Starting in July, I am adding a new menu item. Do I sound like a restaurant?
What shall it be then?
An appetitzer? Main course? dessert?
I think we’ll call it the “tantalizer”.
Have you ever heard of E. M. Bounds?
If not, let’s just say that he has written more about prayer than any other author ever, 568 pages to be exact. The book I have contains all his books in one big volume. have had his book for years and when I want to torture myself I read portions of it.
I use the word “torture” because as the introduction written by Jim Cymbala of The Brooklyn Tabernacle says regarding his book, “You either stand near to enjoy its warmth or you move away because the flame seems too much to bear.”
I agree.
E.M. Bounds took the word of God literally in regards to prayer, something I think many of us don’t do. And that certainly includes me.
I think I am praying believing that if I believe what I’m praying, my prayers will be answered. (Yes, I mean it just the way I wrote it, convulted though it is.)
The truth, though? I think if I really did believe it, I would pray much bigger than I do.
Don’t look at me askance. How many you really believe that if you were to pray really big for something like world peace, it would happen?
I’m not saying it wouldn’t either.
All of this is just to point out that prayer, while really quite simple (after all, it’s only a conversation between two people), is complex. Not because prayer itself is complex but because we are. Prayers in the Bible are simple (and short, I might add), I wonder how we made it so complicated.
The longest prayer is found in Nehemiah 9:5-38, that’s only thirty-three verses. It can be read in a matter of minutes and yet is a powerful prayer.
E. M. Bound’s book challenges me and encourages me at the same time. (For some reason, I can’t download the image but you can find it here on Amazon.) And while I still maintain prayer is simple, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot more we can learn.
I hope you will enjoy the excerpts that I will post on Mondays. Remember, 568 pages! So just giving you a few sentences every week isn’t even going to give you an inkling about the book’s depth of insight. I encourage you to buy the book or get it from your local library so you can pick it up if only to read a few sentences at a time.
God bless and have a great day.
The post, “An exciting new series on authentic prayer” appeared first on “Under His Wings” @faithsighanddiy.com
The post “An exciting new series on prayer” appeared first on faithsighanddiy.com.
