Prayer and Trouble – E.M. Bounds
The good or evil of trouble is always determined by the spirit in which it is received. Trouble proves a blessing or a curse according to how it is received and treated by us. It either softens or hardens us. It either draws us to prayer and to God, or it drives us from God and from the closet. Troubles hardened Pharaoh till finally it had no effect on him, only to make him more desperate and to drive him further from God. The same sun that softens wax hardens clay. The same sun that melts the ice dries the moisture from the Earth.
Just as there is an infinite variety of trouble, there is an infinite variety of prayer. Prayer has to do with everything that concerns us, with everybody with whom we have to do, and has to do with all times. But prayer especially has to do with trouble. "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."(Psalm 34:6). O the blessedness, the help, the comfort of prayer in the day of trouble! How marvelous are the promises of God to us in the time of trouble! Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me. and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. (Psalm 91:14-15).
If pain afflict, or wrongs oppress,
If cares distract, or fears dismay;
If guilt deject, if sin distress,
In every case, still watch and pray.
How rich in its sweetness, how far-reaching in the realm of trouble, and how cheering to faith are the words of promise that God speaks to His believing, praying saints by the mouth of Isaiah: But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: (Isaiah 43:1-3)