The Word and the Promiser

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. JOHN 15:7

Bounds is often thought of as a man of one idea, and in a sense he was. But he never thought of prayer as a thing that stood by itself. In The Necessity of Prayer he gave two chapters to prayer and the Word of God, and in The Possibilities of Prayer two more to prayer and the promises. Taken together they make one of his most balanced teachings: prayer lives on Scripture, and Scripture is brought to life by prayer.

Prayer feeds on the Word

Bounds called the Bible a book of prayer. It is full of praying men and their answers, of commands to pray and promises to those who do. He did not think anyone could pray well who did not know it well.

“The Word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer is placed,” he wrote, “and by which things are mightily moved.” Prayer needs something to stand on. Our feelings shift, our merits are worthless, our reasons run out, but God’s word does not change. So he urged his readers to store the promises in their hearts, like fuel laid up for winter. Unless prayer is supplied by the Word, he said, it may be earnest and even loud, but it will be thin and empty.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. ROMANS 10:17

This is simple and deeply practical. Many people find their prayers going round in the same small circle of worries. The remedy is not to try harder but to read more. Scripture gives us words to pray, reasons to hope, and a far larger picture of what God cares about than we would ever invent for ourselves.

The Word needs prayer

The relationship runs the other way too. Bounds loved Paul’s request to the Thessalonians that they pray for him, so that the word of the Lord might have free course. The gospel, he said, depends on prayer to run. He had a vivid phrase for it: prayer puts wheels under God’s Word.

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: 2 THESSALONIANS 3:1

He applied this to the parable of the sower. Why does so much seed fall on hard ground, or among thorns? Partly, he thought, because hearers come to God’s word without having prepared their hearts by prayer, and leave without watering what was sown. Prayer before hearing softens the soil; prayer after hearing keeps the seed alive.

He applied it too to the ordinary reader. The psalmist who loved God’s law was also a man who prayed Open thou mine eyes. “No man loves the Bible, who does not love to pray,” Bounds wrote, and the reverse was equally true: no one loves to pray who does not delight in God’s law.

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. PSALM 119:18

Taking hold of the Promiser

The most striking thing Bounds said about the promises is that prayer takes hold not only of the promise but of the One who made it. “Jacob wrestled, not so much with a promise, as with the Promiser.” A promise can remain a dead letter on the page. Prayer lays hold of the living God who stands behind it and asks Him to do as He has said.

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: ISAIAH 59:1

He illustrated this from Elijah. God had said plainly, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. Elijah had the promise. Yet he still climbed Carmel and bowed himself to the ground and prayed, seven times, until the little cloud appeared. The promise did not make prayer unnecessary. It made prayer confident.

And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. 1 KINGS 18:42–43

In the same way, he pointed out, Daniel read in Jeremiah that the captivity would last seventy years, and his response was not to wait passively but to set his face to seek God with prayer and fasting. Knowing God’s purpose moved him to pray for it. The promise and the prayer went together.

Knowing the will of God

Bounds tied the Word to one of the hardest questions in prayer: how can we know what God wants? His answer was that God has written His general will in Scripture, and that the Spirit helps us apply it. By studying the Word, hiding it in our hearts and letting it dwell in us richly, we come to pray more and more in line with what God desires.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. PSALM 119:11

He also noted a wonderful little verse from Paul, that every good gift of God is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Prayer is not only for getting things from God; joined to Scripture, it makes holy what we already have.

For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 1 TIMOTHY 4:5

Where this must be read with care

Two cautions are worth making.

First, Bounds sometimes suggests that importunate prayer can obtain more than God has promised — that the saints of old, through faith, obtained promises they had not been given. There is truth in this; Abraham and Moses pleaded where they had no specific word. But it can be pushed too far, until prayer becomes a way of getting round Scripture rather than living within it. The safer path is the one he himself usually walked: to pray the promises God has actually made, and to leave the rest to His wisdom.

Second, claiming promises can become careless. Not every promise in the Bible was made to every reader in every situation. Some were spoken to Israel, some to particular people, some for particular times. To pray the Word well means reading it well — in context, with humility, and with the whole of Scripture in view. Bounds’s own advice to store the Word richly in the heart is the best guard against using it carelessly.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Choose one psalm and pray through it slowly this week, turning each verse into a prayer of your own.

2. Before you next read Scripture or hear a sermon, pray for an open heart. Afterwards, pray over one thing you heard.

3. Find one promise of God that speaks to a real need in your life. Check its context, then take hold of the Promiser and ask Him to fulfil it.

4. Memorise Psalm 119:11 or John 15:7, and use it to begin your prayers for a week.

5. Pray daily for the preaching of God’s word somewhere in the world, that it may have free course and be glorified.

A PRAYER

Heavenly Father, You have given us Your word, and You have told us to ask in Jesus’ name. Forgive me for neglecting both, and for praying in small circles because I have read so little.

Open my eyes to behold wondrous things out of Your law. Let Your words abide in me, so that I may learn to ask what You delight to give.

Teach me to take hold not only of Your promises but of You, the faithful Promiser, who cannot lie.

And let Your word run swiftly and be glorified, in my heart, in my church and among the nations. Amen.