Edward McKendree Bounds (1835 – 1913) believed in and practiced the joyful discipline of prayer like few other men in modern times. 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.1
“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.”
“Public prayers of are of little value unless they are founded on or followed up by private praying.”
“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.”
“The Word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer is placed, and by which things are mightily moved.”
“Paul lived on his knees, that the Ephesian Church might measure the heights, breadths, and depths of an unmeasurable saintliness, and ‘be filled with all the fullness of God.’”
“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.”
“Prayer—secret fervent believing prayer—lies at the root of all personal godliness.”
“The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it.”
“The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”
“Satan is always at church before the preacher is in the pulpit or a member is in the pew. He comes to hinder the sower, to impoverish the soil, or to corrupt the seed. He uses these tactics only when courage and faith are in the pulpit, and zeal and prayer are in the pew; but if dead ritualism or live liberalism are in the pulpit, he does not attend, because they are no danger to him.”
“Praying men are a necessity in carrying out the divine plan for the salvation of men.”
“Men of piety are always men of prayer. Men are never noted for the simplicity and strength of their faith who are not preeminently men of prayer. Piety flourishes nowhere so rapidly and so rankly as in the closet. The closet is the garden of faith.”
“When the Church is in the condition of prayer God’s cause always flourishes and His kingdom on earth always triumphs.”
“Church activities may so engage and absorb us as to hinder praying, and when this is the case, evil results always follow. It is better to let the work go by default than to let the praying go by neglect.”
“Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer.”
“I think Christians fail so often to get answers to their prayers because they do not wait long enough on God. They just drop down and say a few words, and then jump up and forget it and expect God to answer them. Such praying always reminds me of the small boy ringing his neighbor’s door-bell, and then running away as fast as he can go.”
“Prayer is the highest intelligence, the profoundest wisdom, the most vital, the most joyous, the most efficacious, the most powerful of all vocations.”
“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.”
“No insistence in the Scripture is more pressing than that we must pray…How clear it is, when the Bible is consulted, that the almighty God is brought directly into the things of this world by the prayers of His people.”
“It is necessary to iterate and reiterate that prayer, as a mere habit, as a performance gone through by routine or in a professional way, is a dead and rotten thing.”
1 All of these quotes are from the websites below:
Inspirational Quotes by E.M. Bounds (bibleportal.com)
TOP 25 QUOTES BY EDWARD MCKENDREE BOUNDS (of 163) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)