As I lead our church through a season of prayer (and pray and plead for them to join me in prayer) I’ve decided to read E.M. Bound’s complete work on prayer. So far, wow!

Here’s a teaching outline and some thoughts that have come out of that so far.

Unless we come to place where we’re ready to rest our lives, daily, solely in the care of God, we will not come to the place of fervent, diligent prayer. Prayer begins and ends with faith.

Below is an outline I’ve written based upon the first chapter of E.M. Bounds “The Necessity of Prayer” from my copy of The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer. All quotes that are not Scripture are from Bounds.

Prayer that is fueled by faith is:

1. Diligent
   1. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6, NKJV)
   2. Faith is the foundation of prayer and prayer grows faith. The two are inseparable. Without the one you cannot have the other.
2. Sure of the God to whom it prays.
   1. Prayer that is by faith gives up first on self-sufficiency.
   2. “The faith which creates powerful praying is the faith which centers itself on a powerful person. Faith in Christ’s ability to do and to do greatly, is the faith which prays greatly.”
3. Based upon the work that Christ is already doing.
   1. The only way to guarantee God answering prayer is a prayer that based upon faith in what God is doing, and join in on that.
   2. We will never truly understand verses like: John 14:14, “If you ask anything in my name I will do it,” without understanding this truth.
4. Waits on God to answer
   1. When we pray by faith we don’t grow disheartened because God hasn’t answered right away.  (We should grow disheartened if God doesn’t answer a prayer we never prayed). Praying by faith trusts that God will answer when our prayer, by faith, matches His purpose that gives us that faith. E. M. Bound says that it’s a privilege to pray and wait on God to answer.
   2. Waiting in faith grows your faith
5. Prays for today’s present need
   1. Bounds says that we don’t need to pray today for tomorrow’s bread, just for today’s. “The present is ours, the future belongs to God…We cannot have tomorrow’s grace, we cannot eat tomorrow’s bread, we cannot to do tomorrow’s praying. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; and, most assuredly, if we possess faith, sufficient also, will be the good.”