Do you ever wonder if God hears your prayers? Do you wonder why he has yet to respond to your prayer requests? Or, are you concerned that God's answer was something far different from what you had petitioned Him for; or what you expected? Has His seeming disregard for your needs caused you to doubt Him; to turn away from Him; to not trust Him anymore? Have you felt adrift from Him? Have you stopped praying? Has your church?

In his Necessity of Prayer,Necessity of Prayer, E.M. Bounds presents the reasons why you might feel that way. A leading 19th-20th century authority on and teacher of prayer, a pastor, a chaplain, a theologian and evangelist, Bounds has encouraging suggestions for you, solutions that you can start applying today.

Prayer and FaithPrayer and Faith is the first of an 11-part short-read series of E.M. Bounds' epic, which was first published in the early 1900s. This component includes the foreword of his book and its first two chapters, which contain Bound’s treatises and teaching on these mainstays of belief in God. In Prayer and Faith,Prayer and Faith, you see how it takes the two to support and build each other.

Everyone needs to first believe God in order to pray and communicate with Him. It is prayer that gives faith life and vibrancy. Prayer is a blessed gift and privilege from our Creator. It allows the faithful to communicate one-on-one with God. In personal, individual and in corporate prayer, we honor God and we impress our faith to Him. In doing that, God projects to the world.

“Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God”, Bounds writes in his book. By exploring Bound’s teaching, you will come to see that faith is the vehicle for receiving the fruit of the Spirit and knowing God’s will. You will see why and how faith is kept alive, nurtured and grown by prayer; that when prayer ceases, faith breaks down, and the foundations of spiritual life give way. Should that occur, the entire structure of one’s personal and indeed sometimes corporate religious experiences falter.

Bounds will show you how those tragedies can be avoided and prove to you that every step taken in spiritual growth—every addition of grace to grace—happens through prayer. Prayer and faith are inseparable for life as a Christian. It is a primary spiritual discipline to grow faith. Bounds’ work teaches how you can do that.

So, do as E.M. Bounds explains and exhorts: Stretch forth your hands and your heart in faith. And in doing so, you’ll lay hold of the power of Christ in your life.

This two-chapter excerpt from the author’s volume is presented with annotations that were not part of the original manuscript. It includes end-notes of available biographical summaries for cited quotations and references given in the public domain work. And, this publication contains a guide for individual or group study and discussion.