When I originally thought about embarking on the “EM Bounds
Journey,” I was excited to learn about prayer. I wanted to know the x, y, and z
of how I should be praying. I was feeling like my prayers were bouncing off the
ceiling. It sometimes felt like I was talking to an imaginary friend or possibly
even just talking to myself. I was feeling lost at how to know that I really
was connecting with the Lord. I had questions about what prayer really is. How
should I pray? Does God answer my prayers just because I pray them or would
they get answered even if I didn’t pray? What am I “allowed” to pray for? What
does it feel like to be in REAL prayer? Why do some seem to be answered and
some don’t? I know that prayer is talking and listening to God, but I felt like
there were still some unanswered questions about how to have a life built on
prayer and to pray prayers that were transformational for myself, for others
and the world around me.
Until I read this chapter (Chapter 6-A Praying Ministry
Successful), I was feeling like the cart was coming before the horse. I enjoyed
Bounds’ writing and have been inspired by what he’s writing, but I wanted to
know specifics and mechanics of prayer. Give me a formula and I’ll pray exactly
how I’m supposed to. However, I thought about Bounds’ approach, and ultimately thought
about what God is calling me to in prayer, I realized there’s so much more to
it than praying with a bounded, formula, rules-based plan.
I’m a pretty big fan of the tv show Friends. There’s an episode where Phoebe (the eclectic, kind of
strange, hippie-ish character who plays guitar and sings) is teaching Joey (the
goofy, absent-minded bachelor, actor) how to play the guitar. Joey
automatically assumes that he’ll start learning by playing an actual guitar,
but Phoebe is quick to tell him that until he masters the chord positions with
his hands by practicing on an “air guitar,” he doesn’t get to touch the real
thing. While comical in the show, this parallels how I feel the Lord leading me
with prayer. I need to examine the position of my heart, the mentality in which
I approach prayer, and then I can dive deeper into the more specifics of who, what,
where, when and how to pray.
Bounds knew better which was the
cart and which was the horse. He knew that we first had to realize that prayer is
the ESSENTIAL piece to preaching, ministry and at the bottom line, life. He knew
that it wasn’t about praying specific words in a specific order in a specific
place, but that prayer was how we abided with God. He knew that prayer was a
position the heart had to be in and that that position had to be fully
connected to God. As he says, “He [a prayerful minister] is deeply stored with
and deeply schooled in the things of God. His long, deep communings with God
about his people and the agony of his wrestling spirit have crowned him as a
prince in the things of God. The iciness of the mere professional has long
since melted under the intensity of his praying.” Bounds points out that the
essence of prayer and the essential piece of having a truly successful ministry
is that we are SO caught up with God, that we know so much about Him, and the
we are so focused on Jesus. He reminds us that once prayer is the center of who
we are and what we do, then our ministry will be successful; not on a
professional level, where numbers of people or how flashy our preaching is are
the only things that matter, but successful for the Kingdom of God and the work
He is doing in and through us.
Later in the chapter, I did start to feel like I was
scratching the surface of more specific guiding on how to pray and what prayer
looks and feels like. But even in these descriptions, he didn’t lay out a
yearly praying plan or a 10 step program to have your prayers answered. He
still put things in a relational and centered-on-Jesus kind of light. Bounds
writes, “God to them [God’s true preachers] was the center of attraction, and
prayer was the path that led to God….they so prayed that their prayers entered
into and shaped their characters; they so prayed as to affect their own lives
and the lives of others; they so prayed as to make the history of the Church
and influence the current of the times.” My heart is stirred. My heart is
refreshed at reading this. I am reminded how big prayer is. I’m reminded that
prayer is a lot about learning who God is by following “the path that led to
God.” I’m reminded that it’s partially about my life, but a lot about the lives
of people around me and the world around me. I’m reminded that I should be
praying in a way that forms who I am. And through the examples of men of the
Bible who prayed well “Paul, a striving with earnest effort of soul; what it
was to Jacob, a wrestling and prevailing; what it was to Christ, “strong crying
and tears,” Bounds begins to lay out for me a “plan” for praying. “They ‘prayed
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance.”
So how then how am I going to go forward with prayer?:
centered, character-shaping, fervent, striving, earnest, wrestling, prevailing,
and often I will be praying with strong crying and tears.
Not all my questions are answered in this one little
chapter, but I can feel the Lord moving in new ways in my heart and life of
prayer. He’s moving me to see prayer not as a formula to get an answer that I
want or even an answer at all, but instead seeking Him to change me, move me,
to get to know Him and to help change the lives of people and the world around
me.
