A Treasury Of Prayer: The Best Of E.M. BoundsShembull

The Necessity of Prayer

In any study of the principles and the procedure of prayer, of its activities and enterprises, the first place must of necessity be given to faith. It is the initial quality in the heart of any man who essays to talk to the Unseen. He must, out of sheer helplessness, stretch forth hands of faith. He must believe, where he cannot prove. In the ultimate issue, prayer is simply faith, claiming its natural yet marvelous prerogatives—faith taking possession of its illimitable inheritance.

True godliness is just as true, steady, and persevering in the realm of faith as it is in the province of prayer. Moreover, when faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.

Faith is called upon, and that right often, to wait in patience before God, and is prepared for God’s seeming delays in answering prayer. Faith does not grow disheartened because prayer is not immediately honored; it takes God at His Word and lets Him take what time He chooses in fulfilling His purposes and in carrying on His work. There is bound to be much delay and long days of waiting for true faith, but faith accepts the conditions—knows there will be delays in answering prayer, and regards such delays as times of testing, in which it is privileged to show its mettle and the stern stuff of which it is made.

Meanwhile, as every day demands its bread, so every day demands its prayer. No amount of praying done today will suffice for tomorrow’s praying. On the other hand, no praying for tomorrow is of any great value to us today. Today’s manna is what we need; tomorrow God will see that our needs are supplied. This is the faith which God seeks to inspire. So leave tomorrow, with its cares, its needs, its troubles, in God’s hands. There is no storing of tomorrow’s grace or tomorrow’s praying; neither is there any laying up of today’s grace to meet tomorrow’s necessities. We cannot have tomorrow’s grace, we cannot eat tomorrow’s bread, and we cannot do tomorrow’s praying.