Edward McKendree Bounds (1835 – 1913) believed in and practiced the joyful discipline of prayer like few other men in modern times. According to Sarah Koontz: “Bounds dedicated the hours of 4 am to 7 am each morning to prayer, and it’s been said that no man could have made more melting appeals for lost souls and backslidden Christians than him.”1
Bounds was an American attorney and a member of the Methodist Church. Shortly after receiving his law degree at age nineteen young Edward decided that his true calling was in the ministry and became ordained as a minister in 1859 in the Monticello Methodist Church in Missouri. Bounds pastored several churches during his career, was an associate editor of The Christian Advocate, the official Methodist newspaper, and is best known for his many books on the subject of prayer.
During his lifetime Bounds lived in relative obscurity. Few men, however, prayed more and researched this critical aspect of Christianity than Bounds. To this humble man of God his sermons while preached in church were made in the closet of prayer. He firmly believed that if we want to make a difference in the world, we must invest heavily in the practice of prayer.
Today his books on prayer are considered classics. If you have the time I highly recommend you check out the link below which contained PDF files of seven of his books on prayer. They are free to the public.2
As I read his quotes on prayer I could sense that Bounds was issuing a clarion call to all of us to make prayer a high priority in our Christian lives. I totally agree that we all need to seriously examine our own prayer lives and if they are lacking, pray to God first and foremost to give us a greater desire to pray. Below are some quotes on prayer by Bounds that I pray will move you to spend more time in your prayer closet.3
“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.”
“Prayer honors God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid.”
“Prayer is far-reaching in its influence and worldwide in its effects. It affects all men, affects them everywhere, and affects them in all things. It touches man’s interest in time and eternity. It lays hold upon God and moves Him to interfere in the affairs of earth. It moves the angels to minister to men in this life. It restrains and defeats the devil in his schemes to ruin man. Prayer goes everywhere and lays its hand upon everything.”
“No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack.”
“Prayer is not learned in a classroom but in the closet.”
“God is waiting to be put to the test by His people in prayer. He delights in being put to the test on His promises. It is His highest pleasure to answer prayer, to prove the reliability of His promises.”
“Prayer is the easiest and hardest of all things; the simplest and the sublimest; the weakest and the most powerful; its results lie outside the range of human possibilities-they are limited only by the omnipotence of God.”
“The goal of prayer is the ear of God, a goal that can only be reached by patient and continued and continuous waiting upon Him, pouring out our heart to Him and permitting Him to speak to us. Only by so doing can we expect to know Him, and as we come to know Him better we shall spend more time in His presence and find that presence a constant and ever-increasing delight.”
“It is only when the whole heart is gripped with the passion of prayer that the life-giving fire descends, for none but the earnest man gets access to the ear of God.”
“We regard prayer no longer as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege which is to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.”
“No man can do a great and enduring work for God who is not a man of prayer, and no man can be a man of prayer who does not give much time to praying.”
“We ought to pray for the desire to pray; for such a desire is God-given and heaven-born.”
“Paul, Luther, Wesley —what would these chosen ones of God be without the distinguishing and controlling element of prayer? They were leaders for God because mighty in prayer. They were not leaders because of brilliancy in thought, because exhaustless in resources, because of their magnificent culture or native endowment, but leaders because by the power of prayer they could command the power of God.”
“The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees.”
“Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer can move God.”
“There is power through prayer. For many Christians, prayer is nothing special, just something we’re supposed to do – go to church, tithe, read the Bible, pray. But prayer should be so much more than an item on our ‘to do’ lists.”
“Prayer is God’s plan to supply man’s great and continuous need with God’s great and continuous abundance.”
“A holy life does not live in the closet, but it cannot live without the closet.”
“It is true that Bible prayers in word and print are short, but the praying men of the Bible were with God through many a sweet and holy wrestling hour. They won by few words but long waiting.”
“Jesus taught that perseverance is the essential element in prayer.”
1 https://livingbydesign.org/bounds-prayer/
3 All of these quotes are from the following website:
TOP 25 QUOTES BY EDWARD MCKENDREE BOUNDS (of 163) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
Yes, Curt…God certainly hears our prayers…and He answers them.
i have a restored eyesight to prove it.
Elaine