Nothing is more important to God than prayer in dealing with man. But it is likewise all-important to man to pray. Failure to pray is failure along the whole line of life. It is a failure of duty, service and spiritual progress. God must help man by prayer. He who does not pray therefore, robs himself of God’s help and places God where He cannot help man. Man must pray to God if love for God is to exist. Faith and hope, and patience and all the strong, beautiful, vital forces of piety are withheld and dead in a prayerless life. The life of the individual believer, his personal salvation, and personal Christian graces have their being, bloom and fruitage in prayer ….
… Prayer concerns God, whose purposes and plans are conditioned upon prayer. The days of God’s splendour and renown have always been great days of prayer. God’s great movements in this world have been conditioned on, continued and fashioned by prayer.
E. M. Bounds, The Weapon of Prayer, 1931
The following quote is taken from E. M. Bounds book, The Weapon of Prayer (1931). The importance of prayer in the life of the true child of God, as emphasized below, is needed as much today as ever. This exhortation however, only applies to the born again believer who has come to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Prayers offered by those who have no relationship to God on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross alone, are sadly ineffectual. But to the child of God, prayer is vital and effectual.
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