Prayer is the easiest and hardest of all things; the simplest and the sublimest; the weakest and the most powerful; its results lie outside the range of human possibilities-they are limited only by the omnipotence of God.
Edward Mckendree BoundsRead
Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in prayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to Him, make prayer a rare and feeble thing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A deep relationship with God empowers one's prayers, while a distant relationship weakens them.
Edward Mckendree Bounds emphasizes the importance of knowing God deeply in order to have powerful and effective prayers. He suggests that familiarity and closeness with God foster strong prayer experiences, whereas a lack of connection leads to weak and infrequent prayer. This highlights the spiritual richness that comes from a profound connection with the divine.
Themes
PrayerGodFamiliaritySpiritualityRelationship
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon, a pastor might use this quote to encourage the congregation to deepen their relationship with God.
More from Edward Mckendree Bounds
All quotes →Leaders in the realm of religious activity are to be judged by their praying habits and not by their money or social position. Those who must be placed in the forefront of the Church's business must be, first of all, men who know how to pray.
Edward Mckendree BoundsRead
No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame.
Edward Mckendree BoundsRead
Importunity is a condition of prayer. We are to press the matter, not with vain repetitions, but with urgent repetitions. We repeat, not to count the times, but to gain the prayer. We cannot quit praying because heart and soul are in it. We pray "with all perseverance." We hang to our prayers because by them we live. We press our pleas because we must have them, or die.
Edward Mckendree BoundsRead
We may excuse the spiritual poverty of our preaching in many ways, but the true secret will be found in the lack of urgent prayer for God's presence in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Edward Mckendree BoundsRead
Faith, and hope, and patience and all the strong, beautiful, vital forces of piety are withered 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.
Edward Mckendree BoundsRead
Similar quotes
One saintly priest attracts more souls to Christ...than do those who lack the imprint of their sacred office
Dietrich Von HildebrandRead
I'd rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught his disciples how to preach, but only how to pray.
Dwight L. MoodyRead
Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy, and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast.
Thomas MertonRead
We are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in his Word, we might discover that he evokes greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give him.
David PlattRead
Meditating on the nature and dignity of prayer can cause saying at least one thing to God: Lord, teach us to pray!
Karl RahnerRead
Somewhere along the way we have subtly and tragically taken the costly command of Christ to go, baptize, and teach all nations and mutated it into a comfortable call for Christians to come, be baptized, and listen in one location.
David PlattRead