Prayer and Praying Men by E.M. Bounds

by Michael · Published March 27, 2015 · Updated January 11, 2019

Prayer and Praying Men by E.M. Bounds: To begin with, note the incident in Joshua 10, where the very heavenly bodies were made subject to prayer. A prolonged battle was on between the Israelites and their enemies, and when night was rapidly coming on, and it was discovered that a few more hours of daylight were needful to ensure victory for the Lord’s hosts, Joshua, that sturdy man of God, stepped into the breach, with prayer. The sun was too rapidly declining in the west for God’s people to reap the full fruits of a noted victory, and Joshua, seeing how much depended upon the occasion, cried out in the sight and in the hearing of Israel, “Sun, stand thou still upon Gid-eon, and thou moon in the Valley of Ajalon.” And the sun actually stood still, and the moon stopped on her course at the command of this praying man of God, till the Lord’s people had avenged themselves upon the Lord’s enemies.

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Prayer and Praying Men by E.M. Bounds

Jacob was not a strict pattern of righteousness, prior to his all-night praying. Yet he was a man of prayer and believed in the God of prayer. So, we find him swift to call upon God in prayer when he was in trouble. He was fleeing from home fearing Esau, on his way to the home of Laban, a kinsman. As night came on, he lighted on a certain place to refresh himself with sleep, and as he slept, he had a wonderful dream in which he saw the angels of God ascending and descending on a ladder which stretched from earth to heaven. It was no wonder when he awoke, he was con-strained to exclaim, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not.”
Then it was he entered into a very definite covenant with Al-mighty God, and in prayer vowed a vow unto the Lord, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; and shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God’s house; and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give one-tenth unto thee.”
With a deep sense of his utter dependence upon God, and de-siring above all the help of God, Jacob conditioned his prayer for protection, blessing and guidance by a solemn vow. Thus Jacob supported his prayer to God by a vow.

Prayer and Praying Men by E.M. Bounds

Twenty years had passed while Jacob tarried at the house of Laban, and he had married two of his daughters and God had given him children. He had increased largely in wealth, and he resolved to leave that place and return home to where he had been reared. Nearing home it occurred to him that he must meet his brother Esau, whose anger had not abated notwithstanding the passage of many years. God, however, had said to him, “Return to thy father’s house and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee.” In this dire emergency doubtless God’s promise and his vow made long ago came to his mind, and he took himself to an all-night season of prayer. Here comes to our notice that strange, inexpli-cable incident of the angel struggling with Jacob all night long, till Jacob at last obtained the victory. “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” And then and there, in answer to his earnest, pressing and importunate praying, he was richly blessed person-ally, and his name was changed. But even more than that, God went ahead of Jacob’s desire, and strangely moved upon the an-gry nature of Esau, and lo and behold, when Jacob met him next day, Esau’s anger had entirely abated, and he vied with Jacob in showing kindness to his brother who had wronged him. No ex-planation of this remarkable change in the heart of Esau is satis-factory which leaves out prayer.
Samuel, the mighty intercessor in Israel and a man of God, was the product of his mother’s prayer. Hannah is a memorable example of the nature and benefits of importunate praying. No son had been born to her and she yearned for a man child. Her whole soul was in her desire. So she went to the house of worship, where Eli, the priest of God, was, and staggering under the weight of which bore down on her heart she was beside herself and seemed to be really intoxicated. Her desires were too intense for articulation. “She poured out her soul in prayer before the Lord.” Insuperable natural difficulties were in the way, but she “multiplied her praying,” as the passage means, till her God-lightened heart and her bright face recorded the answer to her prayers, and Samuel was hers by a conscious faith and a nation was restored by faith.
Samuel was born in answer to the vowful prayer of Hannah, for the solemn covenant which she made with God if He would grant her request must not be left out of the account in investi-gating this incident of a praying woman and the answer she re-ceived. It is suggestive in James 5:15 that “The prayer of faith shall save the sick,” the word translated means a vow. So that prayer in its highest form of faith is that prayer which carries the whole man as a sacrificial offering. Thus devoting the whole man him-self, and his all, to God in a definite, intelligent vow, never to be broken, in a quenchless and impassioned desire for heaven—such an attitude of self-devotement to God mightily helps pray-ing. Samson is somewhat of a paradox when we examine his re-ligious character. But amid all his faults, which were grave in the extreme, he knew the God who hears prayer and he knew how to talk to God.

Prayer and Praying Men by E.M. Bounds