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George Allen
- I’ve prayed many prayers when no answer came,
I’ve waited patient and long;
But answers have come to enough of my prayers
To make me keep praying on. (The Secret of Abundant Living)
- Prayer is no more inconsistent with the unchangeable purposes of God, than the use of any other means; for God in forming his purposes had respect to all appropriate means of producing the intended ends, and among these prayer has an important place.
Leith Anderson
- There come times in our lives when we in our desperation and pain run to God and dial our 911 prayers. Sometimes we're hysterical. Sometimes we don't know the words to speak. But God hears. He knows our number and he knows our name and he knows our circumstance. That help is already on the way; God has already begun to bring the remedy to us.
M.E. Andross
- Time spent alone with God is not wasted. It changes us; it changes our surroundings; and every Christian who would live the life that counts, and who would have power for service must take time to pray.
- Make time to pray. The great freight and passenger trains are never too busy to stop for fuel. No matter how congested the yards may be, no matter how crowded the schedules are, no matter how many things demand the attention of the trainmen, those trains always stop for fuel.
- There is no other activity in life so important as that of prayer. Every other activity depends upon prayer for its best efficiency.
- If the Christian does not allow prayer to drive sin out of his life, sin will drive prayer out of his life. Like light and darkness, the two cannot dwell together.
- “…the man on his knees has a leverage underneath the mountain which can cast it into the sea, if necessary, and can force all earth and heaven to recognize the power there is in 'His name.
- When prayer has become secondary, or incidental, it has lost its power. Those who are conspicuously men of prayer are those who use prayer as they use food, or air, or light, or money."
- Longing desire prayeth always, though the tongue be silent. If thou art ever longing, thou art ever praying.
- Remove from prayer much speaking, not much praying.
- Do you wish to pray in the temple? Pray in your own heart. But begin by being God's temple, for He will listen to those who invoke Him in His temple.
- Pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you.
- It was your Lord who put an end to long-windedness, so that you would not pray as if you wanted to teach God by your many words. Piety, not verbosity, is in order when you pray, since He knows your needs. Now someone perhaps will say: ‘But if He knows our needs, why should we sate our requests even in a few words? Why should we pray at all? Since He knows, let Him give what He deems necessary for us.’ Even so, He wants you to pray so that He may confer His gifts on one who really desires them and will not regard them lightly.
- We may pray most when we say least, and we may pray least when we say most.
- The nature of the divine goodness is not only to open to those who knock, but also to cause them to knock and ask.
- We may pray when we say least, and we may pray least when we say most
Charles Baudelaire
- The man who says his prayers in the evening is a captain posting his sentries. After that, he can sleep.
- I do not think that prayer is ever evasion, that prayer saves us from having to face things that we do not want to face and that are going to hurt if we face them. Jesus in Gethsemane discovered that there was no evasion of the cross.
- God will not do for me what I can do for myself. Prayer must never be regarded as a labor-saving device.
- Prayer is not flight; prayer is power. Prayer does not deliver a man from some terrible situation; prayer enables a man to face and to master the situation.
- Real prayer is simply being in the presence of God. When I am in trouble, and when I go to my friend, I don’t want anything from him except himself. I just want to be with him for a time, to feel his comradeship, his concern, his caring round me and about me, and then to go out to a world warmer because I spent an hour with him. It must be that way with me and God. I must go to him simply for himself.
- Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons—but they are helpless against our prayers.
- My pail I’m often dropping
Deep down into this well,
It never touched the bottom,
However deep it fell;
And though I keep on dipping
By study, faith and prayer,
I have no power to measure
The living water there.
- You shall find this to be God’s usual course: not to give his children the taste of his delights till they begin to sweat in seeking after them.
- Lord, what Thou wilt, where Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt. (Ed: A prayer that opens the windows of heaven to a flood of grace!)
- Lord, burn eternity into my eyeballs!
- It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk.
- Let the day have a blessed baptism by giving your first waking thoughts into the bosom of God. The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.
- "I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent
- I used to think the Lord’s Prayer was a short prayer; but, as I live longer, and see more of life, I begin to believe there is no such thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying that prayer, were to be stopped by every word until he had thoroughly prayed it, it would take him a lifetime. “Our Father”—there would be a wall a hundred feet high in just those two words to most men. If they might say, “Our Tyrant,” or “Our Monarch,” or even “Our Creator,” they could get along with it; but “Our Father”—why, a man is almost a saint who can pray that! You read, “Thy will be done,” and you say to yourself, “O, I can pray that”; and all the time your mind goes round and round in immense circuits and far-off distances; but God is continually bringing the circuits nearer to you, till he says, “How is it about your temper and your pride? How is it about your business and daily life?” This is a revolutionary petition. It would make many a man’s shop and store tumble to the ground to utter it. Who can stand at the end of the avenue along which all his pleasant thoughts and wishes are blossoming like flowers, and send these terrible words, “Thy will be done,” crashing down through it? I think it is the most fearful prayer to pray in the world.
- No heart thrives without much secret converse with God, and nothing will make amends for the want of it.
Paul E. Billheimer
- Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying. (Ed: Or how many pithy quotes we quote!)
- God speaks through a variety of means. In the present God primarily speaks by the Holy Spirit, through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church.
- If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of your Christian experience.
John Blanchard (Complete Gathered Gold - recommended)
- We need more Christians for whom prayer is the first resort, not the last.
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No answer to prayer is an indication of our merit; every answer to prayer is an indication of God’s mercy.
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Waiting for an answer to prayer is often part of the answer.
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There is a great difference between praying to God about something and mentioning it to him in passing.
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The real secret of prayer is secret prayer.
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We cannot expect to live defectively and pray effectively.
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No man can pray Scripturally who prays selfishly.
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Prayer is not the least we can do; it is the most.
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The secret of reaching men is to know the secret of reaching God.
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The place for prayer is everywhere.
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To attempt any work for God without prayer is as futile as trying to launch a space probe with a peashooter.
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We need more Christians for whom prayer is the first resort, not the last.
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The Holy Spirit turns prayer from activity into energy.
- When problems get Christians praying they do more good than harm.
- When we miss out on prayer we cause disappointment to Christ, defeat to ourselves and delight to the devil.
- Effective prayer is a quartet—the Father, the Son, the Spirit and the Christian.
- Prayer is not wrestling with God’s reluctance to bless us; it is laying hold on his willingness to do so.
- We dare not limit God in our asking, nor in his answering.
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You stand tall when you kneel to pray.
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When in prayer you clasp your hands, God opens His.
- There are no depths from which the prayer of faith cannot reach heaven.
- We are encouraged to come freely to God but not flippantly.
- We dare not limit God in our asking, nor in his answering.
- Prayer is not so much submitting our needs to God but submitting ourselves to Him.
- Praying is much more difficult than saying words to God.
- We need to agonize as well as organize (Ed: When we pray). (Col 4:12)
- A prayer is not holy chewing gum and you don’t have to see how far you can stretch it.
David Bolt
- Anyone who has ever tried to formulate a private prayer in silence, and in his own heart, will know what I mean by diabolical interference. The forces of evil are in opposition to the will of God. And the nearer a man approaches God’s will, the more apparent and stronger and more formidable this opposition is seen to be. It is only when we are going in more or less the same direction as the devil that we are unconscious of any opposition at all.
- Andrew Bonar kept a card on his mantel that read, “He who has truly prayed has completed the half of his study.”
- Oh brother, pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; rather fast, and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper - and sleep too - than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber."
- God likes to see his people shut up to this, that there is no hope but in prayer. Herein lies the church’s power against the world.
- The Prince of the power of the air seems to bend all the force of his attack against the spirit of prayer.
- The Lord's Prayer is not merely the pattern prayer, it is the way Christians must pray.... The Lord's Prayer is the quintessence of prayer.
- Work as if everything depended upon your work, and pray as if everything depended upon your prayer.
- You must pray with all your might. That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel with eyes wide open while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God...This kind of prayer be sure the devil and the world and your own indolent, unbelieving nature will oppose. They will pour water on this flame.
- Prayer should not be regarded "as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.
- The men in the pew given to praying for the pastor are like poles which hold up the wires along which the electric current runs. They are not the power, neither are they the specific agents in making the Word of the Lord effective. But they hold up the wires upon which the divine power runs to the hearts of men. They make conditions favorable for the preaching of the Gospel.
- Praying which does not result in pure conduct is a delusion. We have missed the whole office and virtue of praying if it does not rectify conduct. It is in the very nature of things that we must quit praying, or quit bad conduct."
- It was claimed for Augustus Caesar that he found Rome a city of wood, and left it a city of marble. The pastor who succeeds in changing his people from a prayerless to a prayerful people has done a greater work than did Augustus. And after all, this is the prime work of the preacher.
- God's willingness to answer our prayers exceeds our willingness to give good and necessary things to our children, just as far as God's ability, goodness and perfection exceed our infirmities and evil."
- Prayer honors God, acknowledges his being, exalts his power, adores his providence, secures his aid.
- To be little with God is to be little for God.
- Importunate (persistent or pressing) praying is the earnest inward movement of the heart toward God.
- We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. That is the teaching of Jesus Christ.
- Straight praying is never born of crooked conduct.
- The word of God is the food by which prayer is nourished and made strong.
- A life growing in its purity and devotion will be a more prayerful life.
- Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all chains, opens all prisons, and widens all straits by which God's saints have been held.
- Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer.
- Praying gives sense, brings wisdom, and broadens and strengthens the mind. The prayer closet is a perfect schoolteacher and schoolhouse for the preacher. Thought is not only brightened and clarified in prayer, but thought is born in prayer.
- It is necessary to iterate and reiterate that prayer, as a mere habit, as a performance gone through by routine or in a professional way, is a dead and rotten thing.
- The prime need of the church is not men of money nor men of brains, but men of prayer.
- To give prayer the secondary place is to make God secondary in life’s affairs.
- A holy mouth is made by praying.
- Prayer and a holy life are one. They mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone. The absence of the one is the absence of the other.
- Prayer goes by faith into the great orchard of God’s exceeding great and precious promises, and with hand and heart picks the ripest and richest fruit.
- Prayer is humbling work. It abases intellect and pride, crucifies vainglory and signs our spiritual bankruptcy, and all these are hard for flesh and blood to bear.
- God’s greatest movements in this world have been conditioned on, continued and fashioned by prayer. God has put Himself in these great movements just as men have prayer. Persistent, prevailing, conspicuous and mastering prayer has always brought God to present. How vast are the possibilities of prayer! How wide its reach! It lays its hand on Almighty God and moves Him to do what He would not do if prayer was not offered. Prayer is a wonderful power placed by Almighty God in the hands of His saints, which may be used to accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results. The only limits to prayer are the promises of God and His ability to fulfill those promises.
- Nothing whatever can atone for the neglect of praying.
- Other duties become pressing and absorbing and crowd out prayer. ‘Choked to death’ would be the coroner’s verdict in many cases of dead praying if an inquest could be secured on this dire, spiritual calamity.
- Straight praying is never born of crooked conduct.
- The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the little time we give to it.
- Prayer can do anything that God can do.
- The church upon its knees would bring heaven upon the earth.
- The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day.
- Units of prayer combined, like drops of water, make an ocean which defies resistance.
- The closet is not an asylum for the indolent and worthless Christian. It is not a nursery where none but babes belong. It is the battlefield of the church, its citadel, the scene of heroic and unearthly conflicts. The closet is the base of supplies for the Christian and the church. Cut off from it there is nothing left but retreat and disaster. The energy for work, the mastery over self, the deliverance from fear, all spiritual results and graces, are much advanced by prayer. The difference between the strength, the experience, the holiness of Christians is found in the contrast of their praying.
- The central significance of prayer is not in the things that happen as results, but in the deepening intimacy and unhurried communion with God at His central throne of control in order to discover a "sense of God's need in order to call on God's help to meet that need.
- 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.
- We are obliged to pray if we are citizens of God’s Kingdom. . . . The gospel cannot live, fight, or conquer without prayer—prayer unceasing, instant, and ardent.
- Prayer is not learned in a classroom but in the closet.
- Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.
- Be not afraid to pray; to pray is right;
Pray if thou canst with hope, but ever pray,
Though hope be weak or sick with long delay;
Pray in the darkness if there be no light;
And if for any wish thou dare not pray
Then pray to God to cast that wish away.
- No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack.
- The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it.
- God's cause is committed to men; God commits Himself to men. Praying men are the vice-regents of God; they do His work and carry out His plans.
- God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces of against evil …
- What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.
- 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.
- The pulpit of this day is weak in praying. The pride of learning is against the dependent humility of prayer. Prayer is with the pulpit too often only official—a performance for the routine of service. Prayer is not to the modern pulpit the mighty force it was in Paul’s life or Paul’s ministry. Every preacher who does not make prayer a mighty factor in his own life and ministry is weak as a factor in God’s work and is powerless to project God’s cause in this world.
- 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.
- Prayer can do anything that God can do.
- Prayer honors God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid.
- Perhaps little praying is worse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of make-believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion.
- In reality, the denial of prayer is a denial of God himself.
- All great soul-winners have been men of much and mighty prayer, and all great revivals have been preceded and carried out by persevering, prevailing knee-work in the closet.
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Keep me, O Lord, from waxing mentally and spiritually dull and stupid. Help me to keep the physical, mental, and spiritual fiber of the athlete, of the man who denies himself daily and takes up his cross and follows Thee. Give me good success in my work, but hide pride from me. Save me from the self-complacency that so frequently accompanies success and prosperity. Save me from the spirit of sloth, of self-indulgence, as physical infirmities and decay creep upon me."
- Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. (Warren Wiersbe - "That is the way the early Christians prayed, and that is the way God’s people should pray today.")
- If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer is not merely an awful thing; it is an infinitely foolish thing.
- Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold of God’s willingness.
- It does not need to be a formal prayer: the most stumbling and broken cry—a sigh, a whisper, anything that tells the heart’s loneliness and need and penitence—can find its way to him.
- "If God doesn't want something for me, I shouldn't want it either. Spending time in meditative prayer, getting to know God, helps align my desires with God's.
- Pray not for crutches but for wings.
- Pray not for crutches but for wings.
- If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer is not merely an awful thing, it is an infinitely foolish thing.
- Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.
- A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward.
- The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best.
- Lord, to Thee I dedicate myself. Oh, accept of me be Thine forever. Lord, I desire nothing else; I desire nothing more.
- Cold prayers do always freeze before they reach to heaven.
- Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers.
- Look, as a painted man is no man, and as painted fire is no fire, so a cold prayer is no prayer.
- God's hearing of our prayers doth not depend upon sanctification, but upon Christ's intercession; not upon what we are in ourselves, but what' we are in the Lord Jesus; both our persons and our prayers are acceptable in the beloved [Eph 1.6]."
- For the brevity of prayer can naturally lead to the frequency of prayer and more frequent prayer might lead to more fervent prayer. And that’s what we want. It is of no value to pray for prayer’s sake.
- The paradox of prayer is that only when it is relieved of the necessity of much will people experience the freedom for much. When disciples know they don’t have to pray much, they will, surprisingly, desire to pray more,
- God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers,
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face.
A gauntlet with a gift in ’t.
- He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.
- We can do more than pray after we have prayed, but we cannot do more than pray before we have prayed.
- Far away from the Bible's example are most people when they pray! Prayer with earnestness and urgency is genuine prayer in God's account. Alas, the greatest number of people are not conscious at all of the duty of prayer. And as for those who are, it is to be feared that many of them are very great strangers to sincere, sensible, and affectionate-- emotional--pouring out of their hearts or souls to God. Too many content themselves with a little lip-service and bodily exercise, mumbling over a few imaginary prayers. When the emotions are involved in such urgency that the soul will waste itself rather than go without the good desired, there is communion and solace with Christ. And hence it is that the saints have spent their strength, and lost their lives, rather than go without the blessings God intended for them.
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John Bunyan in The Pilgrim’s Progress wrote:
About the midst of this valley I perceived the mouth of hell to be, and it stood also hard by the wayside. Now thought Christian, what shall I do? And ever and anon the flame and smoke would come out in such abundance, with sparks and hideous noises (things that cared not for Christian’s sword, as did Apollyon before), that he was forced to put up his sword, and betake himself to another weapon, called “All-Prayer.” (cp Eph 6:18)
About the midst of this valley I perceived the mouth of hell to be, and it stood also hard by the wayside. Now thought Christian, what shall I do? And ever and anon the flame and smoke would come out in such abundance, with sparks and hideous noises (things that cared not for Christian’s sword, as did Apollyon before), that he was forced to put up his sword, and betake himself to another weapon, called “All-Prayer.” (cp Eph 6:18)
- In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.
- You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. (also attributed to S. D. Gordon)
- Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer. (Mt 6:13)
- Pray often; for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan. (Eph 6:18)
- Prayer is “a sincere, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to his Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.”
- Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.
- Prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan.
- The best prayers often have more groans than words.
- When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words than thy words without a heart.
- Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.
- Prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God and a scourge for Satan.
- Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, for such things as God has promised.
- Prayer is only true when it is within the compass of God’s Word.
- Prayer is not a substitute for work, thinking, watching, suffering, or giving; prayer is a support for all other efforts.
Lord Earl Cairns, Lord Chancellor of England
- If I have had any success in life, I attribute it to the habit of giving the first two hours of each day to Bible study and prayer.
- As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer.
- Prayer - secret, fervent, believing prayer - lies at the root of all personal godliness.
- I cannot go to India on my feet, but I can go to India on my knees.
- God always answers us in the deeps, never in the shallows of our soul.
Louis Cassels
- Adoration is the highest form of prayer.
- Hurry is the death of prayer.
- Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered.
- God answers prayer in the best way—not just sometimes, but every time....Do we expect God to answer prayer?
- Prayer is the acid test of devotion.
- There is no power like that of prevailing prayer, of Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief, Jesus in sweat of blood. Add to this list from the records of the church your personal observation and experience, and always there is the cost of passion unto blood. Such prayer prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.
- The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.
- To pray as God would have us pray is the greatest achievement on earth. Such a prayer life costs. It takes time….All praying saints have spent hours every day in prayer….In these days, there is no time to pray; but without time, and a lot of it, we shall never learn to pray.
- Great supplicants have sought the secret place of the Most High, not that they might escape the world, but that they might learn to conquer it.
- Prayer does not enable us to do a greater work for God. Prayer is a greater work for God.
- Prayer is an effort of will. (Ed: Yes, but an effort enabled by the Spirit giving us the desire and power! Phil 2:13NLT-note).
- Prayer is simple, as simple as a child making known its wants to its parents.
- The purpose of prayer is to reveal the presence of God equally present all the time in every condition.
- Beware of placing the emphasis on what prayer costs us; it cost God everything to make it possible for us to pray.
- We take for granted that prayer is preparation for work, whereas prayer is the work. Intercessory prayer is God's chosen way of working.
- Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the track. The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer.
- One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to imagine. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God. It is actually more important to be broken bread and poured-out wine in the area of intercession than in our personal contact with others. The power of imagination is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships he never before experienced.
- If in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door back and let God in, every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.
- In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.
- The old Puritans used to pray for ‘the gift of tears.’ If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry. (Repentance)
- Prayer is not simply getting things from God—that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. (My Utmost for His Highest)
- It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer. (My Utmost for His Highest)
- God wants to instruct us in regard to His Son, He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration, and we will not let Him. (My Utmost for His Highest)
- Am I continually in touch with the reality of God, or do I pray only when things have gone wrong— when there is some disturbance in my life? (My Utmost for His Highest)
- The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace. (My Utmost for His Highest)
- Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. “Ask, and it shall be given you.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
- Think of the last thing you prayed about—were you devoted to your desire or to God? Determined to get some gift of the Spirit or to get at God? “Your Heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” (Mt 6:8) The point of asking is that you may get to know God better. “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” (Ps 37:4) Keep praying in order to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.
- We make prayer the preparation for work, it is never that in the Bible. Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. Don’t say—‘I will endure this until I can get away and pray.’ Pray now; draw on the grace of God in the moment of need. Prayer is the most practical thing, it is not the reflex action of devotion. Prayer is the last thing in which we learn to draw on God’s grace.
- If, during a prayer meeting, God shows you something to do, don’t say, “I’ll do it”— just do it! Pick yourself up by the back of the neck and shake off your fleshly laziness. Laziness can always be seen in our cravings for a mountaintop experience; all we talk about is our planning for our time on the mountain. We must learn to live in the ordinary “gray” day according to what we saw on the mountain.
- Are we so wedded to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer—“Thy will be done”—that we catch the secrets of God? The things that make God dear to us are not so much His great big blessings as the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us; He knows every detail of our individual lives.
- The purpose of God is not to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God, and this is revealed in John 17. There is one prayer God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus—“that they may be one, even as We are one.” (John 17:11, 21, 22) Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
- We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life.
- Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing…”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.
- We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.
- Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.
- Jesus Christ carries on intercession for us in heaven; the Holy Ghost carries on intercession in us on earth; and we the saints have to carry on intercession for all men.
- If God sees that my spiritual life will be furthered by giving the things for which I ask, then He will give them, but that is not the end of prayer. The end of prayer is that I come to know God Himself.
- The revelation of our spiritual standing is what we ask in prayer; sometimes what we ask is an insult to God; we ask with our eyes on the possibilities or on ourselves, not on Jesus Christ.
- Never make the blunder of trying to forecast the way God is going to answer your prayer.
- When you pray, things remain the same, but you begin to be different.
- Prayer is simple, as simple as a child making known its wants to its parents.
- The armor is for the battle of prayer. The armor is not to fight in, but to shield us while we pray. Prayer is the battle.
- The battle of prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts, and lack of intimacy with God's character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline.
- The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the Spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to Satan. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer; no spiritual séance can succeed in the presence of a humble praying saint. No wonder Satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer.
- We are ill-taught if we look for results only in the earthlies when we pray. A praying saint performs far more havoc among the unseen forces of darkness than we have the slightest notion of.
- Self must be denied as to time and attention for prayer. All-prayer cannot be wielded without the expenditure of time. "A minute with God" seldom lays hold of Him. Sustained prayer is necessary. Such time may only be found by snatching it from personal pursuits, however legitimate they may be.
Evelyn Christianson
- Praying together is like riding a bike. You can read how to do it or have someone tell you; but until you try it yourself, you'll never learn how to do it.
- Be yourself. Be natural before God. Do not pretend to emotions you do not feel. Tell him whatever is on your heart and mind with whatever words are most natural to you. You do not have to speak to him in “religious” language about “spiritual” matters only . . . Speak as naturally and as easily as you would to a friend, since God is just that. . . . This natural expression of yourself at the outset is the guarantee that you can go on to a creative, free, and mature relationship with God.
- Prayer . . . the very highest energy of which the mind is capable.
Thomas Constable - Talking to God, 124 page book
- There is no verse in the Bible that gives us a definition of prayer per se. Consequently we must discover what it is by examining the prayers and references to prayer in the Bible if we want a biblical definition. Essentially prayer is talking to God. It is expressing our thoughts and feelings to deity.
- The potency of prayer hath subdued the strength of fire; it has bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.
- (Modernized Version) The potency of prayer has subdued the strength of fire, it has bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the fates of heaven, assuaged diseases, dispelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. There is (in it) an all-sufficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings!
- Keep praying, but be thankful that God’s answers are wiser than your prayers!
Dennis J De Haan
- "Lord, make me sensitive" is a prayer that should always be on our hearts.
- We are tempted to let other good things displace prayer: hours, days and weeks for other things, and only minutes for prayer. Knowing how and what is not sufficient. We must take time to do it, for GOD works in answer to prayer, and GOD at work is our greatest need. (from How to Pray)
- Luther's motto gives us the secret of success along all lines: "To have prayed well is to have studied well." To have prayed well is to have preached well, to have written well, to have worked well, to have resisted well, to have lived well and to have died well. Prayer is the key to success. Not to pray is to fail. To pray aright is never to fail. (from How to Pray)
- A Christian is more music
When he prays,
Than spheres, or angel’s praises be,
In panegyric alleluias.
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevski
- Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education
- All you need to do to learn to pray is to pray.
- Prayer is God's ordained way to bring His miracle power to bear in human need.
- Many Christians are so spiritually frail, sickly, and lacking in spiritual vitality that they cannot stick to prayer for more than a few minutes at a time.
- The greatest privilege God gives to you is the freedom to approach Him at any time.
- "God waits for you to communicate with Him. You have instant, direct access to God. God loves mankind so much, and in a very special sense His children, that He has made Himself available to you at all times.
- Many Christians are so spiritually frail, sickly, and lacking in spiritual vitality that they cannot stick to prayer for more than a few minutes at a time.
- "The more you praise God, the more you become God-conscious and absorbed in His greatness, wisdom, faithfulness, and love. Praise reminds you of all that God is able to do and of great things He has already done
- There is unusual power in united prayer. God has planned for His people to join together in prayer, not only for Christian fellowship, spiritual nurture, and growth, but also for accomplishing His divine purposes and reaching His chosen goals.
- Fasting in the biblical sense is choosing not to partake of food because your spiritual hunger is so deep, you determination in intercession so intense, or your spiritual warfare so demanding that you have temporarily set aside even fleshly needs to give yourself to prayer and meditation.
- The prayer of faith is a prayer willing to believe and prevail for God's answer in a situation that is utterly impossible. Regardless of the difficulty of the situation, you require no external confirmation but believe God in spite of appearance. Your eyes are on God, not on the situation.
- Prayers prayed in the Spirit never die until they accomplish God's intended purpose. His answer may not be what we expected, or when we expected it, but God often provides much more abundantly than we could think or ask. He interprets our intent and either answers or stores up our prayers. Sincere prayers are never lost. Energy, time, love, and longing can be endowments that will never be wasted or go unrewarded.
- No form of Christian service is both so universally open to all and so high in Christ’s priority for all Christians as prevailing prayer.
- The Spirit does not lead you to pray for useless goals.
- Prayer is the master strategy that God gives for the defeat and rout of Satan.
- Nothing is more calculated to begat a spirit of prayer than to unite in social prayer with one who has the Spirit himself.
- Prayer has mighty power to move mountains because the Holy Spirit is ready both to encourage our praying and to remove the mountains hindering us. Prayer has the power to change mountains into highways.
- Prayer is God’s ordained way to bring His miracle power to bear in human need.
- Prayer is the only adequate way to multiply our efforts fast enough to reap the harvest God desires.
- Prayer is the supreme way to be workers together with God.
- Prayer is your way, often the only way, to water the harvest. By prayer you can bring the Holy Spirit's blessing on any Gospel effort anywhere in the world.
- Prayerless pulpits will produce prayerless and powerless congregations.
- Prayerlessness means unavailability to God.
- Prayerlessness proves that the person has very little love for God.
- Prevailing prayer is almost always for the sake of others. Prevailing prayer is prayer that pushes right through all difficulties and obstacles, drives back all the opposing forces of Satan, and secures the will of God. Its purpose is to accomplish God’s will on earth. Prevailing prayer is prayer that not only takes the initiative but continues on the offensive for God until spiritual victory is won.
- Prevailing prayer is the most divine ministry you will ever have.
- The more you intercede, the more intimate will be your walk with Christ and the stronger you will become by the Spirit’s power.
- The more you prevail, the more you will learn the secrets of God’s grace and the powers of His kingdom.
- There is no easier sin to commit than the sin of prayerlessness. It is a sin against God and against Man.
- We have been so busy depending on our own natural strengths, our good training and our busyness for God that we are near spiritual bankruptcy.
- Many pray with their lips for that for which their hearts have no desire.
- That which God abundantly makes the subject of his promises, God’s people should abundantly make the subject of their prayers.
- I had vehement longing of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break.… I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the words, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in ejaculatory (an exclamatory utterance of) prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent.
- God is still on His throne, we’re still His footstool, and there’s only a knee’s distance between!
- That saint who advances on his knees never retreats.
- Cold prayers, like cold suitors, are seldom effective in their aims.
- Prayer is more than asking things from God. It is an exercise in the worship of God, to extol His name and to offer thanks for all His benefits. The child of God is assured that in prayer he is approaching a throne of grace, not a throne of judgment (Heb. 4:16). The Christian enters the divine presence in the name of Christ (John 14:14, 16:23). If he prays under the control of the Holy Spirit, he will offer petitions within the will of his Heavenly Father (Romans 8:26, 27). Prayer should be made in faith and with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2). The prayer that Christ taught His disciples, known as the Lord’s Prayer, is a model to guide His followers concerning proper principles and goals of prayer (Matt. 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4).
- He records the testimony of Hegesippus that James “used to enter alone into the temple and be found kneeling and praying for forgiveness for the people, so that his knees grew hard like a camel’s because of his constant worship of God, kneeling and asking forgiveness for the people. So from his excessive righteousness he was called the Just.” (Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History)
- For many of us, prayer is like the National Anthem before a football game. It gets the game started, but simply has no connection with what’s happening on the field. It’s a courtesy.
- FOR MANY of us, prayer is like a AAA card. It’s there if you need it, but you really don’t plan to use it very much—unless you’re in an emergency.
- For some of us, prayer is like putting four quarters in a Coke machine, pushing the button, and not getting a Coke. We push the button again and again, waiting for our Coke, which never comes. Finally, kicking the machine, we just wave our hand and walk away. Many of us have given up on prayer because while it is something we know we are supposed to do, we feel it just doesn’t work
- A LADY came to the great preacher of the last century G. Campbell Morgan and she said, “I only take the big things to God. I don’t take the little things to God.” G. Campbell Morgan looked at her and said, “Lady, anything you take to God is little.” That is precisely the case. You can bring everything to God because anything you bring to God is little to Him, even if it is big to you.716
William Evans
- If revival in this land depended on your prayers, your faith, your obedience, would we ever experience revival?
- God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things.
- Prayer is the highest use to which speech can be put.
- Prayer is a weapon, a mighty weapon in a terrible conflict. Our prayers are to be a continual, conscious, earnest effort of battle, the battle against whatever is not God’s will.
- I prayed to God that He would baptize my heart into all conditions so I might be able to enter the needs and conditions of all.
- Maintain at all costs a daily time of Scripture reading and prayer. As I look back, I see that the most formative influence in my life and thought has been my daily contact with Scripture over sixty years.
- The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to pray.
- Prayer strikes the winning blow; service is simply picking up the pieces.
- The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing, but it is the chief thing. The great people of earth are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray.
- You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. (also attributed to John Bunyan)
- Prayer wonderfully clears the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; sweetens and strengthens the spirit.
- The great people of the earth today are the people who pray! I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor those who explain prayer; but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. That something else is important, very important and pressing, but still, less important and pressing than prayer. There are people who put prayer first, and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong their lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field, where the thickest fighting is going on, and in keeping the old earth sweet a little while longer.
- Heaven is full of answers to prayer for which no one ever bothered to ask!
- Prayer is the rope that pulls God and man together. But it doesn’t pull God down to us: it pulls us up to him.
- Prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly; others give only an occasional jerk at the rope. But he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all his might.
- Many times I have been driven to prayer. When I was in Bible school I didn’t know what to do with my life. I used to walk the streets . . . and pray, sometimes for hours at a time. In His timing, God answered those prayers, and since then prayer has been an essential part of my life.
- The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course.
- If there are any tears shed in heaven, they will be over the fact that we prayed so little
- In the morning, prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under His protection and safeguard.|
- Sometimes I’m asked to list the most important steps in preparing for an evangelistic mission, and my reply is always the same: prayer . . . prayer . . . prayer.
- We are slaves to our gadgets, puppets of our power, and prisoners of our security. The theme of our generation is: “Get more, know more, and do more,” instead of “Pray more, be more, and serve more.”
- Prayer is crucial in evangelism: Only God can change the heart of someone who is in rebellion against Him. No matter how logical our arguments or how fervent our appeals, our words will accomplish nothing unless God’s Spirit prepares the way.
- We should not pray for God to be on our side, but pray that we may be on God’s side.
- We must repent of our prayerlessness. We must make prayer our priority. Even our churches today have gotten away from prayer meetings.
- You cannot pray for someone and hate them at the same time.
- Prayer is for every moment of our lives, not just for times of suffering or joy. Prayer is really a place, a place where you meet God in genuine conversation.
- No matter how dark and hopeless a situation might seem, never stop praying.
- Prayers have no boundaries. They can leap miles and continents and be translated instantly into any language.
- True prayer is a way of life, not just for use in cases of emergency. Make it a habit, and when the need arises you will be in practice.
- Persecution, whether it is physical, social, or mental, is one of the worst types of pain, but those who persecute us are to be the objects of our prayers.
- Prayer is powerful, but if our prayers are aimless, meaningless, and mingled with doubt, they will be of little hope to us.
- Prayer is more than a wish; it is the voice of faith directed to God.
- Prayer should not be merely an act, but an attitude of life.
- [Jesus] prayed briefly when He was in a crowd; He prayed a little longer when He was with His disciples; and He prayed all night when He was alone. Today, many in the ministry tend to reverse that process.
- [Jesus] had only three years of public ministry, but He was never too hurried to spend hours in prayer . . . No day began or closed in which He was not in communion with His Father.
- If we are to depend on prayer during tough times, we should be people of prayer before the crisis hits.
- Have you ever said, “Well, all we can do now is pray”? . . .When we come to the end of ourselves, we come to the beginning of God.
- I realize more than ever that this ministry has been a team effort. Without the help of our prayer partners, our financial supporters, our staff, and our board of directors—this ministry and all of our dreams to spread the Good News of God’s love throughout the world would not have been possible.
- No matter where we are, God is as close as a prayer. He is our support and our strength. He will help us make our way up again from whatever depths we have fallen.
- The most eloquent prayer is often prayed through hands that heal and bless.
- When we know Him, we can be sure God hears our prayers.
- When troubles come may prayer be your automatic response.
- We were created to live a life of prayer. (Ed: Or "re-created/redeemed" to live a life of prayer.)
- We can change the course of events if we go to our knees in believing prayer.
- Someone has said, “Prayer is the highest use to which speech can be put.”
- I firmly believe God continues to answer the prayers of His people even after He has taken them to heaven. Never forget that God isn’t bound by time the way we are. We see only the present moment; God sees everything. We see only part of what He is doing; He sees it all.
- Prayer is key to our effort to communicate the Gospel and win men and women to Christ.
- Prayer is the Christian’s greatest weapon.
- I believe we should pray that God will take possession of our lives totally and completely. We should pray that we will be emptied of self—self-love, self-will, self-ambition—and be placed completely at His disposal.
- Long after you and I are gone, God will still be at work—and many of the things we prayed for will finally come to pass.
- Prayer is not just asking. It is listening for God’s orders.
- Nothing will drive us to our knees quicker than trouble.
- Our prayers must be in accordance with [God’s] will. He knows better what is good for us than we know ourselves.
- The Book of Psalms is the Bible’s hymnbook. It will show you what it means to walk with God in prayer and praise.
- The devil will tremble when you pray.
- We are to pray in times of adversity, lest we become faithless and unbelieving. We are to pray in times of prosperity, lest we become boastful and proud. We are to pray in times of danger, lest we become fearful and doubting. We need to pray in times of security, lest we become self-sufficient.
- A prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian.
- If [Jesus] felt that He had to pray, how much more do we need to pray!
- You cannot afford to be too busy to pray.
- As I close my eyes in prayer, let me see the faces of those who need to know You, beloved Savior.
- Whether prayer changes our situation or not, one thing is certain: Prayer will change us!
- Prayer is more than a plea, it is a place where we must spend time if we are to learn its power.
- It is not the posture of the body, but the attitude of the heart that counts when we pray . . .The important thing is not the position of the body but the condition of the soul.
- This should be the motto of every follower of Jesus Christ. Never stop praying no matter now dark and hopeless it may seem.
- Our prayers must be in accordance with the will of God for the simple reason that God knows better what is good for us than we know ourselves.
- At its deepest level, prayer is fellowship with God: enjoying His company, waiting upon His will, thanking Him for His mercies . . .listening in the silence for what He has to say to us.
- Pray frequently as you read [the Bible] and you will discover a fellowship with God.
- That “the Spirit Himself intercedes” indicates that it is actually God pleading, praying, and mourning through us.
- God Himself is the power that makes prayer work.
- The men upon whose shoulders rested the initial responsibility of Christianizing the world came to Jesus with one supreme request. They did not say, “Lord, teach us to preach”; “Lord, teach us to do miracles”; or “Lord, teach us to be wise” . . .but they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
- To the Son of God prayer was more important than the assembling of great throngs . . .He often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed [Luke 5:15–16].
- The reason many . . . close their eyes while praying is to shut out the affairs of the world so that their minds can be completely concentrated on God . . .it certainly lends itself to the attitude of prayer.
- Prayer is more than a wish turned heavenward . . .it is the voice of faith directed Godward.
- Obedience is the master key to effectual prayer.
- If we are to have our prayers answered, we must give God the glory.
- Prayer and Bible study are inseparably linked. Effective prayer is born out of the prompting of God’s Spirit as we read His Word.
- Too often we use petty little petitions, oratorical exercises, or the words of others rather than the cries of our inmost being. When you pray, pray!
- Those you know the least may need your prayers the most. Don’t let the fact that you don’t know someone keep you from praying for them.
- Prayer by itself is like a diet without protein! Prayer is important to our spiritual growth—but of even greater importance is God’s Word, the Bible.
- Often, we try to tell God what we want Him to do—but ask Him to help you guard against this, and to seek His will instead of your own. Pray and ask God to guide you.
- How can you keep your mind from wandering when you pray? Remember what you are doing: talking to God. If you had the opportunity to talk with the president, I doubt if your mind would wander. [We] have the privilege of talking to someone far greater: the King of kings!
- Prayer is not our using of God; it more often puts us in the position where God can use us.
- God welcomes our prayers. He is much more concerned about our hearts than our eloquence.
- A friend of mine defines prayer as “a declaration of dependence.”
- Ask God to give you a greater hunger for Himself and a deeper desire for His fellowship. Then be honest about whatever is keeping you from prayer, and ask God to help you deal with it.
- Pray because Christ died to give us access to the Father. Pray because God is worthy of our praise. Pray because we need His forgiveness, cleansing, guidance, and protection. Pray because others need our prayers.
- Nothing can replace a daily time spent alone with God in prayer. We can also be in an attitude of prayer throughout the day—sitting in a car or at our desks, working in the kitchen, even talking with someone on the phone.
- Prayer is speaking to God—but sometimes He uses our times of prayerful silence to speak to us in return.
- Be sure that your motive in praying is to glorify God.
- Jesus demonstrated the importance of prayer by His own example. His whole ministry was saturated with prayer.
- We have not yet learned that we are more powerful on our knees than behind the most powerful weapons that can be developed.
- A life taught in the Scriptures, and tuned in to God in prayer, produces an outflowing of grace and power.
- God urges us to bring our concerns to Him—not just petitions about our own needs, but also intercessions for others. [The apostle] Paul said . . . “Brothers, pray for us” [1 Thessalonians 5:25NIV].
- Many doctors today prescribe yoga as a helpful stress reliever but would not consider prescribing prayer to the One who calms our fears and anxieties.
- Why do we need to pray? Because the Christian life is a journey, and we need God’s strength and guidance along the way.
- [God] says to pray for our enemies. How many of us have ever spent time praying for our enemies?
- A survey reported that the majority of the seminaries [in the United States] had no classes on prayer. That really shouldn’t surprise us when we consider how many local churches offer classes on gardening and the “Art of Conversation” instead of the study of God’s Word and prayer.
- Prayer is our lifeline to God.
- Prayer is not an option but a necessity. (Ed: Prayer is not "plan B" but "plan A!")
- Prayer is the most powerful weapon we have in our spiritual arsenal to stand against the world’s greatest enemy, the one who presents himself as an angel of light [2 Corinthians 11:14].
- The best way to pray is to open the Bible and pray Scripture back to the Lord, claiming His promises and asking that He strengthen and guide [us] in obeying His Word.
- Prayer shouldn’t be a burden but a privilege—God wants our fellowship. (Ed: A prayer burden is a privilege!)
- Prayer is the companion of Bible study.
- Before prayer changes others, it first changes us.
- I listened to a discussion of religious leaders on how to communicate the Gospel. Not once did I hear them mention prayer. And yet I know of scores of churches that win many converts each year by prayer alone.
- I have never met anyone who spent time in daily prayer, and in the study of the Word of God, and was strong in faith, who was ever discouraged for very long.
- I can tell you that God is alive because I talked with him this morning.
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On persevering prayer:"I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before."
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God looks not at the pomp of words and variety of expression, but at the sincerity and devotion of the heart. The key opens the door, not because it is gilt but because it fits the lock.
- No judge can stop us from praying for our country and I pray that on May 6, millions of Americans will join me in praying for our President, all of our elected leaders, and even for this unjust judge and all those who rule from the bench - that God would guide them and give them wisdom."
- God has not always answered my prayers. If he had, I would have married the wrong man—several times!
- The more godly a man is, and the more graces and blessings of God are upon him, the more need he hath to pray, because Satan is busiest against him, and because he is readiest to be puffed up with a conceited holiness. (Col 4:2)
- What an awful (awesome) place is the Christian’s closet. The whole Trinity is about it every time he kneels.
- When people do not mind what God speaks to them in His Word, God doth as little mind what they say to Him in prayer.
- The mightier any is in the Word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.
- Prayer, it is the very natural breath of faith.
- O Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise.
- To pray without labouring is to mock God: to labour without prayer is to rob God of his glory.
- Prayer should be the means by which I receive all that I need, and for this reason, be my daily refuge, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy.
- We need to learn to know Him so well that we feel safe when we have left our difficulties with Him.
- Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only he who is helpless can truly pray. Your helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas.
- Notice carefully every word here. It is not our prayer which draws Jesus into our hearts. Nor is it our prayer which moves Jesus to come in to us. All He needs is access. He enters in of His own accord, because He desires to come in. To pray is nothing more involved than to let Jesus into our needs, and permitting Him to exercise His own power in dealing with them. And that requires no strength. It is only a question of our wills. Will we give Jesus access to our needs?
- Any house wife knows that the best way to remember the things she meant to do and forgot is to start praying. They will come to her and divert her from prayer. The devil will let a preacher prepare a sermon if it will keep him from preparing himself.
- We carry checks on the bank of heaven and never cash them at the window of prayer - we lie to God when we pray rather than rely upon him after we pray.
- The thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.
- Many a man who would never think of dashing out in the morning without his breakfast, his vitamins and his briefcase, plunges headlong into a perilous day with an unprepared soul. "A little talk with Jesus" readies the body, the mind and the spirit for whatever comes.
- 'Lord of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand;
Take me and make me and mold me
To the pattern Thou hast planned.'
- If you can't pray like you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean. And you have good help—the Advocate who is God's Son and the Paraclete who is God's Spirit. They will take your feeblest prayer and make it perfect.
- The devil is in constant conspiracy against a preacher who really prays, for it has been said that what a minister is in his prayer closet is what he is, no more, no less.
- God is not impressed by length or loudness in our prayer. He sees the heart and when we have prayed our hearts into acceptance of His will and our wills into obedience to it, we may calmly wait for the answer.
- The measure of any Christian is his prayer life.
- The Holy Spirit prays for us with unutterable groanings. If He groans for us, we might well agonize in prayer for ourselves!
- We may get a secret satisfaction out of praying that makes prayer only an end in itself. "Early will I seek Thee"—that is true prayer.
- Prayer may not get us what we want, but it will teach us to want what we need.
- When a man makes alliance with the Almighty, giants look like grasshoppers.
- We carry checks on the bank of heaven and never cash them at the window of prayer.
- As long as we continue living we must continue praying.
- Prayer-time must be kept up as duly as meal-time.
- Though we cannot by our prayers give God any information, yet we must by our prayers give him honour.
- We read of preaching the Word out of season, but we do not read of praying out of season, for that is never out of season.
- Praying in the Spirit is to pray "under His guidance and influence, according to the rule of His word, with faith, fervency, and earnestness; this is praying in the Holy Ghost."
- You may as soon find a living man that does not breath, as a living Christian that does not pray.
- If we cannot go to the house of the Lord we can go by faith to the Lord of the house.
- If you love God, you cannot be at a loss for something to say to him, something for your hearts to pour out before him, which his grace has already put there.
- When God intends great mercy for his people, the first thing he does is set them a-praying.
- It is not much praying that is condemned … but much speaking; the danger of this error is when we only say our prayers, not when we pray them.
- It is good for us to keep some account of our prayers, that we may not unsay them in our practice.
- God’s promises are to be our pleas in prayer.
- We cannot expect too little from man, nor too much from God.
- O thou who has given us so much, mercifully grant us one thing more—a grateful heart.
- Who goes to bed and does not pray, maketh two nights to every day.
- Prayer is the converse of the soul with God. Therein we manifest or express to Him our reverence, and love for His divine perfection, our gratitude for all His mercies, our penitence for our sins, our hope in His forgiving love, our submission to His authority, our confidence in His care, our desires for His favor, and for the providential and spiritual blessings needed for ourselves and others.
- Therefore, whether the desire for prayer is on you or not, get to your closet at the set time; shut yourself in with God; wait upon Him; seek His face; realize Him; pray.
Victor Hugo
- Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.
- The essence of prayer is the heart drawing near to God (James 4:8). Prayer is the soul’s desire to come to him, to receive his love, to feel his power as we conform to his will. This is exactly what Paul’s soldier in spiritual armor does. Every piece is in place. The spiritual forces of wickedness approach, and there will be lethal battle. But first the soldier falls to his knees and prays in the Spirit with all kinds of prayers (cf. Ephesians 6:18). There is only one view more welcome than the backside of the Devil—and that is the face of God.—Preaching the Word: James
- Without troubles we would not learn prayer.
- (Paul) was not like the Boston clergyman who prayed such a self-consciously ornate prayer that Monday’s paper described it as “the most eloquent prayer ever offered to a Boston audience.” God was Paul’s audience.
- If you have never done it before, pray through all you have, giving everything to God, especially your most treasured possessions. Put everything at his feet, so he can use it as he desires. (Lk 12:33)
- “Ask,” “seek,” “knock” is the hidden fire of the heart that believes God will answer and values what he gives. (Mt 7:7)
- We must ask for the blessings. Jesus says in Luke 11:13, “… how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” What does Jesus mean? Isn’t the Holy Spirit already given to believers? The answer is explicit in the Greek grammar, which means the operation of the Holy Spirit. Prayer brings increased fullness and power of the Holy Spirit. We must ask! As we ask for more holiness — a greater sense of adoption, more peace, more love, more patience, more power from the Spirit — we will receive it all.
- Ephesians — carefully, reverently, prayerfully considered — will change our lives. It is not so much a question of what we will do with the epistle, but what it will do with us.
- This great prayer has been called the Lord's Prayer for almost two thousand years. So it would be futile to attempt to change its name—though the best title really would be "The Disciples' Prayer," because that is what it is. At the disciples' request (Luke 11:1), Jesus provided it for them as a pattern for prayer. The initial focus of this model prayer is upward, as its first three requests have to do with God's glory. Then, having prayed for His glory, the remaining three requests are for our well-being. God first, humans second. That is the ideal order of prayer: His glory before our wants.
- The preacher who prayerlessly prepares his sermons on Saturday night as he watches TV and on Sunday delivers short, anecdote-loaded topical homilies which have nothing to do with the text, and indeed are often unsound, will have his work torched!
- “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16)—or as some scholars think it is better translated, “The prayer of a righteous man is of great power when energized,” the energizer being the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit energizes the prayer, the one praying is energized so that He passionately throws His energy into it—which is precisely what Elijah’s example illustrates (James 5:17,18). Therefore, if one is “righteous,” having confessed all known sin, being energized by the Holy Spirit to pray passionately, there will be great power.
- An intercessor means one who is in such vital contact with God and with his fellowmen that he is like a live wire closing the gap between the saving power of God and the sinful men who have been cut off from that power.
- Father, give me these souls, or I die.
- Many a person is praying for rain with his tub the wrong side up
- Prayer is surrender—surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat hook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God. (A Song of Ascents)
- I am better or worse as I pray more or less. It works for me with mathematical precision.
- It is in the field of prayer that life's critical battles are lost or won. We must conquer all our circumstances there. We must first of all bring them there. We must survey them there. We must master them there. In prayer we bring our spiritual enemies into the Presence of God and we fight them there. Have you tried that? Or have you been satisfied to meet and fight your foes in the open spaces of the world?
- If I am called upon to pray in public, I must not dare to use words that are intended to please the ears of my fellow-worshippers, but I just realize that I am speaking to God Himself and that I have business to transact with the great Lord.
- Be resolute in prayer. Make any sacrifice to maintain it. Consider that time is short and that business and company must not be allowed to rob thee of thy God.
- From three to four each morning—that is my hour. Then I am free from interruption and from the fear of interruption. Each morning I wake at three and live an hour with God. It gives me strength for everything. Without it I would be utterly helpless. I could not be true to my friends, or do my work, or preach the gospel which God has given me for his poor.
Alice Kahokuoluna
Before the missionaries came, my people used to sit outside their temples for a long time meditating and preparing themselves before entering. Then they would virtually creep to the altar to offer their petition and afterwards would again sit a long time outside, this time to "breathe life" into their prayers. The Christians, when they came, just got up, uttered a few sentences, said Amen and were done. For that reason my people call them haolis, "without breath," or those who fail to breathe life into their prayers.
- A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.
John Laidlaw
- The main lesson about prayer is just this: Do it! Do it! Do it! You want to be taught to pray. My answer is pray and never faint, and then you shall never fail…"
- He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and a happy life.
- We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another.
- There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him.
- Solemn prayers, rapturous devotions, are but repeated hypocrisies unless the heart and mind be conformable to them.
- Fall on your knees and grow there. There is no burden of the spirit but is lighter by kneeling under it. Prayer means not always talking to Him, but waiting before Him till the dust settles and the stream runs clear.
- Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done in earth.”
- You need not cry very loud; He is nearer to us than we think.
- Our biggest mistake is to think that a time of prayer is different from any other time. It is all one.
- The time of business does not differ with me from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were on my knees.
- Of all the blessings of Christian salvation none is greater than this, that we have access to God in prayer.
- Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with God.”
- We could not pray at all if it were not for the Holy Spirit.
- There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christians so much as our prayer life.
- Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.
- Is the terrible sin of praying in public in a manner which suggests a desire to have an effect upon people present rather than to approach God with reverence and godly fear.
- Ultimately there is no better index of one’s spiritual state and condition than one’s prayers.
- We need less travelling by jet planes from congress to congress … but more kneeling and praying and pleading to God to have mercy upon us, more crying to God to arise and scatter his enemies and make himself known.
- The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says ‘Amen’ and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving Him our ideas.
Robert Law
- Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done in earth.
- The marvellous and supernatural power of prayer consists not in bringing God’s will down to us, but in lifting our will up to his.
- An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. . . . But if he is a Christian, he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the man who was God—that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying—the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on—the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.
- It is no use to ask God with factitious earnestness for A when our whole mind is in reality filled with the desire for B. We must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.
- That wisdom must sometimes refuse what ignorance may quite innocently ask seems to be self-evident.
- The most blessed result of prayer would be to rise thinking, But I never knew before. I never dreamed . . . I suppose it was at such a moment that Thomas Aquinas said of all his own theology, “It reminds me of straw."
- The prayer preceding all prayers is “May it be the real I who speaks.”
- The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.
- I fancy we may sometimes be deterred from small prayers by a sense of our own dignity rather than of God’s.
- If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where would I be now?
- It is quite useless knocking at the door of heaven for earthly comfort; it’s not the sort of comfort they supply there.
- Prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course he will sometimes refuse them.
- As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.
- As is the business of tailors to make clothes and cobblers to make shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.
- Pray hardest when it is hardest to pray. Prayer is a powerful thing, for God has bound and tied himself thereto.
- I am so busy now that if I did not spend two or three hours each day in prayer, I would not get through the day.
- When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words, than thy words without heart.
- Martin Luther said prayers should be “brief, frequent, and intense.”
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Martin Luther prayed on the night preceding his appearance before the Diet of Worms: "Do Thou, my God, stand by me against all the world's wisdom and reason. Oh, do it! Thou must do it. Stand by me, Thou true, eternal God!"
- It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last in the evening. Guard yourself against such false and deceitful thoughts that keep whispering: Wait a while. In an hour or so I will pray. I must first finish this or that. Thinking such thoughts we get away from prayer into other things that will hold us and involve us till the prayer of the day comes to naught.
- Prayer is the most important thing in my life. If I should neglect prayer for a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.
- Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart
- If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.
- The less I pray, the harder it gets; the more I pray, the better it goes.
- To pray well is the better half of study.
- To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
- When I cannot pray I always sing.
- The fewer the words, the better the prayer. To have prayed well is to have studied well.
- Prayer is that mightiest of all weapons that created natures can wield.
- As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.
- I have to hurry all day to get time to pray.
- Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian’s weapon.
- To pray well is the better half of study.
- When Luther's puppy happened to be at the table, he looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes; he (Martin Luther) said, 'Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish or hope.
- The reason we must ask God for things he already intends to give us is that he wants to teach us dependence, especially our need for himself.
- Although posture is not important, I find that I am able to express my dependence better on my knees, a sign of our helplessness apart from the divine enablement.
- The activities we do for God are secondary. Above all else, God is looking for people who long for communication with him.
- I had rather stand against the cannons of the wicked than against the prayers of the righteous.
Daniel McCasland
- Prayer is a process of recognizing God's power and plan for our lives.
- Never wait for fitter time or place to talk to him. To wait till you go to church or to your room is to make him wait. He will listen as you walk.
- There are two doorkeepers to the house of prayer, and Sorrow is more on the alert to open than her grandson Joy.
- There is a communion with God that asks for nothing, yet asks for everything. . . . He who seeks the Father more than anything he can give is likely to have what he asks, for he is not likely to ask amiss.
- Why pray, if God loves us and knows all we need before we pray? “What if he knows prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God’s idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need—the need of himself? What if the good of all our smaller and lower needs lies in this, that they help drive us to God? Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other needs; prayer is the beginning of that communion.
- There is a vast difference between saying prayers and praying.
- What a fearful canopy the prayers that do not get beyond the atmosphere would make if they turned brown with age!
- Anything large enough for a wish to light upon is large enough to hang a prayer on.
- It is not good that a man should batter day and night at the gate of heaven. Sometimes he can do nothing else, and then nothing else is worth doing; but the very noise of the siege will sometimes drown the still small voice that calls from the open postern (back or side entrance).
- God is not mocked. He does not answer prayers if he has already given us the answer and we are not willing to use it.
- Is there any place in any of our rooms where there is a little bit of carpet worn white by our knees?
- If you have no prayer life yourself, it is rather a useless gesture to make your child say his prayers every night.
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When we are wrong, make us willing to change. And when we are right, make us easy to live with.
- As he knelt on India's coral strands, "Here let me burn out for God."
- I fear John Knox’s prayers more than an army of ten thousand men.
William T. McElroy
- Nothing can so quickly cancel the frictions of life as prayer. If you find yourself growing angry at someone, pray for him—anger cannot live in an atmosphere of prayer."
William McGill
- The value of persistent prayer is not that He will hear us ... but that we will finally hear Him.
- Let us pray Wesley's (John Wesley, 1703-1791, British, founder of the Methodists) prayer, "Lord, make me an extraordinary Christian."
- Prayer is a golden key that, kept bright by constant use, will unlock the treasures of earth and heaven. (1Jn 5:14, 15, James 5:13-16).
- Prayer is the surest secret of success in any married life.
- To hear God speak to your heart, to understand His Word, to evaluate circumstances and to make certain that these three are in agreement, prayer is essential. Pray with the sincere desire that the Lord answer in accordance with His will. (1Jn 5:14,15)
- Paul lived to intercede for others (Phil. 1:3-4). So should every true Sunday School teacher, Christian friend, father, mother, brother or sister remember others in their prayers without ceasing. Have you a prayer list? Do you talk with the Lord about your friends?
- Prayer is the most important privilege of a Christian. (Ed: But remember that privilege always conveys responsibility which begs the question - "Are you faithfully fulfilling your responsibility so that one day you at the Bema Seat you will be rewarded for being a good steward of your high privilege?" - 2 Cor 5:10)
- It is through prayer that God wishes to have His will brought to pass.
- Prayer moves the hand that moves the world. A devoted woman moved a determined monarch. (Esther 4:14, 16)
- Luke speaks more of the prayers of our Lord than any other Gospel writer. Prayer is the expression of human dependence on God. Why is there so much working and activity in the Church and yet so little result in positive conversions to God? Why so much running hither and thither and so few brought to Christ? The answer is simple: There is not enough private prayer. The cause of Christ does not need less working, but more praying.
- Remember there is always access to God through prayer in Christ. We may speak not just three times a day, but whenever the need arises. The Lord Jesus invites us to pray. (Read again John 14:13-15.)
- If the Son of God needed to pray before He undertook His work, how much more should we pray. Perhaps if we lack success in life, it is because we fail at this point. We have not because we ask not (see James 4:2).
- Habakkuk, in all his difficulties, went to God in prayer and waited patiently for His answer (Habakkuk 2:1). He went onto the watchtower and listened to God. G. Campbell Morgan says that when Habakkuk looked at his circumstances he was perplexed (Habakkuk 1:3), but when he waited for God and listened to Him, he sang (Habakkuk 3:18-19).
- As we approach God’s Word, our prayer should be the words of Psalm 119:18: “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.” Remember, the reason for our study of the Bible is that we may become approved unto God (see 2 Tim. 2:15). There is little use to read and study the Bible if we do not obey its teachings. Do you want to be “approved unto God”? If so, you must study His Word.
- Do not be surprised to find hypocrites in every congregation of God's children. Satan comes to do mischief to saints. He distracts our attention. He sets us to criticizing. He sows dissension in the congregation. He excites the pride of preachers and singers, of givers and those who publicly pray. He chills our spirit and freezes our prayers.
- "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness" (Psalm 29:2). This is the key verse to the book of Psalms. The door into the temple of praise and prayer is open. Go in with the psalmist to rest and pray. It is a real privilege to go apart during the rush of earthly things....The Psalms are for the closet of prayer.
- Pray for wisdom to behave wisely in time of trial. When you are wronged and insulted, ask God how you shall act. "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5). What a sad lack! What a mess such a lack can lead us into. Does James say, "If you lack wisdom, sit down and think or study"? No, he says the wisdom we need is from above.
- James begins and ends with prayer (James 1:5-8; James 5:13-18). Prayer is one of the easiest subjects to talk upon, but one of the hardest to practice.
- Overindulgence in pleasure always affects the prayer life. We stagnate in our Christian life.(James 4:3)
- Trouble and perplexity drive us to prayer, and prayer driveth away trouble and perplexity.
- Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered.
- God will either give you what you ask, or something far better.
- What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more.
- I ought to pray before seeing any one…Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says: ‘Early will I seek thee’…I feel it is far better to begin with God-to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.
- If the veil of the world’s machinery were lifted off, how much we could find is done in answer to the prayers of God’s children.
- O believing brethren! What an instrument is this which God hath put into your hands! Prayer moves Him that moves the universe
- If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. (cf Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34)
- Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two, your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourselves to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words from God. Martin Luther spent his best three hours in prayer.
- What a man is on his knees before God, that he is—and nothing more.
- Let us see God before man every day.
- The worth of a prayer is not gauged by its dimensions.
- There is nothing a natural man hates more than prayer.
- Turn the Bible into prayer. Thus, if you were reading the First Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel, and pray, ’O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man’; ’let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly.’ This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray."
- Our God does not always answer our prayers as we request. But he does for us, as for our Lord in the Garden; he strengthens us.
- There is no burden of the spirit but is lighter by kneeling under it.
- The great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer but unoffered prayer.
- Some people’s prayers need to be cut off at both ends and set on fire in the middle.
- Use me, then, my Saviour, for whatever purpose and in whatever way Thou mayest require. Here is my poor heart, an empty vessel; fill it with Thy Grace.
- Behind every work of God you will always find some kneeling form.
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D. L. Moody says of Philippians 4:6: "Be careful for nothing; Be prayerful for everything; Be thankful for anything!"
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Moody’s bedtime prayer as he rolled his great bulk into bed on one occasion was, “Lord, I am tired. Amen.”
- If you pray for bread and bring no basket to carry it, you prove the doubting spirit which may be the only hindrance to the gift you ask.
- We are not told that Jesus ever taught His disciples how to preach, but He taught them how to pray. He wanted them to have power with God; then He knew they would have power with man.
- Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The only way to trouble God is not to come at all. (Luke 11:9)
- Prayer does not mean that I am to bring God down to my thoughts and my purposes, and bend his government according to my foolish, silly, and sometimes sinful notions. Prayer means that I am to be raised up into feeling, into union and design with him; that I am to enter into his counsel and carry out his purpose fully.
- Our Master’s prayers were short when offered in public; when He was alone with God, He could spend the whole night in communion with His Father. My experience is that those who pray most in their closets generally make short prayers in public. Long prayers are too often not prayers at all, and they weary the people.
- I’d rather be able to pray than be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught his disciples how to preach, but only how to pray.
- We ought to see the face of God every morning before we see the face of man.
- Lord, save the elect, and then elect some more!
- Be careful for nothing, prayerful for everything, thankful for anything. (Php 4:6,7)
- Some men’s prayers need to be cut short at both ends and set on fire in the middle.
- It is said that on one occasion when Caesar gave a very valuable present, the receiver replied that it was too costly a gift. The Emperor answered that it was not too great for Caesar to give. Our God is a great King, and He delights to give gifts to us: so let us delight to ask Him for great things.
- Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all.
- Some people’s prayers need to be cut off at both ends and set on fire in the middle.
- The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe.
Thomas Moore
- Deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion unheard by the world, rises silent to thee.
Rob Morgan
- When we feel desperate in prayer, we remember Him in Gethsemane. (Luke 22:44)
- There is an indisputable, invisible correlation between the purity of your life and the power and effectiveness of your prayers.
- Sometime ago I discovered that if you want to pray effectively for someone else--for a child or a spouse or a friend--the most powerful prayers are the ones found in the Bible itself. There’s great power in praying the very words of Scripture. And I believe that’s one of the reasons why so many of the prayers of Paul the Apostle are recorded. He knew just what to pray.
- God’s delays are not denials. The Lord never forgets our earnest prayers, and many times there is but a waiting for the right time to come for their answers to be given. (Psalm 27:14, 37:7, 9, 34, 69:6, 130:5, 147:11, Pr 20:22, Isaiah 40:31)
- It is not enough for the believer to begin to pray, nor to pray correctly; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray. We must patiently, believingly continue in prayer until we obtain an answer. Further, we have not only to continue in prayer until the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing. Those who are disciples of the Lord Jesus should labor with all their might in the work of God as if everything depended upon their own endeavors. Yet, having done so, they should not in the least trust in their labor and efforts, nor in the means that they use for the spread of the truth, but in God alone; and they should with all earnestness seek the blessing of God in persevering, patient, and believing prayer. Here is the great secret of success, my Christian reader. Work with all your might, but never trust in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing in God, but work at the same time with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance. Pray, then, and work. Work and pray. And still again pray, and then work. And so on, all the days of your life. The result will surely be abundant blessing. Whether you see much fruit or little fruit, such kind of service will be blessed.
- It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly, continue in prayer until we obtain an answer.
- I hope in God, I pray on, and look yet for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be.
- For more than half a century, I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 40 years, I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands. I have nine assistants always at work corresponding in German, French, English, Danish, Italian, Russian, and other languages. Then, as pastor of a church with 1200 believers, great has been my care. I have had charge of five orphanages; also at my publishing depot, the printing and circulation of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles. But I have always made it a rule never to begin work till I have had a good season with God.
- The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.
Walter A Mueller
- Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble: prayer is a life attitude.
- I have always found praying, in any definite sense, very difficult. Somehow the notion of putting specific requests to God strikes me as unseemly, if not absurd (Ed: I strongly disagree!). . . . I can never find anything to say to God except: Thy will be done. If it is true, as St. Paul tells us—and it surely is—that all things work together for good to them that love God, then all that is required of us is that we should love God, and, in loving him, fall in with his purposes.
- I wake up in the morning, and I like to begin the day by thinking what life is about, rather than plunging into the sort of things one is going to have to do. So I like to read the Gospels, the Epistles, Augustine, the metaphysical poets like George Herbert , whom I consider to be the most exquisite religious poet in the English language. I read a bit, and then my mind dwells on what I’ve read, and this I consider to be prayer. (Comment: Interesting thought - pondering the readings of Augustine and Herbert as prayer. At best this sounds more like the discipline of meditation.)
- Time spent in prayer will yield more than that given to work. Prayer alone gives work its worth and its success. Prayer opens the way for God Himself to do His work in us and through us. Let our chief work as God's messengers be intercession; in it we secure the presence and power of God to go with us.
- Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God.
- We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth.
- Shut the world out, withdraw from all worldly thoughts and occupations, and shut yourself in alone with God, to pray to Him in secret. Let this be your chief object in prayer, to realize the presence of your heavenly Father.
- Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.
- Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what he can do.
- The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.
- When we pray for the Spirit's help ... we will simply fall down at the Lord's feet in our weakness. There we will find the victory and power that comes from His love."
- The effective prayer of faith comes from a life given up to the will and the love of God. Not as a result of what I try to be when praying, but because of what I am when I’m not praying, is my prayer answered by God.
- May not a single moment of my life be spent outside the light, love, and joy of God’s presence and not a moment without the entire surrender of my self as a vessel for Him to fill full of His Spirit and His love.
- If the spiritual life be healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying without ceasing will be natural.
- Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, above all that we ask or think (Eph 3:20).
- Each time, before you Intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!
- Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian.
- Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part.
- God’s child can conquer anything by prayer. Is it any wonder that Satan does his utmost to snatch that weapon from the Christian or to hinder him in the use of it?
- Prayer is one hand with which we grasp the invisible; fasting the other, with which we let loose and cast away the visible.
- As long as we just pour out our hearts in a multitude of petitions without taking time to see whether every petition is sent with the purpose and expectation of getting an answer, not many will reach the mark.
- Beware in your prayer above everything of limiting God, not only by unbelief but by fancying that you know what he can do.
- How our prayer avails depends upon what we are and what our life is.
- Our lives must be as holy as our prayers.
- Prayer is the pulse of life.
- To know how to speak to God is more important than knowing how to speak to men.
- Most churches don’t know that God rules the world by the prayers of his saints.
- When the Lord is to lead a soul to great faith he leaves its prayers unheard.
- Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that he will listen to mine.
- Prayer is the pulse of life.
- The great thing in prayer is to feel that we are putting our supplications into the bosom of omnipotent love.
- Many Christians backslide...They are unable to stand against the temptations of the world, or of their old nature. They strive to do their best to fight against sin, and to serve God, but they have no strength. They have never really grasped the secret: The Lord Jesus will every day from heaven continue His work in me. But on one condition—the soul must give Him time each day to impart His love and his grace. Time alone with the Lord Jesus each day is the indispensable condition of growth and power.
- So much of our prayer is vague and pointless. Some cry for mercy, but do not take the trouble to know exactly why they want it. Others ask to be delivered from sin, but do not name any sin from which a deliverance can be claimed. Still others pray for God's blessing…on their land or on the world, and yet have no special field where they can wait and expect to see the answer. To everyone the Lord says, 'What do you really want, and what do you expect Me to do?'
Moody's Today in the Word comments on Andrew Murray's quote - Vagueness in prayer happens when we fail to put real effort and thought into our prayers. Here's an interesting way to find out if your prayers are too vague. Jot down three or four people or situations you're praying for, then describe exactly what you want God to do in each case. See if you can do it without using the word bless at all!
- The spirit of prayer is the fruit and token of the Spirit of adoption.
- It is better … that the hearers should wish the prayer had been longer, than spend half or a considerable part of the time in wishing it was over.
- Prayer is the great engine to overthrow and rout my spiritual enemies, the great means to procure the graces of which I stand in hourly need.
- Thou art coming to a King;
Large petitions with thee bring;
For his grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.
- By one hour's intimate access to the throne of grace, where the Lord causes His glory to pass before the soul that seeks Him you may acquire more true spiritual knowledge and comfort than by a day's or a week's converse with the best of men, or the most studious perusal of many folios.
- It is true....that only those who are thankful for spiritual achievements of believers can truly intercede for them. Note your own prayers, whether you thank God for His grace in others and intercede for them that they may know greater blessing, or whether your prayers are entirely confined to yourself. Then you will know something of your spiritual achievement in prayer.
- He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.
- You can tell whether a man has been keeping up his life of prayer. His witness is in his face. There is an invisible sculptor that chisels the face into the upper attitude of the soul.
- Below are words of an ancient prayer by the famous British missionary to Ireland:
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me;
Christ to comfort and restore me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
- Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then, my dear brother; pray, pray, pray.
- The Scriptures make prayer a reality and not a reverie.
- We are never more like Christ than in prayers of intercession.
- An intrepid faith in prayer will always give it unction.
- Good prayers never come weeping home. I am sure I shall receive either what I ask or what I should ask.
- There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.
- The Word of God represents all the possibilities of God as at the disposal of true prayer.
- To go as I am led, to go when I am led, to go where I am led… it is that which has been for twenty years the one prayer of my life
- Closet communion needs time for the revelation of God’s presence. It is vain to say, ‘I have too much work to do to find time.’ You must find time or forfeit blessing. God knows how to save for you the time you sacredly keep for communion with Him.
- Every step in the progress of missions is directly traceable to prayer. It has been the preparation for every new triumph and the secret for all success.
- The peace of God is that eternal calm which lies too deep in the praying, trusting soul to be reached by any external disturbances.
- A marble cutter, with chisel and hammer, was changing a stone into a statue. A preacher looking on said: "I wish I could deal such changing blows on stony hearts." The workman answered: "Maybe you could, if you worked like me, upon your knees.
- Most Christians expect little from God, ask little, and therefore receive little, and are content with little.
- The measure of our love for others can largely be determined by the frequency and earnestness of our prayers for them.
- To ask in the name of Christ is … to set aside our own will and bow to the perfect will of God.
- What is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God. (Ed: But "food" energizes prayer.)....George Mueller adds "Now what is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God: and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.…"
- Prayer pursues joy in fellowship with Jesus and in the power to share His life with others. And prayer pursues God’s glory by treating Him as the inexhaustible reservoir of hope and help. In prayer we admit our poverty and God’s prosperity, our bankruptcy and His bounty, our misery and His mercy. Therefore, prayer highly exalts and glorifies God precisely by pursuing everything we long for in Him, and not in ourselves. “Ask, and you will receive…that the Father may be glorified in the Son and…that your joy may be full.” (John 14:13, 16:24)—Desiring God - John Piper - page 182
- Prayer prevents service from being an expression of pride.....there is no good service without prayer.
- Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy. —Desiring God - John Piper - page 161
- Jesus says to the woman, “If you just knew the gift of God and who I am, you would ask Me—you would pray to Me!” There is a direct correlation between not knowing Jesus well and not asking much from Him. A failure in our prayer life is generally a failure to know Jesus. “If you knew who was talking to you, you would ask Me!” A prayerless Christian is like a bus driver trying alone to push his bus out of a rut because he doesn’t know Clark Kent is on board. “If you knew, you would ask.” A prayerless Christian is like having your room wallpapered with Saks Fifth Avenue gift certificates but always shopping at Goodwill because you can’t read. “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaks to you, you would ask—you would ask!” (John 4:10)
- Prayer is the essential activity of waiting for God—acknowledging our helplessness and His power, calling upon Him for help, seeking His counsel.....Prayer is the antidote for the disease of self-confidence, which opposes God’s goal of getting glory by working for those who wait for Him.....The Gospel commands us to give up and hang out a help-wanted sign (this is the basic meaning of prayer). Then the Gospel promises that God will work for us if we do. He will not surrender the glory of being the Giver. (cp 2 Chr 16:9) (Italics added)—Desiring God - John Piper - page 171
- This much is sure in all churches, forgetting party labels; the smallest meeting numerically is the prayer- meeting. If weak in prayer we are weak everywhere.
- Prayer is conditioned by one thing alone and that is spirituality.
- No man is greater than his prayer life.
- A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men.
- The true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer.
- Ministers who do not spend two hours a day in prayer are not worth a dime a dozen - degrees or no degrees. (Woe!)
- A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God.
- Prayer is not an argument with God to persuade him to move things our way, but an exercise by which we are enabled by his Spirit to move ourselves his way.
- The self-sufficient do not pray, the self-satisfied will not pray, the self-righteous cannot pray.
- Much of our praying is just asking God to bless some folks that are ill and to keep us plugging along. But prayer is not merely prattle: it is warfare.
- We are fit for the work of God only when we have wept over it, prayed about it, and then we are enabled by Him to tackle the job that needs to be done
- Let’s keep our chins up and our knees down—we’re on the victory side!
- Before we can pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” we must be willing to pray, “My kingdom go.”
- Since the presence of other people can so easily compromise the purity of this motive, prayer should always be as inconspicuous as possible
- Prayer is the secret of power.
- For years, Evan Roberts prayed, “Bend me! Bend me!” and when God answered, the great Welsh Revival resulted.
- Prayer is buried, and lost and Heaven weeps. If all prayed the wicked would flee from our midst or to the Refuge
- The divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it.
- Adrian Rogers knew how to talk with God, and that is exactly why he was able to talk so powerfully for God! He was a prayerful preacher!"
- What a great God we pray to! And what (great) fools we are if we don't.
- Now, you ought to have in your heart—or in your Bible—a list of prayer requests with dates (a prayer record of when you entered it). And, when God answers it, you can give Him the glory and give Him the praise. So, get specific and focused in your prayer, because prayer that is channeled is prayer that is powerful. Prayer was made for people.
- Our prayer needs to be listening as well as talking. Have you had a conversation with someone who does all the talking? Sometimes our prayer is, "Listen, Lord, Your servant is speaking," not "Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening."
- Many Christians would confess that the major failure in their life is not learning to pray well. That's because there is no sin in life that proper prayer could not help you avoid. There is no need in life that proper prayer could not supply. Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God. What fools we are if we do not learn to pray! So there is not a more important subject in all the world for a Christian—not only to learn how to pray, but how to pray with power. Prayer can do anything God can do, and God can do anything!
- One of the sweetest lessons I ever learned about prayer is this: the prayer that gets to heaven is the prayer that starts in heaven. Our job is just to close the circuit. God lays something on our hearts to pray for, we pray for it, and it goes right back to heaven. Prayer is the Holy Spirit finding a desire in the heart of the Father, putting that desire into our hearts, then sending it back to heaven in the power of the cross.
- How often in my sermon preparations have I put down my pencil and bowed my head to say, "O, my God, help me to understand this. Lord, give me Your understanding." When we pray like this, our hearts are moved and our minds are enlightened to grasp, apply, and understand the Word of God.
- Prayer has one purpose and one purpose only. Its goal is that God's will be done. Prayer is not an exercise where we bend God's will and try to make it fit ours. Too many people have the notion that prayer is how we make impassioned appeals in the hopes of talking God into doing something for us, even if it is something He would not ordinarily want to do. But this is not true. Prayer is seeking the will of God and following it. Prayer is the way of getting God's will done on earth.
- Successful prayer is finding the will of God and getting in on it. You are not hemmed in by the will of God; rather, you are freed up by it.
- The most powerful prayers are always filled with worship, knowing that He is "enthroned on the praises of His people" (Ps. 22:3)
- It is not the eloquence and form of our prayers that gets them delivered but the stamp of faith. Like they say, "Pray, believe, and you'll receive. Pray and doubt; you'll do without."
- We tend to think we are capable of handling it ourselves. We think we can go through the day and overcome the devil in our own strength. Prayerlessness and pride always go together. But it's time to pray for protection—to get off the defensive and go on the offensive.
- I can't repeat this point enough, because it is where so many people struggle: if you are praying with unrepented sin in your life, you are wasting your breath! Your prayers are getting no higher than the ceiling lights.
- Now, one of the greatest privileges that we have is the privilege of prayer. One of the greatest failures that we have, however, is in the area of prayer. God can do anything, because prayer brings God into action. I don't have a failure in my life but what somehow it's a prayer failure. There's not a sin in my life but what somehow proper prayer would have helped me to avoid it. There's not a need in my life but what if I learned how to pray and knew how to pray that need would be met.
- Words are but the body, the garment, the outside of prayer; sighs are nearer the heart work. A dumb beggar getteth an alms at Christ’s gates, even by making signs, when his tongue cannot plead for him…Tears have a tongue, and grammar, and language that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayer for the breast, but weeping: the mother can read hunger in weeping.
- I have been benefited by praying for others; for by making an errand to God for them I have gotten something for myself.
- A man’s state before God may always be measured by his prayers.
- Never, never may we forget that if we would do good to the world, our first duty is to pray!
- No time is so well spent in every day as that which we spend upon our knees.
- Prayer is the very life-breath of true Christianity.
- Backsliding, generally first begins with neglect of private prayer
- Whatever else you make a business of, make a business of prayer.
- It is not without its comfort that the two men who conversed with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration both broke under the strain of their ministry and prayed that they might die.
- It is possible to move men through God by prayer alone.
- An analysis of our prayers might afford the disconcerting discovery that many of them are not the prayer of faith at all, only the prayer of hope, or even of despair. We earnestly hope they will be answered, but have no unshakable assurance to that effect. God has, however, undertaken to answer only the prayer of faith. "Whatever you pray for and ask, believe that you have got it, and you shall have it" (Mark 11:24, Moffatt).
- Many people pray for things that can only come by work and work for things that can only come by prayer.
- Prayer without love has no suction. It does not draw the blessing down.
- If you are too busy to pray then you are too busy.
- One cannot get deep into religion until one gets deep into prayer.
- Without time for prayer, nothing can be accomplished.
- The essence of prayer does not consist in asking God for something but in opening our hearts to God, in speaking with Him, and living with Him in perpetual communion. Prayer is continual abandonment to God. Prayer does not mean asking God for all kinds of things we want; it is rather the desire for God Himself, the only Giver of Life, Prayer is not asking, but union with God. Prayer is not a painful effort to gain from God help in the varying needs of our lives. Prayer is the desire to possess God Himself, the Source of all life. The true spirit of prayer does not consist in asking for blessings, but in receiving Him who is the giver of all blessings, and in living a life of fellowship with Him.
William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
- We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.
- The most important thing a born again Christian can do is to pray.
- Prayer doesn't change the purpose of God, but prayer can change the action of God.
- See also Spurgeon Gems on Prayer
- Some brethren pray by the yard; but true prayer is measured by weight, and not by length.
- Not to pray because you do not feel fit to pray is like saying, ‘I will not take medicine because I am too ill.’ Pray for prayer! Pray yourself, by the Spirit’s assistance, into a praying frame! It is good to strike when the iron is hot, but some make cold iron hot by striking. We have sometimes eaten till we have gained an appetite, so let us pray till we pray. God will help you in the pursuit of duty, not in the neglect of it.
- My own soul's conviction is that prayer is the grandest power in the entire universe, that it has a more omnipotent force than electricity, attraction, gravitation, or any other of those other secret forces which men have called by name, but which they do not understand.
- Our growth in prayer may be to us the test of our growth in all other respects. "Lord, teach us to pray," is a prayer for the young beginner and for the more advanced disciple; it is a suitable petition for us all, for we have none of us yet learned to the full the sacred art of supplication.
- Sinner, tell God your misery even now, and he will hear your story. He is willing to listen, even to that sad and wretched tale of yours about your multiplied transgressions, your hardness of heart, your rejections of Christ. Tell him all, for he will hear it. Tell him what it is you want,—what large mercy,—what great forgiveness; just lay your whole case before him. Do not hesitate for a single moment; he will hear it, he will be attentive to the voice of your cry. (Israel's Cry and God's Answer)
- If any man thinks that his prayers have any merit in them, every prayer that he presents is an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you think that your prayers help to put away sin, you make an antichrist of your prayers, and the more you pile them up, the more you multiply your sin
- Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.
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It is necessary to draw near unto God, but it is not required of you to prolong your speech till everyone is longing to hear the word ‘Amen’.
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All our perils are nothing, so long as we have prayer. (Phil 4:6).
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Praying will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying.
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All our perils are as nothing, so long as we have prayer.
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Prayer is not a hard requirement - it is the natural duty of a creature to its creator, the simplest homage that human need can pay to divine liberality.
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I could no more doubt the efficacy of prayer than I could disbelieve in the law of gravity.
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Every prayer is an inverted promise … If God teaches us to pray for any good thing, we may gather by implication the assurance that he means to give it.
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Unbelieving prayers! Shall I call them prayers? Prayers without faith! They are birds without wings, ships without sails, beasts without legs. Prayers that have no faith in Christ are prayers without the blood on them. They are deeds without the signature, without the seal, without the stamp. They are impotent, illegal documents.
- The Need for Enlarged Expectations: if it be a throne, it ought to be approached with enlarged expectations. Well does our hymn put it: Thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring.
- The commentators are good instructors, but the Author Himself is far better, and prayer makes a direct appeal to Him and enlists Him in our cause.
- However, brethren, whether we like it or not, remember, asking is the rule of the kingdom.…It is a rule that never will be altered in anybody’s case. (James 4:2)
- Even as the moon influences the tides of the sea, even so does prayer—which is the reflection of the sunlight of heaven, and is God's moon in the sky—influence the tides of godliness.
- I always give all the glory to God, but I do not forget that He gave me the privilege of ministering from the first to a praying people. We had prayer meetings that moved our very souls, each one appeared determined to storm the Celestial City by the might of intercession.
- We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a proper mood, for it would be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition."
- True prayers are like carrier pigeons: from heaven they came, they are only going home.
- If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say it is in that one word—prayer.
- He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), if there is no fire in our prayers.
- It is the burning lava of the soul that has a furnace within—a very volcano of grief and sorrow—it is that burning lava of prayer that finds its way to God. No prayer ever reaches God's heart which does not come from our hearts.
- If we begin by doubting, our prayer will limp. Faith is the tendon of Achilles and if that is cut, it is not possible for us to wrestle with God.
- Some mercies are not given to us except in answer to importunate prayer. There are blessings which, like ripe fruit, drop into your hand the moment you touch the bough. But there are others which require you to shake the tree again and again, until you make it rock with the vehemence of your exercise, for only then will the fruit fall down.
- The Lord give me a dozen importunate pleaders and lovers of souls, and by his grace we will shake all London from end-to-end yet.
- I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer.
- If you are sure it is a right thing for which you are asking, plead now, plead at noon, plead at night, plead on. With cries and tears spread out your case. Order your arguments. Back up your pleas with reasons. Urge the precious blood of Jesus. Set the wounds of Christ before the Father’s eyes. Bring out the atoning sacrifice. Point to Calvary. Enlist the crowned Prince, the Priest who stands at the right hand of God. And resolve in your very soul that if souls be not saved, if your family be not blessed, if your own zeal be not revived, yet you will die with the plea on your lips, and with the importunate wish on your spirits.
- The Lord does not play at promising. Jesus did not sport at confirming the word by his blood, and we must not make a jest of prayer by going about it in a listless, unexpecting spirit.
- We must get rid of the icicles that hang about our lips. We must ask the Lord to thaw the ice caves of our soul and to make our hearts like a furnace of fire heated seven times hotter. If our hearts do not burn within us, we may well question whether Jesus is with us. Those who are neither cold nor hot he has threatened to spew out of his mouth (Rev. 3:16). How can we expect his favor if we fall into a condition so obnoxious to him?
- Even as the moon influences the tides of the sea, even so does prayer—which is the reflection of the sunlight of heaven, and is God's moon in the sky—influence the tides of godliness.
- There is many a mother’s son whose heart will be turned to God long after his mother’s bones have been laid in the churchyard. The vision is for an appointed time—though it tarry, wait for it. Your son will yet be brought to Glory through your prayers. Pray on, Brothers and Sisters, pray on for those whose sins and sorrows lay heavily on your heart! Pray on, and God will hear you!
- As artists give themselves to their models, and poets to their classical pursuits, so must we addict ourselves to prayer.
- There are many prayers that it would not be right to pray in public, but they are very dear to God’s ear in private.
- The power of prayer can never be overrated. They who cannot serve God by preaching need not regret. If a man can but pray he can do anything. He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has Heaven and earth at his disposal.
- Shall I give you yet another reason why you should pray? I have preached my very heart out. I could not say any more than I have said. Will not your prayers accomplish that which my preaching fails to do? Is it not likely that the Church has been putting forth its preaching hand but not its praying hand? Oh dear friends! Let us agonize in prayer.
- If you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
- True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length.
- I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.
- Prayer can never be in excess.
- We shall never sing, “Gloria in excelsis” except we pray to God de profundis: out of the depths must we cry, or we shall never behold glory in the highest.
- Believing supplications are forecasts of the future.
- Only the prayer which comes from God can go to God.
- Could you read the story of Abraham’s interceding for Sodom and say that you have interceded for London like that? Can you read of Jacob at the brook Jabbok and say that you ever spent an hour, much less a night, in wrestling with the angel? The prayerlessness of this age is one of its worst signs.
- It has been truly said that if you have a very hard thing, you can cut it with something harder. And if any heart is especially hard, God can use the hard, strong, persistent vehemence of other mighty, passionate souls to pray the blessing of eternal life into that stubborn, rebellious heart.
- True prayers are like those carrier pigeons which find their way so well; they cannot fail to go to heaven, for it is from heaven they came; they are only going home.
- Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.
- Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest.
- He that is never on his knees on earth shall never stand upon his feet in heaven.
- Prayer is the stalk of the wheat, but praise is the ear of the wheat. It is the harvest itself. When God is praised, we have come to the ultimatum. This is the thing for which all other things are designed.
- You can be omnipotent if you know how to pray, omnipotent in all things which glorify God.
- I commend intercessory prayer, because it opens man's soul, gives a healthy play to his sympathies, constrains him to feel that he is not everybody, and that this wide world was not, after all, made that he might be its petty lord. It does him good to make him know that the cross was not uplifted alone for him, for its far-reaching arms were meant to drop with benedictions on millions of the human race.
- All other passions build upon or flow from your passion for Jesus. A passion for souls grows out of a passion for Christ. A passion for missions builds upon a passion for Christ. The most crucial danger to a Christian, whatever his role, is to lack a passion of Christ. The most direct route to personal renewal and new effectiveness is a new all-consuming passion for Jesus. Lord, give us this passion, whatever the cost!
- When you pray in public, as a rule, the shorter the better.
- The best prayers have usually been the shortest. An arrow may easily be too long, and prayers should be like arrows shot from the bow of faith. If they are short, it does not matter so long as they are sharp and sent on their way with a good pull of the bowstring.
- There is a general kind of praying which fails for lack of precision. It is as if a regiment of soldiers should all fire off their guns anywhere. Possibly some-body would be killed, but the majority of the enemy would be missed.
- God will bless Elijah and send rain on Israel, but Elijah must pray for it. If the chosen nation is to prosper, Samuel must plead for it. If the Jews are to be delivered, Daniel must intercede. God will bless Paul, and the nations shall be converted through him, but Paul must pray. Pray he did without ceasing; his epistles show that he expected nothing except by asking for it.
- There is no force in nature that is equal to the power of prayer. The law of gravitation holds the planets in their orbits, and links the sun to all the spheres that circle round him. But prayer has now made gravitation itself cease to exert its energy: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gib-eon," said Joshua, who had first spoken to the Lord about the matter (Josh 10:12).
- The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be slothfulness in prayer.
- Prayer is the thermometer of grace.
- Only that prayer which comes from our heart can get to God's heart.
- My heart has no deeper conviction than this, that prayer is the most efficient spiritual agency in the universe, next to the Holy Ghost.
- The best style of prayer is that which cannot be called anything else but a cry.
- In prayer the heart of man empties itself before God, and then Christ empties his heart out to supply the needs of his poor believing child. In prayer we confess to Christ our deficiencies, and he reveals to us his fulness. We tell him our sorrows, he tells us his joys. We tell him our sins, he shows to us his righteousness. We tell him the dangers that lie before us, he tells us of the shield of omnipotence with which he can and will guard us. Prayer talks with God; it walks with him. And he who is much in prayer will hold very much fellowship with Jesus Christ.
- I would rather be Master of the Art of Prayer than M.A. of both universities (Oxford and Cambridge). He who knows how to pray has his hand on the leverage which moves the universe.
- Prayer may be salted with confession or perfumed with thanksgiving; it may be sung to music or wept out with groanings. As many as are the flowers of summer, so many are the varieties of prayer.
- To me it is a boundless solace that I live in the prayers of thousands. We can do better without the voice that preaches than without the heart that prays. The petitions of our bedridden sisters are the wealth of the church.
- When a poor man was breaking granite by the roadside, he was down on his knees while he gave his blows. A minister passing by said, “Your work is just like mine. You have to break stones, and so do I. “Yes,” said the man, “and if you manage to break stony hearts, you will have to do it as I do, down on your knees.”
The man was right. The gospel hammer soon splits flinty hearts when a man knows how to pray.
- I believe that when we cannot pray, it is time that we prayed more than ever. And if you answer, "But how can that be?" I would say, pray to pray. Pray for prayer. Pray for the spirit of supplication. Do not be content to say, "I would pray if I could." No, but if you cannot pray, pray till you can.
- The sinew of the minister’s strength under God is the supplication of his church. We can do anything and everything if we have a praying people around us. But when our dear friends and fellow helpers cease to pray, the Holy Ghost hastens to depart, and “Ichabod” is written on the place of assembly.
- I could as soon think of living without eating or living without breathing, as living without prayer
- No prayer will ever prevail with God more surely than a liquid petition, which, being distilled from the heart, trickles from the eye and waters the cheek. Then is God won when he hears the voice of your weeping.
- You can draw near to God even though you cannot say a word. A prayer may be crystallized in a tear. A tear is enough water to float a desire to God.
- How can a man be a believer in Jesus Christ, and yet have a cold and hard heart in the things of the kingdom toward his children? I have heard of ministers who have despised family prayer, who have laughed at family godliness and thought nothing of it. I cannot understand how the men can know as much as they do about the gospel, and yet have so little of the spirit of it.
- Never account prayer second to preaching. No doubt prayer in the Christian church is as precious as the utterance of the gospel. To speak to God for men is a part of the Christian priesthood that should never be despised.
- If ten thousand saints were burned tomorrow, their dying prayers would make the church rise like a phoenix from her ashes.
- I remember in the hour of overwhelming anguish, when I feared that my beloved wife was about to be taken from me, how I was comforted by the loving prayers of my two dear sons. We had communion not only in our grief, but also in our confidence in the living God.
- Remember that prayer is your best means of study.
- When my father was absent preaching the gospel, my mother always filled his place at the family altar. And in my own family, if I have been absent, and my dear wife has been ill, my sons, while yet boys, would not hesitate to read the Scriptures and pray. We could not have a house without prayer. That would be heathenish or atheistical.
- Oh, without prayer what are the church's agencies, but the stretching out of a dead man's arm, or the lifting up of the lid of a blind man's eye? Only when the Holy Spirit comes is there any life and force and power.
- If there be anything I know, anything that I am quite assured of beyond all question, it is that praying breath is never spent in vain.
- I know that the words of my father with me alone, when he prayed for me and bade me to pray for myself—not to use any form of prayer, but to pray just as I felt, and to ask from God what I felt that I really wanted—left an impression on my mind that will never be erased.
- Do not reckon you have prayed unless you have pleaded, for pleading is the very marrow of prayer.
- The more we pray, the more we shall want to pray. The more we pray, the more we can pray. The more we pray, the more we shall pray. He who prays little will pray less, but he who prays much will pray more. And he who prays more, will desire to pray more abundantly.
- I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do.
- The Christian should work as if all depended on him, and pray as if it all depended on God.
- We heard of a certain clergy-man, who was said to have given forth "the finest prayer ever offered to a Boston audience." Just so! The Boston audience received the prayer, and there it ended. The tail feathers of pride should be pulled out of our prayers, for they need only the wing feathers of faith. The peacock feathers of poetical expression are out of place before the throne of God.
- Every prayer is an inverted promise. That is to say, God promises us such a blessing, and therefore we pray for it. If God teaches us to pray for any good thing, we may gather by implication the assurance that he means to give it.
- Neglect of private prayer is the locust which devours the strength of the church. (Ed: And also the strength of one's soul!)
- A prayerless church member is a hindrance. He is in the body like a rotting bone or a decayed tooth. Before long, since he does not contribute to the benefit of his brethren, he will become a danger and a sorrow to them.
- It is the usual rule with God to make us pray before he gives the blessing.
- Prayer is the autograph of the Holy Ghost upon the renewed heart.
- Prayer is the breath of faith. Prayer meetings are the lungs of the church.
- I have not preached this morning half as much as I have prayed. For every word that I have spoken, I have prayed two words silently to God.
- I always feel that there is something wrong if I go without prayer for even half an hour in the day.
- I cannot help praying. If I were not allowed to utter a word all day long, that would not affect my praying. If I could not have five minutes that I might spend in prayer by myself, I should pray all the same. Minute by minute, moment by moment, somehow or other, my heart must commune with my God. Prayer has become as essential to me as the heaving of my lungs and the beating of my pulse.
- God the Holy Ghost writes our prayers, God the Son presents our prayers, and God the Father accepts our prayers. And with the whole Trinity to help us in it, what cannot prayer perform?
- Watch for answers to your prayers. When you mail a letter to a friend, requesting a favor, you watch for an answer. When you pray to God for a favor, you do not expect him to hear you, some of you. If the Lord were to hear some of your prayers, you would be surprised. Sometimes when I have met with a special answer to prayer and have told it, some have said, "Is it not wonderful?" No, not at all! It would be wonderful if it were not so!
- Prayer talks with God; it walks with him. And he who is much in prayer will hold very much fellowship with Jesus Christ.
- I am persuaded we only want more prayer, and there is no limit to the blessing. You may Christianize the world, if you but know how to pray. Prayer can get anything of God, prayer can get everything. God denies nothing to the man who knows how to ask. The Lord never shuts his storehouse till you shut your mouth. God will never stop his arm till you stop your tongue.
- When God does not answer his children according to the letter, he does so according to the spirit. If you ask for silver, will you be angry if he gives you gold? If you seek bodily health, should you complain if instead he makes your sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies? Is it not better to have the cross sanctified than to have the cross removed? Was not the apostle more enriched when God allowed him still to endure the thorn in the flesh, and yet said to him, “My grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Cor. 12:9)?
- I am sure we cannot expect our children to grow up a godly seed if there is no family prayer.
- A certain preacher whose sermons converted many souls received a revelation from God that it was not his sermons or works by all means but the prayers of an illiterate lay brother who sat on the pulpit steps pleading for the success of the sermon. It may be in the all-revealing day so with us. We may believe after laboring long and wearily that all honor belongs to another builder whose prayers were gold, silver, and precious stones, while our sermonizings being apart from prayer are but hay and stubble.
- I should find it difficult to discover a season in which I have cried unto God and not received deliverance during the whole run and tenor of my life. In hundreds of instances I have had as distinct answers to prayer as if God had thrust his right hand through the blue sky and given right into my lap the bounty which I had sought from him.
- I cannot make out how you Christians live who have not family prayer in your houses. You will find that where sons and daughters have turned out a curse to their parents, and those parents have been Christians, it might have been set down to this, that while the parents have been Christians, they were not Christians at home. They had not family prayer. They never reared a family altar. I believe nine out of ten such cases can be explained that way.
- If you cannot find that God has promised a blessing, you have no right to ask for it, and no reason to expect it. There is no use in asking money from a banker without a check. Christians take their arrows from God’s quiver and shoot them with this on their lips: “Do as thou hast said. Remember thy word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope.” True prayers are like those carrier pigeons which find their way so well. They cannot fail to go to heaven, for it is from heaven that they came. They are only going home.
- Prayer without faith! What sort of prayer is it? It is the prayer of a man who does not believe in God.
- I have seen enough in my own lifetime to fill a volume concerning the goodness of the Lord in answer to his children’s prayers
- Public prayer is no evidence of piety. It is practised by an abundance of hypocrites. But private prayer is a thing for which the hypocrite has no heart.
- May our prayers spring out of our Scriptural studies—may our acquaintance with the Word be such that we shall be qualified to pray a Daniel prayer!
- I cannot imagine any one of you tantalizing your child by exciting in him a desire that you do not intend to gratify. It were a very ungenerous thing to offer alms to the poor, and then when they hold out their hand for it, to mock their poverty with a denial. It were a cruel addition to the miseries of the sick if they were taken to the hospital and there left to die untended and uncared for. Where God leads you to pray, he means you to receive.
- I am constantly witnessing the most unmistakable instances of answers to prayer. My whole life is made up of them. To me they are so familiar as to cease to excite my surprise, but to many they would seem marvelous, no doubt. Why, I could no more doubt the efficacy of prayer than I could disbelieve in the law of gravitation. The one is as much a fact as the other, constantly verified every day of my life.
- It is neither desirable nor possible that all things should be left to our choice. So much do I feel this, that if my Lord should say to me, “From this hour I will always answer your prayer just as you pray it,” the first petition I would offer would be, “Lord, do nothing of the sort.” That would be putting the responsibility of my life on myself, instead of allowing it to remain on God.
- What, give us the new birth, and then not hear us? Did he bless us when we did not seek him, and will he not hear us when we do seek him? What, look after us when we were like stray sheep, deaf to all his calls; seek after us till he restored us, and then not hear us when we become the sheep of his pasture? Impossible!
- The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,’ but they who do not hear God’s voice cannot effectually pray, for God will not hear their voice if they will not hear His. If we have been deaf to Him, He will be deaf to us. The communion necessary to prevailing prayer render it absolutely essential that we should first set ourselves to hear the voice of God and then, again, it shall be said that the Lord listened to the voice of a man, for the man first listened to the voice of the Lord.
- If you realized your true condition in God’s sight, you would find time for prayer somehow or other, for you would feel that you must pray! It never occurred to Peter, as he was beginning to sink, that he had no time for prayer. He felt that he must pray—his sense of danger forced him to cry to Christ, ‘Lord, save me.’ And if you feel as you should feel, your sense of need will drive you to prayer and you will never again say, ‘I have no time for prayer.’ It is not a matter of time so much as a matter of heart—if you have the heart to pray, you will find the time.
- It is delightful to see these exquisite prayers come from holy men in times of extreme distress. As the sick oyster makes the pearl, and not the healthy one, so does it seem as if the child of God brought forth gems of prayer in affliction more pure, brilliant and sparkling than any that he produces in times of joy and exultation.
- I do not think our prayers would ever be heard in Heaven if it were not for Jesus Christ. He is the great Mediator by whom our prayers must be presented.
- There is joy in Hell when a saint grows idle! There is gladness among devils when we cease to pray, when we become slack in faith and feeble in communion with God.
- Prayer is refreshing, but praise is even more so, for there may be and there often is, in prayer, the element of selfishness—but praise rises to a yet higher level. Prayer and praise together make up spiritual respiration—we breathe in the air of Heaven when we pray—and we breathe it out again when we praise. ‘It is good to sing praises unto our God.’”
- The best thermometer of your spiritual temperature is the intensity of your prayer.
- If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.
- Lord, help us who cannot preach to pray for the man who does! Have you, dear Friend, who cannot preach, made a point of praying for the pastor of the Church to which you belong? It is a great sin on the part of Church members if they do not daily sustain their pastor by their prayers!
- It often happens that there is very little power in those prayers that leap out of our lips without premeditation—born in a minute, like gnats, and dying just as soon. But the prayer that lies in the soul, like eggs in a nest, and that has to be sat upon, as it were, and hatched, and brought forth—there is life in such supplication as that and that is the kind of prayer which prevails with God! Such was the prayer of Daniel.
- What wonders it has wrought! Intercessory prayer has stayed plagues (Ex 7-11). Intercessory prayer has healed diseases. We know it did in the early church. It has restored withered limbs. Intercessory prayer has raised the dead (1 Kings 17). As to how many souls intercessory prayer has instrumentally saved, recording angel, you can tell! Eternity, you shall reveal! There is nothing which intercessory prayer cannot do.
- All the Christian virtues are locked up in the word prayer.
- Anything is a blessing which makes us pray.
- As artists give themselves to their models, and poets to their classical pursuits, so must we addict ourselves to prayer.
- God has no dumb children.
- Perhaps you hear a sinner swear. What does that say to you, but "Pray for that sinner"? All the sins we see other men commit ought to be so many jogs to our memory to pray for the coming of Christ and the salvation of souls.
- Until the gate of hell is shut upon a man we must not cease to pray for him. And if we see him hugging the very doorposts of damnation, we must go to the prayer. Surely God has an eye of love on those whom he has encompassed with his own dear servants who day and night are praying for them.
- Let me have your prayers, and I can do anything! Let me be without my people's prayers, and I can do nothing.
- Earnest intercession will be sure to bring love with it. I do not believe you can hate a man for whom you habitually pray. If you dislike any brother Christian, pray for him doubly, not only for his sake, but for your own, that you may be cured of prejudice and saved from all unkind feeling.
- Do you say you have nothing to pray for? What, no children unconverted, no friends unsaved, no neighbors who are still in darkness? What! Live in London and not pray for sinners?
- He that is never on his knees on earth shall never stand upon his feet in heaven.
- I always feel that there is something wrong if I go without prayer for even half an hour in the day.
- If you cannot go to the house of the Lord, go to the Lord of the house.
- It is a good rule never to look into the face of man in the morning till you have looked into the face of God.
- Neglect of private prayer is the locust which devours the strength of the church.
- How often have I said, “All our strength lies in prayer!”
- You see the men in the belfry sometimes down below with the ropes. They pull them, and if you have no ears, that is all you know about it. But the bells are ringing up there. They are talking and discoursing sweet music up aloft in the tower. And our prayers do, as it were, ring the bells of heaven. They are sweet music in God’s ear.
- Prayer has become as essential to me as the heaving of my lungs and the beating of my pulse.
- Prayer is the breath of faith. Prayer meetings are the lungs of the church.
- Prayer meetings are the throbbing machinery of the church.
- There is no secret of my heart which I would not pour into his ear. There is no wish that might be deemed foolish or ambitious by others, which I would not communicate to him. For surely if “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Ps. 25:14), the secrets of them that fear him ought to be, and must be, with their Lord.
- Remember that prayer is your best means of study.
- Sometimes we think we are too busy to pray. That is a great mistake, for praying is a saving of time. You remember Luther’s remark, “I have so much to do today that I shall never get through it with less than three hours’ prayer.”
- We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.
- Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is.
- No man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to pray for me.
- Those who were in Christ before me prayed for me; should I not pray for others? The treasury of the church’s prayers has been expended on us in bringing us to Christ’s feet. Let us now contribute to the common stock, casting in our prayers for the conversion of others.
- What can we do without your prayers? They link us with the omnipotence of God. Like the lightning rod, they pierce the clouds and bring down the mighty and mysterious power from on high.
- Prayer may not make you eloquent after the human mode, but it will make you truly so, for you will speak out of the heart; and is not that the meaning of the word eloquence? It will bring fire from heaven upon your sacrifice, and thus prove it to be accepted of the Lord (The Preacher's Private Prayer)
- Those who are short of breath in soul winning will never be successful. If they are not saved after twenty years of prayer, follow them up to the gates of hell! If they once pass those gates, your prayers are unallowable and unavailing, but to the very verge of the infernal pit follow them with your prayers. If they will not hear you speak, they cannot prevent your praying. Do they jest at your exhortations? They cannot disturb you at your prayers. Are they far away so that you cannot reach them? Your prayers can reach them. Have they declared that they will never listen to you again, nor see your face? Never mind, God has a voice which they must hear. Speak to him, and he will make them feel. Though they now treat you despitefully, rendering evil for your good, follow them with your prayers. Never let them perish for lack of your supplications.
- There is no need for us to go beating about the bush, and not telling the Lord distinctly what it is that we crave at His hands. Nor will it be seemly for us to make any attempt to use fine language; but let us ask God in the simplest and most direct manner for just the things we want…I believe in business prayers. I mean prayers in which you take to God one of the many promises which He has given us in His Work, and expect it to be fulfilled as certainly as we look for the money to be given us when we go to the bank to cash a check. We should not think of going there, lolling over the counter chattering with the clerks on every conceivable subject except the one thing for which we had gone to the bank, and then coming away without the coin we needed; but we should lay before the clerk the promise to pay the bearer a certain sum, tell him in what form we wish to take the amount, count the cash after him, and then go on our way to attend to other business. That is just an illustration of the method in which we should draw supplies from the Bank of Heaven.
- (Romans 8:26, 27) assures us that the Holy Spirit takes whatever we ask for and molds it into the will of God. So we know that his answer is what is best for us, though it is not always what we ask for.
- It is only when Christ’s words abide in us that our prayers will be answered. Then we can ask what we will and it shall be done, because we shall will only what he wills.
- We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism...To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don't hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist!
- Prayer is good, but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is naught but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism.
- Christians who want a productive prayer life must keep a pure heart.
- Trouble in our prayer life is usually a symptom of a deeper problem in our spiritual life—disobedience. A light on the dashboard of our car may indicate we have engine trouble, but we cannot cure our engine problem by cutting the wire to the dashboard light. That only cures the symptom. We need to find and treat the real cause of the engine problem. The root cause of ineffective prayer is some form of disobedience. The cure for disobedience is to confess and forsake our disobedience so that God will forgive it. And the prayer of confession is the only prayer God will hear when believers have knowingly disobeyed. (1Jn 3:22)
- Like art, like music, like so many other disciplines, prayer can only be appreciated when you actually spend time in it. Spending time with the Master will elevate your thinking. The more you pray, the more will be revealed. You will understand. You will smile and nod your head as you identify with others who fight long battles and find great joy on their knees.
- Do not work so hard for Christ that you have no strength to pray, for prayer requires strength.
- Whatever is your best time in the day, give that to communion with God.
- In Shansi I found Chinese Christians who were accustomed to spend time in fasting and prayer. They recognized that this fasting, which so many dislike, which requires faith in God, since it makes one feel weak and poorly, is really a Divinely appointed means of grace. Perhaps the greatest hindrance to our work is our own imagined strength; and in fasting we learn what poor, weak creatures we are-dependent on a meal of meat for the little strength which we are so apt to lean upon.
- Prayer is a time of refreshment. Howard Taylor says of his father, Hudson Taylor, “For forty years the sun never rose on China that God didn’t find him on his knees.” (Swindoll's Ultimate Book of Ilustrations) quoting Howard Taylor in "Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission")
- Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power.
- I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working.
- Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.
- The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!
- Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.
- Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
- Prayerlessness is a sin.
- As a camel kneels before his master to have him remove his burden, so kneel and let the Master take your burden.
- Prayer brings to us blessings which we need, and which only God can give, and which prayer can alone convey to us...Prayer is simply asking God to do for us what he has promised us he will do if we ask him...
- Prayer brings to us blessings which we need, and which only God can give, and which prayer can alone convey to us..This service of prayer is not a mere rite, a ceremony through which we go, a sort of performance. Prayer is going to God for something needed and desired. Prayer is simply asking God to do for us what he has promised us he will do if we ask him...Asking is man's part. Giving is God's part. The praying belongs to us. The answer belongs to God.
Cameron Thompson
- No one can in this life pass beyond the kindergarten of prayer.
- We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.
- A prayer for self is not by any means necessarily a selfish prayer.
- How little time the average Christian spends in prayer! We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little... the power of God is lacking in our lives and in our work. We have not because we ask not.
- We should never utter one syllable of prayer either in public or in private until we are definitely conscious that we have come into the presence of God and are actually praying to Him.
- Those persons who know the deep peace of God, the unfathomable peace that passeth all understanding, are always men and women of much prayer.
- I prayed fifteen years for the conversion of my oldest brother. When he seemed to be getting further and further away from any hope of conversion, I prayed on.
- Pray for great things, expect great things, work for great things, but above all, pray.
- If we would pray aright, the first thing we should do is to see to it that we really get an audience with God, that we really get into His very presence. Before a word of petition is offered, we should have the definite consciousness that we are talking to God, and should believe that He is listening and is going to grant the thing that we ask of Him.
- The reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came...Anticipate your battles; fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will always have victory.
- Out of a very intimate acquaintance with D. L. Moody, I wish to testify that he was a far greater pray-er than he was preacher. Time and time again, he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable, but he always knew the way to overcome all difficulties. He knew the way to bring to pass anything that needed to be brought to pass. He knew and believed in the deepest depths of his soul that nothing was too hard for the Lord, and that prayer could do anything that God could do.
- Triumphant prayer is almost impossible where there is neglect of the study of the Word of God.
- If we then let the words of Christ abide in us, they will stir us up in prayer.
- Prayer is the hand that takes to ourselves the blessings that God has already provided in His Son.
- Up in a little town in Maine,things were pretty dead some years ago. The churches were not accomplishing anything. There were a few Godly men in the churches, and they said: 'Here we are, only uneducated laymen; but something must be done in this town. Let us form a praying band. We will all center our prayers on one man. Who shall it be?' They picked out one of the hardest men in town, a hopeless drunkard, and centered all their prayers upon him. In a week, he was converted. They centered their prayers upon the next hardest man in town, and soon he was converted. Then they took up another and another, until within a year, two or three hundred were brought to God, and the fire spread out into all the surrounding country. Definite prayer for those in the prison house of sin is the need of the hour.”
- When I pray coincidences happen, and when I do not, they don’t.
- God is perfect love and perfect wisdom. We do not pray in order to change his will, but to bring our wills into harmony with his.
- How hard it is to pray against besetting sins!
- Our own personal experience can never be taken as the norm for other people. What matters is that our prayers should be living and sincere. Each of us has his own temperament; one is more intuitive, another more logical; one is more intellectual, another more emotional. The relationship of each with God will be marked with the stamp of his own particular temperament.
- People often say to me: “I don’t seem to be able to say my prayers; what ought I to do?” I reply: “Talk to God as you are talking to me; even more simply, in fact.” St. Paul writes that the truest prayer is sometimes a sigh. A sigh can say more than could be contained in many words.
- Prayer constantly enlarges our horizon and our person. It draws us out of the narrow limits within which our habits, our past, and our whole personage confine us.
- When we become too glib in prayer we are most surely talking to ourselves.
- Yes, worship of the loving God is man’s whole reason for existence.
- God does not keep office hours.
- To pray effectively we must want what God wants—that and that only is to pray in the will of God.
- The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.
- Communion with God is one thing; familiarity with God is quite another thing. I don’t even like (and this may hurt some of your feelings—but they’ll heal) I don’t even like to hear God called “you.” You is a coloquial expression. I can call a man you, but I would to call God thou and thee. Now I know these are old Elizabethan words, but I also know that there are some things too precious to cast lightly away, and I think that when we talk to God, we ought to use the pure, respectful pronouns.
- It is because of the hasty and superficial conversation with God that the sense of sin is so weak and that no motives have power to help you to hate and flee from sin as you should.
- Even the most devout seem to think they must storm heaven with loud outcries and mighty bellowings or their prayers are of no avail.
- In our private prayers and in our public services we are forever asking God to do things that he either has already done or cannot do because of our unbelief. We plead for him to speak when he has already spoken and is at that very moment speaking. We ask him to come when he is already present and waiting for us to recognize him. We beg the Holy Spirit to fill us while all the time we are preventing him by our doubts.
- In the average church we hear the same prayers repeated each Sunday year in and year out with, one would suspect, not the remotest expectation that they will be answered. It is enough, it seems, that they have been uttered. The familiar phrase, the religious tone, the emotionally loaded words have their superficial and temporary effect, but the worshiper is no nearer to God, no better morally, and no surer of heaven than he was before.
- The neglected heart will soon be a heart overrun with worldly thoughts; the neglected life will soon become a moral chaos; the church that is not jealously protected by mighty intercession and sacrificial labors will before long become the abode of every evil bird and the hiding place for unsuspected corruption. The creeping wilderness will soon take over that church that trusts in its own strength and forgets to watch and pray.
- Prayer at its best is the expression of the total life, for all things else being equal, our prayers are only as powerful as our lives. In the long pull we pray only as well as we live.
- We pour out millions of words and never notice that the prayers are not answered.
- When our requests are such as honor God, we may ask as largely as we will. The more daring the request, the more glory accrues to God when the answer comes.
- Prayer is often conceived to be little more than a technique for self-advancement, a heavenly method for achieving earthly success.
- Selfishness is never so exquisitely selfish as when it is on its knees … Self turns what would otherwise be a pure and powerful prayer into a weak and ineffective one.
- Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late - and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.
- Prayer is not so much the cause of a revival as the human preparation for one.
- He that cannot pray, let him go to sea, and there he will learn.
- It is foolish to pray against sin and then sin against prayer.
- God never denied that soul anything that went as far as heaven to ask for it.
- Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of his highest willingness. (also attributed to Martin Luther)
- At the profoundest depths in life, men talk not about God but with him.
- Do with your hearts as you do with your watches, wind them up every morning by prayer, and at night examine whether your hearts have gone true all that day.
- Faith is to prayer what the feather is to the arrow; it feathers the arrow of prayer, and makes it fly swifter, and pierce the throne of grace.
- God will fill the hungry because He Himself has stirred up the hunger. As in the case of prayer, when God prepares the heart to pray, He prepares His ear to hear (Ps. 10:17). So in the case of spiritual hunger, when God prepares the heart to hunger, He will prepare His hand to fill.
- Wind up thy heart towards heaven in the beginning of the day, and it will go the better all the day after. He that loseth his heart in the morning in the world, will hardly find it again all the day. O! Christians, let God have your morning meditations.
- God’s promises are the cork to keep faith from sinking in prayer.
- Patience in prayer is nothing but faith spun out.
- When faith sets prayer on work, prayer sets God on work.
- A wicked man in prayer may lift up his hands, but he cannot lift up his face.
- Lifeless prayer is no more prayer than the picture of a man is a man.
- The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer fetched the angel. (Acts 12:5)
- Christ went more readily ad crucem (to the cross), than we do to the throne of grace.
- The prayer that is faithless is fruitless.
- Prayer delights God's ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul
- Abandon the secret chamber and the spiritual life will decay.
- Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees. Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.
- Prayer is where the action is.
- Wesley prayed - “I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.”
- The neglect of prayer is a grand hindrance to holiness.
- God does nothing but in answer to prayer.
- Wesley’s thoughts on continual prayer speaking in the third person - [H]is heart is ever lifted up to God, at all times and in all places. In this he is never hindered, much less interrupted, by any person or thing. In retirement or company, in leisure, business, or conversation, his heart is ever with the Lord. Whether he lie down or rise up, God is in all his thoughts; he walks with God continually, having the loving eye of his mind still fixed upon Him, and everywhere “seeing Him that is invisible.”
- The man of prayer: "...his heart is ever lifted up to God, at all times and in all places. In this he is never hindered, much less interrupted, by any person or thing. In retirement or company, in leisure, business, or conversation, his heart is ever with the Lord. Whether he lie down or rise up, God is in all his thoughts; he walks with God continually, having the loving eye of his mind still fixed upon him, and everywhere 'seeing Him that is invisible.
- The greatest argument for the priority of prayer is the fact that our Lord was a Man of prayer.
- It has well been said that Christ’s life in heaven is His prayer for us. It is what He is that determines what He does. (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34)
- True prayer lays hold of God’s Word (John 15:7) and seeks to accomplish God’s purposes.
- The fact that Jesus (Ed: When on earth as the God-Man) prayed is evidence that He lived by faith.
- (In 1Ti 2:8) “holy hands” obviously this means a holy life. “Clean hands” was symbolic of a blameless life (2Sa 22:21; Ps. 24:4). If we have sin in our lives, we cannot pray and expect God to answer (Ps. 66:18).
- A good prayer for all of us is Psalm 139:23–24.
- The greatest enemy to answered prayer is unbelief.
- Is prayer to you a matter of life and death? It was to Daniel! (Daniel 6:10)
- If we are doing the will of God, prayer has tremendous power.
- When we sin, it affects our prayer life.
- Until we pray and get right with God, He will not reveal His power (2 Chron. 7:14).
- If we spent more time preparing to pray and getting our hearts right before God, our prayers would be more effective.
- A person who is constantly having trouble with other believers, who is a troublemaker rather than a peacemaker, cannot pray and get answers from God. (1Ti 2:8 "without wrath and dissension")
- Prayer is based on sonship (“Our Father”), not on friendship.
- Martin Luther once said that prayer, study, and suffering make a pastor; and this is true. We cannot be approved unless we are tested.
- Boldness in prayer is the result of faithfulness in life and service.
- “Pray without ceasing” (1Th 5:17) does not mean we must always be mumbling prayers. The word means “constantly recurring,” not continuously occurring. We are to “keep the receiver off the hook” and be in touch with God so that our praying is part of a long conversation that is not broken.
- Prayer is an act of worship, not just an expression of our wants and needs. There should be reverence in our hearts as we pray to God.
- We should not simply add our thanksgiving to the end of a selfish prayer! Thanksgiving should be an important ingredient in all of our prayers. In fact, sometimes we need to imitate David and present to God only thanksgiving with no petitions at all! (see Ps. 103:1-22)
- The late Peter Deyneka, Sr., my good friend and founder of the Slavic Gospel Association, often reminded me: “Much prayer, much power! No prayer, no power!”....Paul repeatedly asked the churches to pray for him, because gifts and training without prayer have no power to accomplish God’s will.
- Never underestimate the power of a praying church! (Ed: Here is the antithetical corollary - Never overestimate the facade of power by a non-praying church!)
- Believing prayer releases God’s power and enables God’s hand to move (Isa. 50:2; 64:1–8).
- Division in the church always hinders prayer and robs the church of spiritual power.
- I ministered for several weeks in Kenya and Zaire, and when I arrived home, I was more convinced than ever that the greatest need of missionaries and national churches is prayer.
- God works when churches pray, and Satan still trembles “when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”
- The glory of God, not the needs of men, is the highest purpose of answered prayer.
- When I was a lad in Sunday school, we occasionally sang a little chorus that I haven't heard in decades: Whisper a prayer in the morning, Whisper a prayer at noon, Whisper a prayer in the evening, To keep your heart in tune. (cp Da 6:10, Ps 55:17)
- If persistence finally paid off as a man beat on the door of a reluctant friend, how much more would persistence bring blessing as we pray to a loving Heavenly Father! After all, we are the children in the house with Him! (Luke 18:1-8)
- Persistence in prayer is not an attempt to change God’s mind (“Thy will be done”) but to get ourselves to the place where He can trust us with the answer.
- The Word of God and prayer must always go together (John 15:7). In His Word, God speaks to us and tells us what He wants to do. In prayer, we speak to Him and make ourselves available to accomplish His will. True prayer is not telling God what to do, but asking God to do His will in us and through us (1 John 5:14–15). It means getting God’s will done on earth, not man’s will done in heaven.
- Prayer is not an escape from responsibility; it is our response to God’s ability.
- True prayer energizes us for service and battle.
- Prayer and worship are perhaps the highest uses of the gift of speech.
- It is possible to pray in our hearts and never use the gift of speech (1 Sam. 1:13); but we are using words even if we don’t say them audibly. True prayer must first come from the heart, whether the words are spoken or not.
- Perhaps the deepest Christian fellowship and joy we can experience in this life is at the throne of grace, praying with and for one another.
- Perseverance in prayer does not mean we are trying to twist God’s arm, but rather that we are deeply concerned and burdened and cannot rest until we get God’s answer. (Eph 6:18b). Keep on praying until the Spirit stops you or the Father answers you. Just about the time you feel like quitting, God will give the answer.
- The Bible formula is that we pray to the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit.
- When we are praying in the Spirit, he will remind us of verses we know and give us promises to claim.
- One of the secrets of an effective prayer life is to lay hold of God’s purposes by faith (Acts 4:23–31).
- “Keep on asking … keep on seeking … keep on knocking.” In other words, don’t come to God only in the midnight emergencies, but keep in constant communion with your Father. Jesus called this “abiding” (John 15:1ff), and Paul exhorted, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17). As we pray, God will either answer or show us why He cannot answer. Then it is up to us to do whatever is necessary in our lives so that the Father can trust us with the answer.
- (There are) four obstacles to answered prayer: unbelief, willful disobedience (Ps 66:18), neglect of God's Word, and hypocrisy masked by religion.
- When we pray in the will of God, we participate in a miracle, because prayer transcends both time and space.....If we stop thinking of prayer as a miracle, our prayer life will start to falter and then cease. We will end up praying so timidly that we’re just talking to ourselves instead of to the Lord.
- Prayer is not limited by time, because we are linked to the eternal God who knows the end from the beginning. King
- If Christians would go to the Lord in prayer instead of going to their brother with criticism, there would be stronger fellowship in our churches.
- We surrender our wills to God through disciplined prayer. As we spend time in prayer, we surrender our will to God and pray, with the Lord, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” We must pray about everything, and let God have His way in everything.
- I once heard the late Jacob Stam pray, “Lord, the only thing we know about sacrifice is how to spell the word.” I wonder if today some of us can even spell the word!
- We must pray in secret before we pray in public (Mt 6:6)...it is wrong to pray in public if we are not in the habit of praying in private.
- Our public praying is only as good as our private praying, and our private praying should be secret.
- Believing prayer is one of the secrets of a fruitful Christian life.
- True prayer should humble us and make us love others more. We should be like children coming to a Father and not like attorneys bringing an indictment. If prayer doesn’t bless the one praying, it isn’t likely to help anybody else.
- If you start to pray for laborers (Mt 9:38), beware: you may become an answer to your own prayer! You pray, and then you are sent out!
- I think it was George Müeller who said that true prayer was not overcoming God’s reluctance, but overcoming God’s willingness.
- We can ask in His name as we pray (John 14:13–14; 15:16; 16:23–26). When we ask the Father for something “in the name of Jesus Christ,” it is as though Jesus Himself were asking it. If we remember this, it will help to keep us from asking for things unworthy of His name.
- Too many times we fail to get what God promises because we stop praying. It is true that we are not heard “for our much praying” (Matt. 6:7); but there is a difference between vain repetitions and true believing persistence in prayer.
- You cannot separate the Word of God and prayer, for in His Word He gives us the promises that we claim when we pray.
- God’s promises should become our prayers.
- Prayer means reminding God of His promises and claiming them for ourselves.
- God has ordained that His work is accomplished through believing prayer. But we will not be able to pray effectively if we do not claim our position as conquerors in Jesus Christ.
- Many people do not pray in their prayers. They just lazily say religious words, and their hearts are not in their prayers.
- The purpose of prayer is to glorify God.....Any request that does not glorify God’s name should not be asked in His name. (Ps 99:9)
- The better we know the Word, the more effectively we will pray (John 15:7), and the more effectively we pray, the better we will learn the Word.
- God’s hand is unable to work when our hands are defiled with sin. Our prayers accomplish nothing (Ps. 66:18), and His power is absent from our lives and ministries.
- God sometimes waits in answering prayer so that He might strengthen our patience (James 1:2–8).
- Do you find delight in prayer, or is prayer only an “emergency exercise” to get you out of trouble?
- The “prayer of faith” is a prayer offered when you know the will of God. (1Jn 5:14, 15)
- Prayer can remove affliction, if that is God’s will. But prayer can also give us the grace we need to endure troubles and use them to accomplish God’s perfect will. God can transform troubles into triumphs. (cp 2Cor 12:8, 9, 10).
- Many Christians pray that God will make them more fruitful, but they do not enjoy the pruning process that follows!
- If we don’t pray, we will faint; it’s as simple as that! (Luke 18:1)....But when we pray, we draw on the “pure air” of heaven, and this keeps us from fainting.
- When you pray, it’s an evidence of faith. The world says that seeing is believing....but Jesus says, “Believing is seeing.”
- Your prayers for your loved ones will do more good than you realize, so keep praying.
- Obedience is important to answered prayer. If we’re abiding in Christ, we will obey His Word, and then we will be able to call upon Him. (John 15:7)
- The Word and prayer must always go together. Prayer without the Word is heat without light, and the Word without prayer is light without heat! Jesus said that we need both. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).
- When you pray, be honest with God and tell Him how you really feel. Remember that Jesus knows exactly how you feel, and He understands every experience of life.
- He answers our prayers so that we might become an answer to someone else’s prayer....How wonderful it is to receive an answer to prayer. But there is something even more wonderful—to be an answer to prayer. Have you been an answer to prayer lately?
- The Christian life is the joy of answered prayer—to be able to say to someone, “God answered my prayer today,” or to hear someone say, “Thank you for praying—let me tell you what God did.”
- When an Old Testament Jew prayed, he didn’t fold his hands. He lifted them up to God in praise and in expectancy that He was going to do something. (Psalm 28:2)
- Perhaps you’ve seen the plaque that says, “Prayer changes things,” and that’s true. I’ve also seen a plaque that says, “Praise changes things,” and that also is true. It’s amazing how our whole attitude and whole outlook can be transformed by praising God.
- Lock up each day with prayer and unlock each day with praise. Praise is great medicine and will take all bitterness, envy, jealousy, and unrest out of your life.Try closing each day in prayer and opening each day with praise. Give God an opportunity to accomplish His purposes in your life.
- Too often we are content to enjoy the gift but we forget the Giver. We are quick to pray but slow to praise. When He answers your prayers, sing His praises!
- People who pray are people who praise. People who pray for God’s will in their lives are those who rejoice in His work.
- Have you learned that there can be blessing in unanswered prayer? (Ed: That is not giving us that for which we asked!)
- Pray Without Ceasing (1Th 5:17)....means to make prayer as natural to us as our regular breathing.....Prayer....should be the natural habit of our lives, the “atmosphere” in which we constantly live.
- Prayer is not always a quiet, joyful conversation with God. Sometimes it is a battle against the principalities arrayed against us.
- To get God’s ear, we must pray honestly, fervently, and submissively. We must prepare our hearts for prayer.
- If our praying doesn’t make us more like our Lord, our praying is in vain.
- (The) mark of the mature Christian: he is prayerful in troubles. Instead of giving up when troubles come, the mature believer turns to God in prayer and seeks divine help. “Taking it to the Lord in prayer” is certainly a mark of spiritual maturity.
- When we pray, we are like priests who bring acceptable sacrifices to God (Ps. 141:2); and there had better be some “fire” in our hearts to help “consume” our offering....The Old Testament priest who burned the incense on the golden altar—a picture of prayer (Ps. 141:2)—carried the fragrance with him all day, and so should we.
- James S. Stewart used Acts 27:29 to preach about the “four anchors” that sustain the believer in the storms of life: hope, duty, prayer, and the cross of Christ.
- Each morning, pray your way through that day’s schedule and tell him what you need. The day will go better. (Lam 3:25)
- Like Nehemiah, we must “keep the receiver off the hook” and send frequent messages to the Lord as we labor with the people in building the wall. There are twelve instances of prayer in the Book of Nehemiah: 1:5–10; 2:4; 4:4, 9; 5:19; 6:9, 14; 9:5–37; 13:14, 22, 29, 31.
- If all you have in the church is prayer and no Bible, you end up with lots of heat but no light, zeal without knowledge. But plenty of Bible without prayer gives you light without heat. You don’t have a church; you have a Bible school. Bible knowledge without prayer has a way of puffing people up. It takes both the Word of God and prayer to make balanced Christians and to build a balanced church.
- Prayerlessness doesn’t simply make us weak or handicapped so that our ministry is difficult. Lack of prayer paralyzes us so that we’re not able to do anything that will produce lasting fruit to the glory of God.
- The better we understand God’s Word, the better we’re able to pray; the more we pray, the more the Holy Spirit can teach us from the Word and help us obey it.
- Studying the Word for truth and praying to God for blessing on service are not competitive activities; they’re the best of friends.
- God wants prayer among His people (1 Ti 2:1ff), for true prayer is an evidence of our dependence on God and our faith in His Word.
- As the perfect Son of man, Jesus depended on His Father to meet His needs, and that was why He prayed. (Ed: Could the corollary be "Paucity of prayer reflects paltry dependence on God!")
- Jesus prayed early in the morning and he labored all the day and into the night hours—and he is our example.
- Every servant of God should follow His (Jesus') example and take time away from people in order to meet the Father and be refreshed and revitalized through prayer. (Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35, 6:46, Luke 6:12)...It was in prayer that He found His strength and power for service, and so must we.....If Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, had to depend on prayer during “the days of His flesh” (Heb. 5:7), then how much more do you and I need to pray! Effective prayer is the provision for every need and the solution for every problem.
- My friend Dr. Robert A. Cook has often said, “All of us have one routine prayer in our system; and once we get rid of it, then we can really start to pray!” I have noticed this, not only in my own praying, but often when I have conducted prayer meetings. With some people, praying is like putting the needle on a phonograph record and then forgetting about it. But God does not answer insincere prayers.
- Jesus' High Priestly Prayer in John 17:1-26 - The Scottish Reformer John Knox had this prayer read to him daily during his last illness. But you would benefit by starting now to read it and meditate on it. What a treasury of truth it is!
- When we forgive each other, we are not earning the right to prayer; for the privilege of prayer is a part of our sonship (Rom. 8:15–16). Forgiveness belongs to the matter of fellowship: If I am not in fellowship with God, I cannot pray effectively. But fellowship with my brother helps to determine my fellowship with God; hence, forgiveness is important to prayer.
- John 17 is certainly the “holy of holies” of the Gospel record, and we must approach this chapter in a spirit of humility and worship. To think that we are privileged to listen in as God the Son converses with His Father just as He is about to give His life as a ransom for sinners!
- Harvesting is hard work, even when there are many people helping you, but these men were sent into a vast field with very few workers to help them reap a great harvest. Instead of praying for an easier job, they were to pray for more laborers to join them, and we today need to pray that same prayer. (Please note that it is laborers, not spectators, who pray for more laborers! Too many Christians are praying for somebody else to do a job they are unwilling to do themselves.) (Luke 10:2)
- Demons even believe in prayer, for they begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss, the place of torment (Mark 5:7; Luke 8:31). It is encouraging to note that the demons did not know what Jesus planned to do. This suggests that Satan can know God’s plans only if God reveals them.
- The important thing about prayer is not simply getting an answer, but being the kind of person whom God can trust with an answer.
- What “tools” does God use, by His Spirit, to work in our lives? There are three “tools”: the Word of God, prayer, and suffering.
- It is not necessary for you to pray for “an anointing of the Spirit”; if you are a Christian, you have already received this special anointing (1Jn 2:27). This anointing “abides in us” and therefore does not need to be imparted to us.
- If our prayer life is confused, it is because the mind is confused.
- Prayer is not only the utterance of the lips; it is also the desire of the heart.
- God leads us into His will through prayer and the working of His Spirit in our hearts. As we pray about a decision, the Spirit speaks to us. An “inner voice” may agree with the leading of circumstances. We are never to follow this “inner voice” alone: we must always test it by the Bible, for it is possible for the flesh (or for Satan) to use circumstances—or “feelings”—to lead us completely astray.
- There is no place in the Christian life for lazy, listless routine praying. We must have an alert attitude and be on guard, just like the workers in Nehemiah’s day (Neh. 4:9).
- When the believer is yielded to the Spirit, then the Spirit will assist him in his prayer life, and God will answer prayer.
- A Christian who has his heart fixed on Christ and is trying to glorify Him is praying constantly even when he is not conscious of it.
- In view of television (Ed: And Internet), perhaps every Christian’s prayer ought to be, “Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity” (Ps. 119:37).
- Sometimes we try to make our gossip sound “spiritual” by telling people things “so they might pray more intelligently.” (Ed: Or even worse sometimes we simply pray our gossip!)
- The Jews looked on the temple primarily as a place of sacrifice, but Jesus saw it as a place of prayer. True prayer is in itself a sacrifice to God (Ps. 141:1–2). Jesus had a spiritual view of the Jewish religion, while the leaders promoted a traditional view that was cluttered with rules and regulations.
- In our public praying, we sometimes get so familiar that other people wonder whether we are trying to express our requests or impress the listeners with our nearness to God!
- In the Bible and in church history, the people God used were people who prayed.
- Our prayers should always include thanksgiving (Col. 4:2). The Christian who is filled with the Spirit, filled with the Word, and watching in prayer will prove it by his attitude of appreciation and thanksgiving to God.
- Prayer is not our trying to change God’s mind. It is learning what is the mind of God and asking accordingly (1 John 5:14–15).
- Supplication (is) an earnest sharing of our needs and problems. There is no place for halfhearted, insincere prayer! Supplication is not a matter of carnal energy but of spiritual intensity (Rom. 15:30; Col. 4:12).
- I believe that earnest prayer is the greatest need in our churches today.
- Prayer is not telling God what we want and then selfishly enjoying it. Prayer is asking God to use us to accomplish what He wants so that His name is glorified, His kingdom is extended and strengthened, and His will is done. I must test all of my personal requests by these overruling concerns if I expect God to hear and answer my prayers.
- Selfish praying erodes our character, but praying in the will of God builds our character.
- Sometimes we hear a believer pray, “O Lord, humble me!” That is a dangerous thing to pray. Far better that we humble ourselves before God, confess our sins, weep over them, and turn from them. (Isa 66:2, Ps 34:18)
- Sometimes we use prayer as a cloak to hide our true desires. “But I prayed about it!” can be one of the biggest excuses a Christian can use. Instead of seeking God’s will, we tell God what He is supposed to do; and we get angry at Him if He does not obey.
- Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary, Bill Moyers, was saying grace at a staff lunch, and the President shouted, “Speak up, Bill! I can’t hear a thing!” Moyers quietly replied, “I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.” It is good to remind ourselves that when we pray, we talk to God.
- I heard about a church member who prayed long at each prayer meeting and always closed by saying, “And, Lord, take the cobwebs out of my life.” One of the men in the group had gotten weary of hearing this and one night called out, “And, Lord, while you’re at it, kill the spider!”
- The greatest and best talent that God gives to any man or woman in the world is the talent of prayer.
- Every kind of prayer, not intercessory prayer only, which is the highest kind of prayer, but all prayer, from the lowest kind to the highest, is impossible in a life of known and allowed sin
- “I have known men,” says Goodwin—it must have been himself—“who came to God for nothing else but just to come to Him, they so loved Him. They scorned to soil Him and themselves with any other errand than just purely to be alone with Him in His presence. Friendship is best kept up, even among men, by frequent visits; and the more free and defecate those frequent visits are, and the less occasioned by business, or necessity, or custom they are, the more friendly and welcome they are.”
- No prayer!--No faith!--No Christ in the heart. Little prayer!--Little faith!--Little Christ in the heart. Increasing prayer!--Increasing faith!--Increasing Christ in the heart! Much prayer!--Much faith!--Much Christ in the heart! Praying always!--Faith always!--Christ always!
- We are tempted to pray before preaching, because we are afraid at the people and at our work; but prayer for ourselves and the people after preaching is much neglected.
- You preached today as though you came from the throne of heaven,” a church officer said to Alexander Whyte one Lord’s Day. Whyte quietly replied, “Maybe I did.”
Kenneth L Wilson
- To pray “in Jesus’ name” means to pray in his spirit, in his compassion, in his love, in his outrage, in his concern. In other words, it means to pray a prayer that Jesus himself might pray.
- Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer.
- Every chain that spirits wear
Crumbles in the breath of prayer.
God bestows many things on us out of his liberality, even without our asking for them. But that he wishes to bestow certain things on us at our asking is for the sake of our good, that we may acquire confidence in having recourse to God, and that we may recognize in him the Author of our goods.
SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
God never ceases to speak to us, but the noise of the world without and the tumult of our passions within bewilder us and prevent us from listening to him.
FRANÇOIS FÉNELON
God puts his ear so closely down to your lips that he can hear your faintest whisper. It is not God away off up yonder; it is God away down here, close up—so close up that when you pray to him, it is more a whisper than a kiss.
THOMAS DE WITT TALMAGE
God’s way of answering the Christian’s prayer for more patience, experience, hope, and love often is to put him into the furnace of affliction.
RICHARD CECIL
He who does not pray when the sun shines will not know how to pray when the clouds roll in.
He who fails to pray does not cheat God. He cheats himself.
GEORGE FAILING
He who labors as he prays, lifts his heart to God with his hands.
BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
How can you expect God to speak in that gentle and inward voice which melts the soul when you are making so much noise with your rapid reflections?
FRANÇOIS FÉNELON
How marvelous that I, a filthy clod,
May yet hold friendly converse with my God!
ANGELUS SILESIUS
I don’t want to keep a prayer list but to pray, nor agonize to find your will but to obey.
JOSEPH BAYLY
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.
JEAN INGELOW
Good prayers never come creeping home. I am sure I shall receive either what I ask or what I should ask.
JOSEPH HALL
I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand what we are praying for.
ANGELINA GRIMKÉ
God fills our heart with peace when we pour out our heart to Him.
I need to stop talking about prayer—and pray.
BERTHA MUNRO
If God bores you, tell him that he bores you; that you prefer the vilest amusements to his presence; that you only feel at your ease when you are far from him.
FRANÇOIS FÉNELON
If we knew how to listen to God, we should hear him speaking to us, for God does speak. He speaks in his gospel; he speaks also through life—that new gospel to which we ourselves add a page each day.
MICHEL QUOIST
If you are swept off your feet, it’s time to get on your knees.
FREDERICK BECK
If you can beat the devil in the matter of regular daily prayer, you can beat him anywhere. If he can beat you there, he can possibly beat you anywhere.
PAUL DANIEL RADER
If your day is hemmed with prayer, it is less likely to unravel.
I’ve prayed many prayers when no answer came, I’ve waited patient and long; But answers have come to enough of my prayers To make me keep praying on.
If your knees are shaking, kneel on them.
CHARLES L. ALLEN
In the morning prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under his protection and safeguard.
Anonymous
Prayer is a habit of attention brought to bear on all that is.
Patricia Hampl
Will petitions that do not move the heart of the suppliant, move the heart of Omnipotence?
ANONYMOUS
It is not that prayer changes God, or awakens in him purposes of love and compassion that he has not already felt. No, it changes us, and therein lies its glory and its purpose.
HANNAH HURNARD
It is said of James, the head of the community in Jerusalem, that the skin of his knees was as hard as a camel’s from constantly praying, and that he could pray for days together. To our age that may seem laughable; but one should remember what eloquence and fullness of heart is implied by being able to pray for so long without growing tired, particularly as we have difficulty enough in making a truly heartfelt prayer.
SØREN AABYE KIERKEGAARD
Jesus often retired to deserted places to pray. We see him spending nights in prayer. When you visit the Holy Land and see the places he prayed, you realize that it took a significant effort for him to get there. He had to leave the crowds that were beginning to inundate him. And it was work to climb a mountain to pray. The Mount of Transfiguration is a difficult mountain to climb.
JOHN MICHAEL TALBOT
More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
Most of us have much trouble praying when we are in little trouble, but we have little trouble praying when we are in much trouble.
RICHARD P. COOK
Neglect of prayer is a guarantee that we will not be victors.
RICHARD OWEN ROBERTS
Too many people pray like little boys who knock at doors, then run away.
War Cry
No one can say his prayers are poor prayers when he is using the language of love.
JOHN MAILLARD
No prayer of adoration will ever soar higher than a simple cry: “I love you, God.”
LOUIS CASSELS
Only when we have knelt before God can we stand before men.
In the life of Jesus, prayer was the work and ministry was the prize. For me, prayer serves as preparation for the battle, but for Jesus, it was the battle itself. Having prayed, He went about His ministry as an honor student might go to receive a reward, or as a marathon runner, having run the race, might accept the gold medal.
HADDON ROBINSON
Our prayer and God’s mercy are like two buckets in a well; while the one ascends the other descends.
MARK HOPKINS
Ponder for a moment what great crises would face you if tomorrow all your prayers were answered.
FRANCES J. ROBERTS
Pray devoutly, but hammer stoutly.Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Prayer does not change God, but changes him who prays.
SØREN AABYE KIERKEGAARD
Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength.
Prayer is a ladder on which thoughts mount to God.
ABRAHAM J. HESCHEL
If the request is wrong, God says, “No.” If the timing is wrong, God says, “Slow.” If you are wrong, God says, “Grow.” But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, “Go!”
Bill Hybels
Prayer is a supernatural activity.
LOUIS EVELY
Prayer is battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer.
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
Prayer is identifying oneself with the divine will by the stuied renunciation of one’s own.
PAUL CLAUDEL
Prayer is not a lazy substitute for work. It is not a shortcut to skill or knowledge. And sometimes God delays the answer to our prayer in final form until we have time to build up the strength, accumulate the knowledge, or fashion the character that would make it possible for him to say yes to what we ask.
SAMUEL PEPYS
Prayer is not something we do at a specific time, but something we do all the time.
RICHARD OWEN ROBERTS
Prayer is not to hear oneself speak, but to arrive at silence and continue being silent; to wait till one hears God speak.
SØREN AABYE KIERKEGAARD
Prayer is putting oneself under God’s influence.
HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK
Prayer is the breath of the newborn soul, and there can be no Christian life without it.
Rowland Hill
The history of missions is the history of answered prayer. From Pentecost to the Haystack meeting in New England and from the days when Robert Morrison landed in China to the martyrdom of John and Betty Stam, prayer has been the source of power and the secret of spiritual triumph.
Samuel Marinus Zwemer
Prayer is the gymnasium of the soul.
Samuel Marinus Zwemer
Prayer is the link between finite man and the infinite purposes of God.....To pray in the truest sense means to put our lives into total conformity with what God desires.
Pat Robertson
In my thinking, the "prayer of faith" cannot be prayed simply at will. It is given of God in certain cases to serve His purpose and to accomplish His sovereign will.
George Sweeting.
Prayer is weakness leaning on omnipotence.
W. S. Bowden
Prayer moves the arm which moves the world,
And brings salvation down.
James Montgomery
Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue.
Adam Clarke
Prayer serves as an edge and border to preserve the web of life from unraveling.
Robert Hall
Quiet waiting before the Lord in prayer will give him a chance to change your mood. The situation may not change, but you will have changed for the better in spite of the situation.
ROBERT A. COOK
Some of our shortest prayers are our most effectual ones.
V R Edman
Some people are greedy even when they pray: they expect a thousand-dollar answer to a one-minute prayer.
Take prayer out of the world, and it is as if you had torn asunder the bond that binds humanity to God and had struck dumb the tongue of the child in the presence of his Father.
Gustav T Fechner
Talk to him in prayer of all your wants, your troubles, even of the weariness you feel in serving him. You cannot speak too freely, too trustfully to him.
Francois Fenelon
Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart to a dear friend. People who have no secrets from each other never want subjects of conversations; they do not weigh their words because there is nothing to be kept back.
Francois Fenelon
The good unask’d, in mercy grant;
The ill, though ask’d, deny.
James Merrick
The holy time is quiet
Breathless with adoration
The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the sea;
Listen!
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
The immediate person thinks and imagines that when he prays, the important thing, the thing he must concentrate upon, is that God should hear what he is praying for. And yet in the true, eternal sense it is just the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he is the one who hears, who hears what God wills. The immediate person uses many words and makes demands in his prayer; the true man of prayer only attends.
SØREN AABYE KIERKEGAARD
The man who says his prayers in the evening is a captain posting his sentries. After that, he can sleep.
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
More like Jesus when I pray,
More like Jesus day by day
May I rest me by His side,
Where the tranquil waters glide
Fanny Crosby
No greater help and care is given
To others in their need
Than when we bear them up in prayer
And for them intercede.
- Dennis J. De Haan
Dr. John R. Rice wrote a book on prayer with 'Asking and Receiving' in the title. We like the receiving part but often forget that 'asking' comes before 'receiving.'
There is a divine principle in regard to prayer which runs all through the Scriptures. It is that God is pleased to unite His people with Himself in whatever He is about to do. He first of all leads them to pray, and then does what He intends in answer to their prayers.
RUSSELL ELLIOTT
David Watson notes that “Prayer has always been a primary mark of the saints of God in every generation of the church. George Whitefield, who retired punctually at ten p.m. every night, rose equally promptly at four a.m. in order to pray.
The world is full of faces, black with anger, green with envy, and red with shame, which could be made radiantly white with holiness and spirituality, aglow by the transfiguring power of prayer.
SAMUEL HENRY PRICE
To God we use the simplest, shortest words we can find because eloquence is only air and noise to him.
FREDERICK WILLIAM ROBERTSON
To pray is to expose the shores of the mind to the incoming tide of God.
RALPH WASHINGTON SOCKMAN
Nothing can so quickly cancel the frictions of life as prayer. If you find yourself growing angry at someone, pray for him—anger cannot live in an atmosphere of prayer.
WILLIAM T MCELROY
To spend an hour worrying on our knees is not prayer. Indeed, there are times when it is our duty, having committed a problem to God in prayer, to stop praying and to trust and to do the necessary work to arrive at a solution.
OLIVER BARCLAY
To suppose that God could not care for each of us because there are so many people in the world is to place upon him human limitations; but, let us remember, he is God, not man! If he knows our need and seeks to help us, we do not have to give him information, but we do need through prayer to place ourselves in an attitude to be helped.
GEORGIA HARKNESS
True prayer is born out of brokenness.
FRANCES J. ROBERTS
"Give to the winds thy fears, and be thou undismayed;
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears—God shall lift up thy head."
Paul Gerhardt
It's not enough to say a prayer, we have to live one too!
We, on our side, are praying to God to give us victory because we believe we are right; but those on the other side pray him, too, for victory, believing they are right. What must he think of us?
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
When God inclines the heart to pray,
He hath an ear to hear;
To him there’s music in a groan
And beauty in a tear.
When I can neither see, nor hear, nor speak, still I can pray so that God can hear. When I finally pass through the valley of the shadow of death, I expect to pass through it in conversation with him.
SIR WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL
When you cannot pray as you would, pray as you can.
EDWARD MEYRICK GOULBURN
You will find in your “closet of prayer” what you frequently lose when you are out in the world. The more you visit it, the more you will want to return. If you are faithful to your secret place, it will become your closest friend and bring you much comfort. The tears shed there bring cleansing.
Thomas A Kempis
God can pick sense out of a confused prayer.
Richard Sibbes
Praying without faith is like shooting without a bullet; it makes a noise but does no execution.
Francis Burkitt
The man who prays without faith has a radical defect in his character.
H. W. Fulford
The prayer of faith is the only power in the universe to which the great Jehovah yields.
Robert Hall
Many a person is praying for rain with his tub the wrong side up.
Sam Jones
We lie to God in prayer if we do not rely on him afterwards.
Robert Leighton
Faith is the fountain of prayer, and prayer should be nothing else but faith exercised.
Thomas Manton
What an excellent ground of hope and confidence we have when we reflect upon these three things in prayer—the Father’s love, the Son’s merit and the Spirit’s power!
Thomas Manton
All the storehouses of God are open to the voice of faith in prayer.
D. M. McIntyre
God may turn his ears from prattling prayers, or preaching prayers, but never from penitent, believing prayers.
William S. Plumer
A saint is to put forth his faith in prayer, and after-wards follow his prayer with faith.
Vavasor Powell
Dear Lord, never let me be afraid for the impossible.
Dorothy Shellenberger
Large asking and large expectation on our part honour God.
A. L. Stone
More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
By fasting, the body learns to obey the soul; by praying the soul learns to obey the body.
William Secker
Prayer is the gymnasium of the soul.
Samuel Marinus Zwemer
Fasting is calculated to bring a note of urgency and importance into our praying, and to give force to our pleading in the court of heaven. The man who prays with fasting is giving heaven notice that he is truly in earnest.
Arthur Wallis
Few disciplines go against the flesh and the mainstream of culture as this one.
Donald S. Whitney
Without a purpose, fasting can be a miserable, self-centred experience.
Donald S. Whitney
Prayer is my chief work, and it is by means of it that I carry on the rest.
Thomas Hooker,
"Work and pray!" a slogan blest,
Means: ask His help, but do YOUR best!
G.W.
Prayer comes from God and … all the time God is training us to pray.
lain H. Murray
D L Moody had a practical mind that never let a meeting get out of hand. Long public prayers particularly irritated him. Once he told his song leader, Sankey, "Lead us in a hymn while our brother is finishing his prayer."
George Sweeting
Ten minutes spent in the presence of Christ every day, aye, two minutes, will make the whole day different."
Henry Drummond
One can form a habit of study until the will seems to be at rest and only the intellect is engaged, the will having retired altogether from exercise. This is not true of real praying. If the affections are laggard, cold, indifferent, if the intellect is furnishing no material to clothe the petition with imagery and fervor, the prayer is a mere vaporing of intellectual exercise, nothing being accomplished worth while.
Homer W. Hodge
Never tell me of a humble heart where I see a stubborn knee.
Thomas Adams
The life of prayer shapes the unity of Christian morality.
Carl F H Henry
Before the Great War there were many signs of a new interest in PRAYER and new hope from its exercise. How these signs have multiplied is known to every one. This one thing at least that is good the War has done for us already. Let us not miss our opportunity. Prayer is not an easy exercise. It requires encouragement, exposition, and training. There never was a time when men and women were more sincerely anxious to be told how to pray. Prayer is the mightiest instrument in our armory, and if we are to use it as God has given the encouragement, we must do everything in our power to bring it into exercise.
James Hastings.
The secret of all failure is our failure in secret prayer.
The Kneeling Christian
Most of modern man’s troubles stem from too much time on his hands and not enough on his knees.
Ivern Boyett
Whoever only speaks of God, but never or seldom to God, easily leases body and soul to idols. The Christian thus places his whole future in jeopardy by a stunted prayer life.
CARL F. H. HENRY
Prayer as a means to effect a private end is theft and meanness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dealing in generalities is the death of prayer.
J. H. Evans
Leave not off praying to God; for either praying will make thee leave off sinning, or continuing in sin will make thee desist from praying.
Thomas Fuller
Prayer is never an excuse for laziness.
Gerald B. Griffiths
Satan rocks the cradle when we sleep at our devotions.
Joseph Hall
A heap of unmeaning words only smothers the words of devotion.
J. Hamilton
The sin of failing to come to God in prayer is one of the most common offences a Christian commits.
Simon J. Kistemaker
Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray—to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight—all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word ‘concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.
Robert E. Lee
If we be empty and poor, it is not because God’s hand is straitened, but ours is not opened.
Thomas Manton
When we make self the end of prayer, it is not worship but self-seeking.
Thomas Manton
Prayer is not a way to get what we want but the way to become what God wants.
Means without prayer is presumption. Prayer without means is tempting God.
Al Martin
Saying prayers without praying is blasphemy.
Brownlow North
The very breath of prayer sustains the Christian life.
Carl F H Henry
We may as well not pray at all as offer our prayers in a lifeless manner.
William S. Plumer
Satan is far more anxious to keep us off our knees than he is to keep us off our feet!
Ivor Powell
No prayers can be heard which do not come from a forgiving heart.
J. C. Ryle
The men that will change the colleges and seminaries here represented are the men that will spend the most time alone with God. It takes time for the fires to burn. It takes time for God to draw near and for us to know that He is there. It takes time to assimilate His truth. You ask me, How much time? I do not know. I know it means time enough to forget time.
John Mott
Yank some of the groans out of your prayers, and shove in some shouts.
Billy Sunday
The president of International Concerts of Prayer, David Bryant, told of arriving in a major city to help conduct a time of prayer. As he entered the building where the meeting was to take place, he noticed that the huge hall was being shared by another event. In one room was the prayer meeting; in the other room there was going to be a boxing match. Two signs greeted visitors, each with arrows pointing the way. In bold letters, one said BOXING; the other said PRAYER. Bryant said it occurred to him that this was the first time he had ever been in a situation where people had to choose between boxing and wrestling (cp Ge 32:24, 25, 26-30)
Sincerity is the prime requisite in every approach to the God who requires ‘truth in the inward parts’ and who hates all hypocrisy, falsehood and deceit.
Geoffrey B. Wilson
If you would have God hear you when you pray, you must hear him when he speaks.|
Thomas Brooks
Pray, and then start answering your prayer.
Deane Edwards
None can pray well but he that lives well.
Thomas Fuller
If you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any persons better than Christ, or any indulgence better than the hope of heaven--take alarm.
Thomas Guthrie
The Book of Common Prayer is a guide to intercession and worship which contains a marvelous prayer for internalizing the Bible: “Blessed Lord, Who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them (cp meditate on), that, by patience and comfort of Thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which Thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen." (Ref)
Honest dealing becomes us when we kneel in God’s pure presence.
David McIntyre
Intercessory Prayer is a powerful means of grace to the praying man. Martyn observes that at times of inward dryness and depression, he had often found a delightful revival in the act of praying for others for their conversion, or sanctification, or prosperity in the work of the Lord. His dealings with God for them about these gifts and blessings were for himself the divinely natural channel of a renewed insight into his own part and lot in Christ, into Christ as his own rest and power, into the “perfect freedom” of an entire yielding of himself to his Master for His work
Handley C. G. Moule.
The decisive preparation for prayer lies not in the prayer itself, but in the life prior to the prayer.
Handley C. G. Moule
He who prays as he ought will endeavour to live as he prays.
John Owen
If we are not right, our prayers cannot be.
James Philip
It is what we are when we pray our prayers that counts with God.
James Philip
The cardinal element in true prayer is no mere outward ritual but the inward, moral state of the one who prays.
James Philip
Where there is no vision of eternity, there is no prayer for the perishing.
David Smithers
Every prayer should begin with the confession that our lips are unclean.
Friedrich Tholuck
Trouble and perplexity drive us to prayer, and prayer driveth away trouble and perplexity.
Many of us cannot reach the mission fields on our feet, but we can reach them on our knees.
T. J. Bach
To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the spirit of the world.
Karl Barth
The highest attitude in prayer is not desire nor aspiration nor praise. It is surrender. In surrender we open our whole being to God as a flower opens itself to the sun, and we are filled, up to our measure, with His divine energy. It is because man can be filled with the fullness of God that he has been chosen of God as His instrument in the world.
The principal cause of my leanness and unfruitfulness is owing to an unaccountable backwardness to pray. I can write or read or converse or hear with a ready heart; but prayer is more spiritual and inward than any of these, and the more spiritual any duty is the more my carnal heart is apt to start from it.
RICHARD NEWTON
Prayer is not something to be added after other approaches in our search for the will of God have been tried and have failed. No, we should pray as we use the personal resources God has given us.
T. B. MASTON
Did any of you, parents, ever hear your child wake from sleep with some panic fear and shriek the mother's name through the darkness? Was not that a more powerful appeal than all words? And, depend upon it, that the soul which cries aloud on God, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," though it have "no language but a cry," will never call in vain.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
The best Christian is he that is the greatest monopolizer of time for private prayer.
Thomas Brooks
What a privilege it would be to talk privately with the president of the United States! Yet believers can choose at any time to enjoy an infinitely greater privilege -- fellowship with the King of kings.
What is the life of a Christian but a life of prayer?
David Brown
The Christian will find his parentheses for prayer even in the busiest hours of life.
Richard Cecil
Our prayer and God's mercy are like two buckets in a well; while one ascends, the other descends.
Arthur Hopkins
To speak for God to men is a sacred and responsible task. To speak for men to God is not less responsible and is more solemn.
Robert Dabney
Let us advance upon our knees.
JOHN HARDY NEESIMA
Even if no command to pray had existed, our very weakness would have suggested it.
François Fenelon
Time spent in prayer is never wasted.
François Fenelon
Yes, there is only one thing that will save us in this hour of desperation, and that is prayer.
Stephen Olford
Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.
Thomas Fuller
Prayer is the breath of the new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it.
Rowland Hill
I have many times been driven to my knees by the utter conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
Abraham Lincoln
Since the Holy Spirit makes intercession for the infirmed saints according to God's will, who are we to pray any other way? (Ro 8:22-27).
George Sweeting.
Men of God are always men of prayer.
Henry T. Mahan
Prayer is not manipulating God to get what we want but discovering what He wants us to do, and then asking the Holy Spirit to enable us to do His will.
V C Grounds
Prayer is to religion what thinking is to philosophy.
Novalis
I am only as tall as I am on my knees.
Stephen Olford
I had rather learn what some men really judge about their own justification from their prayers than their writings.
John Owen
The function of prayer is to set God at the center of attention.
Albert Edward Day
If we can bring our woes before God in prayer we have done the best possible thing.
William S. Plumer
Satan is far more anxious to keep us off our knees than he is to keep us off our feet.
Ivor Powell
What is the reason that some believers are so much brighter and holier than others? I believe the difference, in nineteen cases out of twenty, arises from different habits about private prayer. I believe that those who are not eminently holy pray little, and those who are eminently holy pray much.
Sir Walter Raleigh one day asking a favor from Queen Elizabeth, the latter said to him, 'Raleigh, when will you leave off begging?' To which he answered, 'When your Majesty leaves off giving.' Ask great things of God. Expect great things from God. Let his past goodness make us 'instant in prayer.'" (Ro 12:12KJV)
Prayer is the world in tune.
Henry Vaughan
If we ever forget our basic charter—‘My house is a house of prayer’—we might as well shut the church doors.
James S. Stewart
A prayerless man is a careless man.
William W. Tiptaft
I want to be begging mercy every hour.
William Tiptaft
A prayerless Christian should be a nonexistent species.
Geoff Treasure
It is significant that there is no record of the Lord teaching his disciples how to preach; but he took time to teach them how to pray and how not to pray.
L A T Van Dooren
The language of prayer is forged in the crucible of trouble. When we can’t help ourselves and call for help, when we don’t like where we are and want out, when we don’t like who we are and want a change, we use primal language, and this language becomes the root language of prayer.
Eugene Peterson
Prayer should be fundamental, not supplemental.
William J. C. White
Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.
William Wilberforce
Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean.
William Wilberforce
Lay no weight on the quantity of your prayers; that is to say, how long or how many they are. These things avail nothing with God, by whom prayers are not measured, but weighed.
Thomas Boston
It was a season of prayer with John ("Praying") Hyde that made me realize what real prayer was. I owe to him more than I owe to any man for showing me what a prayer life is and what a real consecrated life is. Jesus Christ became a new ideal to me, and I had a glimpse of His prayer life, and I had a longing which has remained to this day to be a real praying man.
J Wilbur Chapman
God does not, it seems to us, frequently yield up his blessing to us till we have spent a reasonable length of time in his presence.
Maurice Roberts
Time spent with God in the secret place is never the cause of spiritual inefficiency.
Maurice Roberts
Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness or else forgiving another.
JEAN PAUL RICHTER
Prayer is the rope up in the belfry; we pull it, and it rings the bell up in heaven.
Christmas Evans
The man who kneels to God can stand up to anything.
Louis H. Evans
Prayer moves the Hand which moves the world.
JOHN A. WALLACE
Prayer is the key to heaven’s treasures.
John Gerhard
Prayer is the sovereign remedy.
Robert Hall
Within God’s limitations prayer is unlimited.
E. F. Hallock
Prayer is the slender sinew that moves the muscle of omnipotence.
J. Edwin Hartill
Depend upon it, if you are bent on prayer, the devil will not leave you alone. He will molest you, tantalize you, block you, and will surely find some hindrances, big or little or both. And we sometimes fail because we are ignorant of his devices…I do not think he minds our praying about things if we leave it at that. What he minds, and opposes steadily, is the prayer that prays on until it is prayed through, assured of the answer.
Mary Warburton Booth
The efficacy of prayer depends on uprightness of life and motive, wholehearted and sustained earnestness in the person praying, and how far it conforms to God’s revealed purposes and ways.
J I Packer
Men who know their God are before anything else men who pray.
J I Packer
I had rather stand against the cannons of the wicked than against the prayers of the righteous.
Thomas Lye
I can take my telescope and look millions of miles into space; but I can go away to my room and in prayer get nearer to God and heaven than I can when assisted by all the telescopes of earth.
Isaac Newton
When prayers are strongest, mercies are nearest.
Edward Reynolds
The prayers of the Christian are secret, but their effect cannot be hidden.
Howard Chandler Robbins
I know no blessing so small as to be reasonably expected without prayer, nor any so great but may be obtained by it.
Robert South
Time spent on the knees in prayer will do more to remedy heart strain and nerve worry than anything else.
George D. Stewart
God’s timing - God does not depend on our time. Our time is chronological and linear but God....is timeless. He will act at the fullness of His time. Our prayer....may not necessarily rush God into action, but....places us before Him in fellowship.
Samuel Enyia
The power of prayer consists in the knowledge that God is our God.
Friedrich Tholuck
The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe.
Augustus M. Toplady
The strongest knees are those which bend most easily.
Mary S. Wood
Theology and prayer are inextricably intertwined.
Richard Bewes
God loves to be consulted.
Charles Bridges
Prayer is the barometer of the church.
Thomas V. Moore
All the prayers in the Scripture you will find to be reasoning with God, not a multitude of words heaped together.
Stephen Charnock
True prayer is rooted in the promises and covenants of God, in his past achievements, in his ability to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
Bob Cotton
Prayer is receiving what God has promised.
E. F. Hallock
Intercession is truly universal work for the Christian. No place is closed to intercessory prayer. No continent - no nation - no organization - no city - no office. There is no power on earth that can keep intercession out.
Richard Halverson
We are to pray only for what God has promised, and for the communication of it unto us in that way whereby he will work it and effect it.
John Owen
Believing prayer never asks more than is promised.
William S. Plumer
The reason why we obtain no more in prayer is because we expect no more. God usually answers us according to our own hearts.
Richard Alleine
Prayer’s perplexities are most often camouflaged discoveries, there for the making.
Donald Cranefield
I have learned that God’s silence to my questions is not a door slammed in my face. I may not have the answers—but I do have him.
Dave Dravecky
Prayer is warfare. Just getting there is half the battle. Staying there is the other half.
God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
All my life I have risen regularly at four o'clock and have gone into the woods and talked to God. There He gives me my orders for the day.
George Washington Carver
God has not always answered my prayers. If he had, I would have married the wrong man—several times!
Ruth Bell Graham
I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.
Jean Ingelow
How good is God to deny us mercies in mercy!
William Jenkyn
If you can’t pray a door open, don’t pry it open.
Lyell Rader
What God sovereignly decrees in eternity, men will always demand in time.
Anon.
Prayer is the preface to the book of Christian living, the text of the new life sermon, the girding on of the armor for battle, the pilgrim's preparation for his journey; and it must be supplemented by action or it amounts to nothing.
Anon
[About Praying (John) Hyde] He prayed as if God were at his elbow.
Anon
God’s sovereignty does not negate our responsibility to pray, but rather makes it possible to pray with confidence.
Jerry Bridges
We ask what we think to be best; God gives what he knows to be best.
William Burkitt
Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them."
John Calvin
Since this is a holy exercise both for the humbling of men and for their confession of humility, why should we use it less than the ancients did?
John Calvin
To pray rightly is a rare gift.
John Calvin
Doubtful prayer is no prayer at all.
John Calvin
Prayer is the chief exercise of faith.
John Calvin
Prayer flows from doctrine.
John Calvin
God can never be expected to undertake a cause which is unworthy of defence.
John Calvin
We are not at liberty in calling upon God to follow the suggestions of our own mind and will, but must seek God only in so far as he has invited us to approach him.
John Calvin
God always answers us in the deeps, never in the shallows of our soul.
Amy Carmichael
God answers only the requests which he inspires.
Ralph A. Herring
Did not God sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask, we should be ruined at our own request.
Hannah More
In prayer, while we seek in appearance to bend God’s will to ours, we are in reality bringing our will to his.
J. M. Neale
Don’t pray to escape trouble. Don’t pray to be comfortable in your emotions. Pray to do the will of God in every situation. Nothing else is worth praying for.
Samuel Shoemaker
Every true prayer is a variation on the theme ‘Thy will be done.’
John R. W. Stott
Prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God, or bending his will to ours, but the prescribed way of subordinating our will to his.
John R. W. Stott
Hymns and Poems on Prayer
Hymns related to prayer (194 hymns) - Cyberhymnal
Since prayer is God's most gracious plan
Whereby He links Himself with man,
Should not His own more often say
To one another, "Let us pray"?
Sterling
Approach, my soul, the mercy seat
Where Jesus answers prayer;
There humbly fall before his feet,
For none can perish there.
John Newton
When we disclose our wants in prayer,
May we our wills resign;
That not a thought may enter there
Which is not wholly thine.
Joseph Dacre Carlyle
Commit to pray and intercede—
The battle’s strong and great’s the need;
And this one truth can’t be ignored:
Our only help comes from the Lord.
Sper
He Will Answer Every Prayer
God has given you His promise,
That He hears and answers prayer,
He will heed your supplication
If you cast on Him your care.
Bernstecher
Day by day, dear God, of you three things we pray:
to see you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
follow you more nearly,
day by day.
Amen.
I need the prayers of those I love
While traveling on life’s rugged way,
That I may true and faithful be,
And live for Jesus every day.
Vaughn
Faith looks across the storm—it does not doubt
Or stop to look at clouds and things without.
Faith does not question why when all His ways
Are hard to understand, but trusts and prays.
Anon.
The Master's Will, for this I Pray
The Master's will, for this I pray, Whatever it may be!
I do not want to miss Your best; Reveal it, Lord, to me.
My own desires may lead me wrong, I must consult my God;
His counsel will be justified, When all the way I've trod.
O soul of mine, delight in Him! His Word discern, obey!
The plan you seek to know will then unfold from day to day.
We do not live our lives alone: If I am in God's will,
The lives of others will be helped, His purpose to fulfill!
My all, O Lord, I give to You, My body, mind and soul;
May all the days that lie ahead, be under Your control.
--Frances L Hess
May those that love us, love us;
and those that don’t love us,
may God turn their hearts;
and if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
may He turn their ankles
so we’ll know them by their limping.
Irish prayer
I prayed for patience, and my prayer came true,
For many tasks were given me to do,
Demanding patience I had never known.
Each task completed found my patience grown.
I prayed for character and strength of soul,
Unmindful of the costly, bitter toll;
And there was pain to bear, and there were tears,
And character grown stronger down the years.
I prayed for inward peace of heart and mind,
A comfort I could never seem to find
Till life compelled my thoughts to turn to others
And peace I found in service to my brothers.
--Helen Lowrie Marshal
You know I say just what I think, and nothing more or less,
And, when I pray, my heart is in my prayer.
I cannot say one thing and mean another
If I can’t pray, I will not make-believe.
H W Longfellow
No greater help and care is given
To others in their need
Than when we bear them up in prayer
And for them intercede.
D J De Hann
Don't surrender faith and courage,
Neither quit the place of prayer;
For the God of earth and heaven
Always meets His children there.
Anon.
When I kneel before my Master,
I can feel His presence there,
And the load of care and sorrow
Seems much easier to bear.
Anon
There is a blessed calm at eventide
That calls me from a world of toil and care;
How restful, then, to seek some quiet nook
Where I can spend a little time in prayer.
Bullock
God answers prayer; shouldst thou complain?
Be not afraid, thou canst not ask in vain.
He only waits thy faith in Him to prove,
Doubt not His power e'en mountains to remove!
Anonymous
So lift up your heart to the heavens;
There’s a loving and kind Father there
Who offers release and comfort and peace
In the silent communion of prayer.
Anonymous
Someone prayed as I met the test
Of temptation fierce and strong;
I felt God near, He gave me rest;
Somebody prayed, I know.
Anonymous
When we call out to You, O Lord,
And wait for answers to our prayer,
Give us the patience that we need
And help us sense Your love and care.
Sper
What various hindrances we meet
In coming to the mercy-seat;
Yet who, that knows the worth of prayer,
But wishes to be often there?
William Cowper
God's ways are not like human ways,
He wears such strange disguises.
He tests us with His long delays,
And then our faith surprises!
Anon
From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth,
From the laziness that is content with half-truths,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
O God of truth, deliver us!
Anon
O Thou by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer Thyself host trod;
Lord, teach us how to pray!
J. Montgomery
When God inclines the heart to pray,
He hath an ear to hear;
To him there's music in a groan,
And beauty in a tear.
Anonymous
Lord, help us be encouragers
By praying for our friends in need;
And give us opportunities
To show them love in word and deed.
Sper
When we call out to You, O Lord,
And wait for answers to our prayer,
Give us the patience that we need
And help us sense Your love and care.
Sper
God hears us when we call to Him,
He does not miss one voice;
The knowledge that He always hears
Should cause us to rejoice.
Sper
Fountain of mercy! Whose pervading eye
Can look within and read what passes there,
Accept my thoughts for thanks; I have no words.
My soul o’erfraught with gratitude, rejects
The aid of language—Lord!—behold my heart.
Hannah More
When we approach the Lord in prayer,
We can come boldly to His throne;
His children come expectantly,
For grace and mercy will be shown.
Sper
As we resolve to live for Christ
In actions, words, and deeds,
We'll yield our anxious hearts to Him
And pray for others' needs.
Branon
How deep does it wound you when others despise
Your labor of love? Don't despair--
It's then you must view them with Spirit-filled eyes
And love your offenders with prayer.
Gustafson
When I kneel before my Master,
I can feel His presence there,
And the load of care and sorrow
Seems much easier to bear.
Anon
Lord, speak to me that I may speak,
In living echoes of thy tone.
Frances Ridley Havergal
Prayer is not artful monologue
Of voice uplifted from the sod;
It is love’s tender dialogue
Between the soul and God.
John Richard Moreland
Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear;
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.
James Montgomery
Ancient Jewish evening prayer Jesus may have known:
Lead me not into the power of transgression,
And bring me not into the power of sin,
And not into the power of iniquity,
And not into the power of temptation,
And not into the power of anything shameful.
Something of my old self—my old, bad life—
And the old Adam in me, rises up,
And will not let me pray.
H W Longfellow
He Answers
I know not by what methods rare,
But this I know, God answers prayer.
I know not when He sends the word
That tells us fervent prayer is heard.
I know it cometh soon or late;
Therefore we need to pray and wait.
I know not if the blessing sought
Will come in just the guise I thought.
I leave my prayers with Him alone
Whose will is wiser than my own.
Eliza M. Hickok
Though lines to heaven should ever be
Attuned to praying ceaselessly,
Let's take that extra special care
To guard our words in public prayer.
H G Bosch
For answered prayer we thank You, Lord;
We know You're always there
To hear us when we call on you;
We're grateful for Your care.
J. David Branon
In Jesus' name we voice our prayers—
The Bible tells us to;
But may we never use that name
To tell God what to do.
D. De Haan
Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He Himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee nay;
Therefore will not say thee nay.
Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much;
None can ever ask too much.
With my burden I begin:
Lord, remove this load of sin;
Let Thy blood, for sinners spilt,
Set my conscience free from guilt;
Set my conscience free from guilt.
Lord, I come to Thee for rest,
Take possession of my breast;
There Thy blood bought right maintain,
And without a rival reign;
And without a rival reign.
As the image in the glass
Answers the beholder's face;
Thus unto my heart appear,
Print Thine own resemblance there;
Print Thine own resemblance there.
While I am a pilgrim here,
Let Thy love my spirit cheer;
As my Guide, my Guard, my Friend,
Lead me to my journey's end;
Lead me to my journey's end.
Show me what I have to do,
Every hour my strength renew:
Let me live a life of faith,
Let me die Thy people's death;
Let me die Thy people's death.
John Newton
The more we go to God in prayer,
Intent to seek His face,
The more we'll want to be with Him
Before the throne of grace
Sper
I Didn't Have Time to Pray
I got up early one morning,
And rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish,
That I didn’t have time to pray.
Problems just tumbled about me,
And heavier came each task.
Why doesn’t God help me? I wondered.
He answered, “You didn’t ask.”
I wanted to see joy and beauty,
But the day toiled on, gray and bleak.
I wondered why God didn’t show me.
He said, “But you didn’t seek.”
I tried to come into God’s presence;
I used all my keys at the lock.
But God gently and lovingly chided,
“My child, you didn’t knock.”
I woke up early this morning,
And paused before entering the day.
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray!
-Anonymous
Oh, how oft I wake and find
I have been forgetting Thee!
I am never from Thy mind;
Thou it is that wakest me.
MacDonald
You need to talk with God today,
Your heart’s bowed down with care;
Just speak the words you have to say—
He’ll always hear your prayer.
Hess
The issue isn't how much time
We spend with God in prayer,
But seeking Him throughout each day
And knowing that He's there.
Sper
There never is a night or day
When God can’t hear us as we pray;
There is no time, there is no place
That we’re beyond His love and grace.
D. De Haan
We grasp but a thread of the garment of prayer;
We reel at the thought of His infinite care;
We cannot conceive of a God who will say:
"Be careful for nothing; in everything pray."
Farrell
Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek; give what is best.
This all my prayer shall be:
More love, O Christ, to Thee.
Prentiss
The issue isn't how much time
We spend with God in prayer,
But seeking Him throughout each day
And knowing that He's there.
Sper
Pray, always pray, the Holy Spirit pleads,
Bring to thy God thy daily, hourly needs;
All earthly things with earth shall pass away;
Prayer grasps eternity; pray - always pray!
Bickersteth
Begin the day with God;
Kneel down to Him in prayer;
Lift up thy heart to His abode,
And seek His love to share.
Dann
O give me Samuel's ear, the open ear,O Lord,
Alive and quick to hear each whisper of Thy Word;
Like him to answer at Thy call,
And to obey Thee first of all!
J. Drummond Burns
I know not by what methods rare,
But this I know: God answers prayer.
I know not if the blessing sought
Will come in just the guise I thought.
I leave my prayer to him alone
Whose will is wiser than my own.
Eliza M Hickok
Let one unceasing, earnest prayer
Be, too, for light—for strength to bear
Our portion of the weight of care,
That crushes into dumb despair,
One half the human race.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
To thy Redeemer take thy care,
And change anxiety to prayer;
His answers sweet will come at length,
And to thy soul impart new strength!
Anonymous
Keep on working through the seasons
In the sunshine and the rain;
Earnest prayer and faithful sowing
Yield a wealth of golden grain.
I sit beside my lonely fire
And pray for wisdom yet;
For calmness to remember
Or courage to forget.
Charles Hamilton Aide
When earthly help is of no avail,
There is one Friend who will never fail;
Just lift your eyes--the answer is there,
For nobody knows the power of prayer!
Kenny
The kindest Friend I've ever had
Is One I cannot see,
Yet One in whom I can confide,
Who loves and blesses me.
Shuler
O sad estate
Of human wretchedness; so weak is man,
So ignorant and blind, that did not God
Sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask,
We should be ruined at our own request.
Hannah More
For answered prayer we thank You, Lord,
We know You're always there
To hear us when we call on You;
We're grateful for Your care.
J D Branon
It's easy to forget to talk to God
When everything is going our own way;
But that's the time we really need Him most,
Lest we depart from Him and go astray.
Hess
I cannot pray,
except I sin;
I cannot preach,
but I sin;
I cannot administer, nor receive the holy sacrament,
but I sin.
My very repentance needs
to be repented of;
And the tears I shed
need washing in the
blood of Christ.
William Beveridge
Of course I prayed—
And did God care?
He cared as much
As on the air
A bird had stamped her foot
And cried, “Give me!”
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
We can't presume to know what's best
When we begin to pray;
So we must ask, "What honors God?"
And seek His will and way.
Sper
In Prayer
I launch far out into the eternal world,
and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs
over all evils on the shores of mortality.
Time, with its gay amusements and cruel
disappointments, never appears so inconsiderate as then.
In prayer I see myself as nothing;
I find my heart going after thee with intensity,
and long with vehement thirst to live to thee.
Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit
that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish,
and nothing seems important
but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties
disappear,
and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively
thoughts at what thou art doing for thy church,
and I long that thou shouldest get thyself a great
name from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life,
and taste heavenly joys;
entering into the eternal world
I can give myself to thee with all my heart,
to be thine for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in thy hands,
to be entirely at thy disposal,
having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers,
sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come,
with greatest freedom, ardent hopes,
as a son to his father,
as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer
and never to cease praying.
He prayed for strength that he might achieve;
He was made weak that he might obey.
He prayed for health that he might do greater things;
He was given infirmity that he might do better things.
He prayed for riches that he might be happy;
He was given poverty that he might be wise.
He prayed for power that he might have the praise of men;
He was given weakness that he might feel the need of God.
He prayed for all things that he might enjoy life;
He was given life that he might enjoy all things.
He received nothing that he asked for—but all that he hoped for.
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
More love to Thee, O Christ, More love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make On bended knee;
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee.
Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek—Give what is best;
This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee.
Elizabeth Payson Prentiss
Related Resource: Elizabeth Sang in Suffering
God Is Present Everywhere
Those who seek the throne of grace
Find that throne in every place;
If we live a life of prayer,
God is present everywhere.
In our sickness and our health,
In our want, or in our wealth,
If we look to God in prayer,
God is present everywhere.
When our earthly comforts fail,
When the woes of life prevail,
’Tis the time for earnest prayer;
God is present everywhere.
Then, my soul, in every strait,
To thy Father come, and wait;
He will answer every prayer:
God is present everywhere.
Oliver Holden
Lord, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in thy presence will Avail to make!
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take!
What parched grounds refresh as with a shower!
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline brave and clear;
We kneel, how weak! We rise, how full of power!
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong
Or others, that we are not always strong,
That we are ever overborne with care,
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
And joy and strength and courage are with thee!
Bishop Richard Trench
Prayer from a living source within the will,
And beating up thro’ all the bitter world,
Like fountains of sweet waters in the sea,
Kept him a living soul.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire
Uttered or unexpressed
The motion of a hidden fire
That kindles in the breast.
James Montgomery
Any hour when helping others
Or when bearing heavy care
Is the time to call our Father—
It's the proper time for prayer.
Zimmerman
THE VALLEY OF VISION
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold
thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter
thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
that every good work or thought found in me
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty
thy glory in my valley
What various hindrances we meet
in coming to the mercy-seat?
Yet who that knows the worth of prayer,
but wishes to be often there.
Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw,
prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
gives exercise to faith and love,
brings every blessing from above.
Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;
prayer makes the Christian's armor bright;
and Satan trembles, when he sees
the weakest saint upon his knees.
While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
success was found on Israel's side;
but when through weariness they failed,
that moment Amalek prevailed.
Have you no words? ah, think again,
words flow apace when you complain;
and fill your fellow-creature's ear
with the sad tale of all your care.
Were half the breath thus vainly spent,
to heaven in supplication sent;
our cheerful song would oftener be,
"Hear what the LORD has done for me."
O Lord, increase our faith and love,
that we may all thy goodness prove,
and gain from thy exhaustless store
the fruits of prayer for evermore..
William Cowper
As we attempt to live like Christ
In actions, words, and deeds,
We'll follow His design for prayer,
And pray for others' needs.
J. David Branon
Give Him each perplexing problem,
All your needs to Him make known;
Bring to Him your daily burdens—
Never carry them alone!
Adams
Someone prayed when my faith was dim
And when Satan pressed me sore,
God answered them, gave strength within;
Somebody prayed, I know.
Mrs. M. Spittal, alt.
Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me,
O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.
Then boldly let our faith address
God’s throne of grace and power,
There to obtain delivering grace
In every needy hour.
Isaac Watts
There's no weapon half so mighty
As the intercessors bear;
Nor a broader field of service
Than the ministry of prayer!
Anonymous
There's no weapon half so mighty
As the intercessors bear,
Nor a broader field of service
Than the ministry of prayer!
Anonymous
‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And I know He has answered prayer,
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.
Anonymous
'Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices
Who wondrous things had done
In whom His world rejoices.
Who, from our mother's arms,
Hath led us on our way
With countless gifts of love
And still is ours today
Martin Rinkart
Around us rolls the ceaseless tide
Of business, toil, and care;
And scarcely can we turn aside
For one brief hour of prayer.
Behold Us, Lord, a Little Space
I cannot say our if religion has no room for others and their needs.
I cannot say Father if I do not demonstrate this relationship in my daily living.
I cannot say who art in heaven if all my interests and pursuits are on earthly things.
I cannot say hallowed be thy name if I, who am called by his name, am not holy.
I cannot say thy kingdom come if I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty and accept the righteous reign of God.
I cannot say thy will be done if I am unwilling or resentful of having it in my life.
I cannot say in earth as it is in heaven unless I am truly ready to give myself to his service here and now.
I cannot say give us this day our daily bread without expending honest effort for it or by ignoring the genuine needs of my fellowmen.
I cannot say forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us if I continue to harbor a grudge against anyone.
I cannot say lead us not into temptation if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I am likely to be tempted.
I cannot say deliver us from evil if I am not prepared to fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer.
I cannot say thine is the kingdom if I do not give the King the disciplined obedience of a loyal subject.
I cannot say thine is the power if I fear what my neighbors may say or do.
I cannot say thine is the glory if I am seeking my own glory first.
I cannot say forever if I am too anxious about each day’s affairs.
I cannot say amen unless I honestly say, “Cost what it may, this is my prayer.”
Count It Done
A father wrote to his son,
Who was faraway from home;
“I have sent you a beautiful gift,
It may be delayed, but ‘twill come;
It is what you have wanted most,
And have asked for many days;”
And before the child received the gift
He voiced his thanks and praise.
Our Father saith unto us:
“Your need shall be supplied;
Ask and receive that your joy be filled,
And My joy in you abide.”
Shall we wait to thank till we see
The answer to every prayer?
Forbear to praise till we feel
The lifted pressure of care?
Nay, let us trust His word
And know that the thing is done,
For His promise is just as sure
As a father’s to his son.
Annie Johnson Flint
Better Than My Best
I prayed for strength, and then I lost awhile
All sense of nearness, human and divine;
The love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart;
The hands I clung to loosed themselves from mine;
But while I swayed, weak, trembling, and alone,
The everlasting arms upheld my own.
I prayed for light; the sun went down in clouds,
The moon was darkened by a misty doubt,
The stars of heaven were dimmed by earthly fears,
But all my little candle flames burned out;
But while I sat in shadow, wrapped in night,
The face of Christ made all the darkness bright.
I prayed for peace, and dreamed of restful ease,
A slumber drugged from pain, a hushed repose;
Above my head the skies were black with storm,
And fiercer grew the onslaught of my foes;
But while the battle raged, and wild winds blew,
I heard His voice, and perfect peace I knew.
I thank Thee, Lord, Thou wert too wise to heed
My feeble prayers, and answer as I sought,
Since these rich gifts Thy bounty has bestowed
Have brought me more than I had asked or thought.
Giver of good, so answer each request
With Thine own giving, better than my best.
Annie Johnson Flint
When you approach the Lord with boldness,
When you pray in Jesus' name,
Just tell Him all the pain you're feeling—
There's no need for fear or shame.
Fitzhugh
Forgive us, Lord, when we're surprised
By answers to our prayer;
Increase our faith and teach us how
To trust Your loving care.
Sper
Pray on! Pray on! Cease not to pray,
And should the answer tarry, wait;
Thy God will come, will surely come,
And He can never come too late.
Chisholm
Commit to pray and intercede—
The battle’s strong and great’s the need;
And this one truth can’t be ignored:
Our only help comes from the Lord.
Sper
O to be like Thee! blessed Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I'll forfeit all of earth's treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Chisholm
When the trials of this life make you weary
And your troubles seem too much to bear,
There’s a wonderful solace and comfort
In the silent communion of prayer.
Anon.
The Lord has shown us we can pray
Wherever we may be;
And when we say, “Your will be done,”
His work on earth we’ll see.
Sper
When the clouds of affliction have gathered
And hidden each star from my sight,
I know if I turn to my Father,
Sweetest songs He will give in the night.
Montgomery
Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne,
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief
My soul has often found relief
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare,
By thy return sweet hour of prayer.
Walford
When I come before His presence
In the secret place of prayer,
Do I know the wondrous greatness
Of His power to meet me there?
Hallen
Praise His blessed name forever!
There is naught that can compare
To the glories of a contact
With the Mighty God through prayer.
Anonymous
Lord, when I sense Your call to serve,
Help me to follow through;
I must not simply pray and wait
When there is work to do.
Fasick
Alone With God
Johnson Oatman
When storms of life are round me beating,
When rough the path that I have trod,
Within my closet door retreating,
I love to be alone with God.
Refrain
Alone with God, the world forbidden,
Alone with God, O blest retreat!
Alone with God, and in Him hidden,
To hold with Him communion sweet.
What tho’ the clouds have gathered o’er me?
What tho’ I’ve passed beneath the rod?
God’s perfect will there lies before me,
When I am thus alone with God.
Refrain
’Tis there I find new strength for duty,
As o’er the sands of time I plod;
I see the King in all His beauty,
While resting there alone with God.
Refrain
And when I see the moment nearing
When I shall sleep beneath the sod,
When time with me is disappearing,
I want to be alone with God.
Refrain
The Quiet Hour
Speak, Lord, in the stillness
While I wait on Thee;
Hushed my heart to listen,
In expectancy.
Speak, O blessèd Master,
In this quiet hour,
Let me see Thy face, Lord,
Feel Thy touch of power.
For the words Thou speakest,
They are life
indeed;
Living bread from Heaven,
Now my spirit feed!
All to Thee is yielded,
I am not my own;
Emily May Grimes
Father, I wait thy daily will;
Thou shalt divide my portion still;
Grant me on earth what seems thee best,
Till death and heaven reveal the rest.
Isaac Watts
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.
Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayer
Rapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.
Joseph H Scriven
LIVING BY PRAYER
O God of the open ear,
Teach me to live by prayer as well as by providence,
for myself, soul, body, children, family, church;
Give me a heart frameable to thy will;
so might I live in prayer,
and honour thee,
being kept from evil, known and unknown.
Help me to see the sin that accompanies all I do,
and the good I can distil from everything.
Let me know that the work of prayer is to bring
my will to thine,
and that without this it is folly to pray;
When I try to bring thy will to mine it is
to command Christ,
to be above him, and wiser than he:
this is my sin and pride.
I can only succeed when I pray
according to thy precept and promise,
and to be done with as it pleases thee,
according to thy sovereign will.
When thou commandest me to pray
for pardon, peace, brokenness,
it is because thou wilt give me the thing promised,
for thy glory,
as well as for my good.
Help me not only to desire small things
but with holy boldness to desire great things
for thy people, for myself,
that they and I might live to show thy glory.
Teach me
that it is wisdom for me to pray for all I have,
out of love, willingly, not of necessity;
that I may come to thee at any time,
to lay open my needs acceptably to thee;
that my great sin lies in my not keeping
the savour of thy ways;
that the remembrance of this truth is one way
to the sense of thy presence;
that there is no wrath like the wrath of being
governed by my own lusts for my own ends.
Author Unknown