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