The Possibilities of Prayer
by E M Bounds (1835-1913)
2. PRAYER AND THE PROMISES
"You need not utterly despair even of those who for
the present 'turn again and rend you.' For if all your arguments and persuasives fail, there is yet another remedy
left, and one that is frequently found effectual, when no other method avails. This is prayer. Therefore, whatsoever
you desire or want, either for others or for your own soul, 'Ask, and it shall be given you.'"
-- John Wesley
WITHOUT the promise prayer is eccentric and baseless. Without
prayer, the promise is dim, voiceless, shadowy, and impersonal. The promise makes prayer dauntless and irresistible.
The Apostle Peter declares that God has given to us "exceeding great and precious promises." "Precious"
and "exceeding great" promises they are, and for this very cause we are to "add to our faith,"
and supply virtue. It is the addition which makes the promises current and beneficial to us. It is prayer which
makes the promises weighty, precious and practical. The Apostle Paul did not hesitate to declare that God's grace
so richly promised was made operative and efficient by prayer. "Ye also helping together by prayer for us."
The promises of God are "exceeding great and precious," words which clearly indicate their great value
and their broad reach, as grounds upon which to base our expectations in praying. Howsoever exceeding great and
precious they are, their realization, the possibility and condition of that realization, are based on prayer. How
glorious are these promises to the believing saints and to the whole Church! How the brightness and bloom, the
fruitage and cloudless midday glory of the future beam on us through the promises of God! Yet these promises never
brought hope to bloom or fruit to a prayerless heart. Neither could these promises, were they a thousandfold increased
in number and preciousness, bring millennium glory to a prayerless Church. Prayer makes the promise rich, fruitful
and a conscious reality.
Prayer as a spiritual energy, and illustrated in its enlarged and mighty working, makes way for and brings into
practical realization the promises of God.
God's promises cover all things which pertain to life and godliness, which relate to body and soul, which have
to do with time and eternity. These promises bless the present and stretch out in their benefactions to the illimitable
and eternal future. Prayer holds these promises in keeping and in fruition. Promises are God's golden fruit to
be plucked by the hand of prayer. Promises are God's incorruptible seed, to be sown and tilled by prayer.
Prayer and the promises are interdependent. The promise inspires and energizes prayer, but prayer locates the promise,
and gives it realization and location. The promise is like the blessed rain falling in full showers, but prayer,
like the pipes, which transmit, preserve and direct the rain, localizes and precipitates these promises, until
they become local and personal, and bless, refresh and fertilize. Prayer takes hold of the promise and conducts
it to its marvellous ends, removes the obstacles, and makes a highway for the promise to its glorious fulfillment.
While God's promises are "exceeding great and precious," they are specific, clear and personal. How pointed
and plain God's promise to Abraham:
But Rebekah through whom the promise is to flow is childless.
Her barren womb forms an invincible obstacle to the fulfillment of God's promise. But in the course of time children
are born to her.
Isaac becomes a man of prayer through whom the promise is to be realized, and so we read:
Isaac's praying opened the way for the fulfilment of God's
promise, and carried it on to its marvellous fulfillment, and made the promise effectual in bringing forth marvellous
results.
God spoke to Jacob and made definite promises to him:
Jacob promptly moves out on the promise, but Esau confronts him with his awakened vengeance and his murderous intention, more dreadful because of the long years, unappeased and waiting. Jacob throws himself directly on God's promise by a night of prayer, first in quietude and calmness, and then when the stillness, the loneliness and the darkness of the night are upon him, he makes the all-night wrestling prayer.
God's being is involved, His promise is at stake, and much
is involved in the issue. Esau's temper, his conduct and his character are involved. It is a notable occasion.
Much depends upon it. Jacob pursues his case and presses his plea with great struggles and hard wrestling. It is
the highest form of importunity. But the victory is gained at last. His name and nature are changed and he becomes
a new and different man. Jacob himself is saved first of all. He is blessed in his life and soul. But more still
is accomplished. Esau undergoes a radical change of mind. He who came forth with hate and revenge in his heart
against his own brother, seeking Jacob's destruction, is strangely and wonderfully affected, and he is changed
and his whole attitude toward his brother becomes radically different. And when the two brothers meet, love takes
the place of fear and hate, and they vie with each other in showing true brotherly affection.
The promise of God is fulfilled. But it took that all night of importunate praying to do the deed. It took that
fearful night of wrestling on Jacob's part to make the promise sure and cause it to bear fruit. Prayer wrought
the marvellous deed. So prayer of the same kind will produce like results in this day. It was God's promise and
Jacob's praying which crowned and crowded the results so wondrously.
"Go show thyself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth," was God's command and promise to His servant
Elijah after the sore famine had cursed the land. Many glorious results marked that day of heroic faith and dauntless
courage on Elijah's part. The sublime issue with Israel had been successful, the fire had fallen, Israel had been
reclaimed, the prophets of Baal had been killed, but there was no rain. The one thing, the only thing, which God
had promised, had not been given. The day was declining, and the awestruck crowds were faint, and yet held by an
invisible hand.
Elijah turns from Israel to God and from Baal to the one source of help for a final issue and a final victory.
But seven times is the restless eagerness of the prophet stayed. Not till the seventh repeated time is his vigilance
rewarded and the promise pressed to its final fulfillment. Elijah's fiery, relentless praying bore to its triumphant
results the promise of God, and rain descended in full showers.
Our prayers are too little and feeble to execute the purposes
or to claim the promises of God with appropriating power. Marvellous purposes need marvellous praying to execute
them. Miracle-making promises need miracle-making praying to realize them. Only Divine praying can operate Divine
promises or carry out Divine purposes. How great, how sublime, and how exalted are the promises God makes to His
people! How eternal are the purposes of God! Why are we so impoverished in experience and so low in life when God's
promises are so "exceeding great and precious"? Why do the eternal purposes of God move so tardily? Why
are they so poorly executed? Our failure to appropriate the Divine promises and rest our faith on them, and to
pray believingly is the solution. "We have not because we ask not." "We ask and receive not because
we ask amiss."
Prayer is based on the purpose and promise of God. Prayer is submission to God. Prayer has no sigh of disloyalty
against God's will. It may cry out against the bitterness and the dread weight of an hour of unutterable anguish:
"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." But it is surcharged with the sweetest and promptest
submission. "Yet not my will, but thine be done."
But prayer in its usual uniform and deep current is conscious conformity to God's will, based upon the direct promise
of God's Word, and under the illumination and application of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is surer than that the Word
of God is the sure foundation of prayer. We pray just as we believe God's Word. Prayer is based directly and specifically
upon God's revealed promises in Christ Jesus. It has no other ground upon which to base its plea. All else is shadowy,
sandy, fickle. Not our feelings, not our merits, not our works, but God's promise is the basis of faith and the
solid ground of prayer.
The converse of this proposition is also true. God's promises are dependent and conditioned upon prayer to appropriate them and make them a conscious realization. The promises are inwrought in us, appropriated by us, and held in the arms of faith by prayer. Let it be noted that prayer gives the promises their efficiency, localizes and appropriates them, and utilizes them. Prayer puts the promises to practical and present uses. Prayer puts the promises as the seed in the fructifying soil. Promises, like the rain, are general. Prayer embodies, precipitates, and locates them for personal use. Prayer goes by faith into the great fruit orchard of God's exceeding great and precious promises, and with hand and heart picks the ripest and richest fruit. The promises, like electricity, may sparkle and dazzle and yet be impotent for good till these dynamic, life-giving currents are chained by prayer, and are made the mighty forces which move and bless.
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