by Dale Shumaker
Spirit Savvy Network
Finding your mission, Empowering your life through prayer,
Becoming a Missionary in the Marketplace
Leading others to be Missionaries in the Marketplace
Power through Prayer by
E. M. Bounds is becoming a book on prayer that is being highly
recommended. Many great people of faith have said Bounds has been a
major influence in having a dedicated prayer life. Here are summaries of
the chapters in Power through Prayer.
Power Through Prayer, chapter 8, Examples of those Devoted to Prayer.
In the online version of Power Through Prayer, there is an extra chapter on examples of praying men, and may I say women.
“Men’ means mankind in general.. Here’s a few of those mentioned.
“Men’ means mankind in general.. Here’s a few of those mentioned.
Payson
wore the hard-wood boards into grooves where his knees pressed so often
and so long. His biographer says: “His continuing instant in prayer, be
his circumstances what they might, is the most noticeable fact in his
history, and points out the duty of all who would rival his eminency. To
his ardent and persevering prayers must no doubt be ascribed in a great
measure his distinguished and almost uninterrupted success.”
The
Marquis DeRenty, to whom Christ was most precious, ordered his servant
to call him from his devotions at the end of half an hour. The servant
at the time saw his face through an aperture. It was marked with such
holiness that he hated to arouse him. His lips were moving, but he was
perfectly silent. He waited until three half hours had passed; then he
called to him, when he arose from his knees, saying that the half hour
was so short when he was communing with Christ.
William
Bramwell is famous in Methodist annals for personal holiness and for
his wonderful success in preaching and for the marvelous answers to his
prayers. For hours at a time he would pray. He almost lived on his
knees. He went over his circuits like a flame of fire. The fire was
kindled by the time he spent in prayer. He often spent as much as four
hours in a single season of prayer in retirement.
Bishop Andrewes spent the greatest part of five hours every day in prayer and devotion.
Sir
Henry Havelock always spent the first two hours of each day alone with
God. If the encampment was struck at 6 A.M., he would rise at four.
Earl
Cairns rose daily at six o’clock to secure an hour and a half for the
study of the Bible and for prayer, before conducting family worship at a
quarter to eight.
Dr.
Judson’s success in prayer is attributable to the fact that he gave
much time to prayer. He says on this point: “Arrange thy affairs, if
possible, so that thou canst leisurely devote two or three hours every
day not merely to devotional exercises but to the very act of secret
prayer and communion with God. Endeavor seven times a day to withdraw
from business and company and lift up thy soul to God in private
retirement. Begin the day by rising after midnight and devoting some
time amid the silence and darkness of the night to this sacred work. Let
the hour of opening dawn find thee at the same work. Let the hours of
nine, twelve, three, six, and nine at night witness the same. Be
resolute in his cause. Make all practicable sacrifices to maintain it.
Power
which may last, not unfrequently in an earnest life, late into the
night hours, or even to the break of day. Sometimes they refer to common
intercession with St. Paul as a concerted struggle. They have, when
praying, their eyes fixed on the Great Intercessor in Gethsemane, upon
the drops of blood which fall to the ground in that agony of resignation
and sacrifice. Importunity is of the essence of successful prayer.
Importunity means not dreaminess but sustained work. It is through
prayer especially that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the
violent take it by force.
The complete chapter on Examples of Praying Men:
The
Christian Classics Ethereal Library and many great classic works on
Christian Growth, by the best of the Saints of Old whose works have been
passed down through the ages.
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