? E.M. Bounds

At the heart of abiding in Christ is prayer. In the quote from EM Bounds above, he makes the point that praying can be hard work and so we have a tendency to not want to do it. But if prayer is at the heart of our relationship and abiding in the vine, than it must be our highest priority. Without prayer, we drift away from the Lord and we lack his presence and power in our life. This is not only an individual problem but a collective problem. When the church stops praying, the church lacks power. We lack unity. We lack a healthy body. We lack fruit.

I want to encourage you to pray, even when you don’t feel like it. Make it a discipline in life just like you discipline yourself to spend time with your spouse, children and friends, knowing the effort produces good fruit. Daily, sincere, expectant, persistent, earnest prayers are powerful and effective and lie at the heart of our faith. Keep praying church!

“What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men and women whom the Holy Ghost can use — people of prayer, people mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through people. He does not come on machinery, but on us. He does not anoint plans, but people — men and women of prayer.”
– E.M. Bounds

God Bless
Pastor Nathan