|
| Navigation: Famous Quotes and Authors - Prayer Quotes | Put our Famous Quotes on your Site or Blog for free! |
|
Prayer Quotes and Quotations
 There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.  To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love All pray in their distress. God be kind to all good Samaritans and also bad ones. For such is the kingdom of heaven. It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk. Pray, v: to ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. 'Mr. President, I am praying for you. 'Which way, Senator?' We offer up prayers to God only because we have made Him after our own image. We treat Him like a Pasha, or a Sultan, who is capable of being exasperated and appeased. - Voltaire The fewer the words, the better the prayer. In prayer we call ourselves 'worms of the dust', but it is only on a sort of tacit understanding that the remark shall not be taken at par. Give us grace and strength to preserve. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends and soften to us our enemies. Give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we may be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving to one another. I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered. God punishes us mildly by ignoring our prayers and severely by answering them. Only man, among living things, says prayers. Or needs to. What men usually ask of God when they pray is that two and two not make four. In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer. 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. They who have steeped their soul in prayer can every anguish calmly bear. Unless I had the spirit of prayer, I could do nothing. Prayer is an end to isolation. It is living our daily life with someone; with him who alone can deliver us from solitude. Prayer moves the hand that moves the world. Prayer changes things. Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. There is no hope but in prayer. We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. It surmounts or removes all obstacles, overcomes every resisting force and gains its ends in the face of invincible hindrances. By prayer we couple the powers of heaven to our helplessness, the powers which can capture strongholds and make the impossible possible. Faith, and hope, and patience and all the strong, beautiful, vital forces of piety are withered and dead in a prayerless life. The life of the individual believer, his personal salvation, and personal Christian graces have their being, bloom, and fruitage in prayer. Every chain that spirits wear crumbles in the breadth of prayer. Though we cannot by our prayers give God any information, yet we must by our prayers give him honor. In the war upon the powers of darkness, prayer is the primary and mightiest weapon, both in aggressive war upon them and their works; in the deliverance of men from their power; and against them as a hierarchy of powers opposed to Christ and His Church. God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. They outlive the lives of those who uttered them. Men of God are always men of prayer. Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language or music without atmosphere. All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives. To have a curable illness and to leave it untreated except for prayer is like sticking your hand in a fire and asking God to remove the flame. Oh, what a cause of thankfulness it is that we have a gracious God to go to on all occasions! Use and enjoy this privilege and you can never be miserable. Oh, what an unspeakable privilege is prayer! What is the life of a Christian but a life of prayer! Even if no command to pray had existed, our very weakness would have suggested it. He who ceases to pray ceases to prosper. By prayer, the ability is secured to feel the law of love, to speak according to the law of love, and to do everything in harmony with the law of love. Time spent on the knees in prayer will do more to remedy heart strain and nerve worry than anything else. The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayer-less religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. No heart thrives without much secret converse with God and nothing will make amends for the want of it. No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it. A man's state before God may always be measured by his prayers. Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble. Prayer covers the whole of man's life. There is no thought, feeling, yearning, or desire, however low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it, which, if it affects our real interest or happiness, we may not lay before God and be sure of sympathy. His nature is such that our often coming does not tire him. The whole burden of the whole life of every man may be rolled on to God and not weary him, though it has wearied the man. The first purpose of prayer is to know God. We, one and all of us, have an instinct to pray; and this fact constitutes an invitation from God to pray. Teach us to pray that we may cause The enemy to flee, That we his evil power may bind, His prisoners to free. No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you; Lean, weary one, upon His breast, God will take care of you. He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and a happy life. Non-praying is lawlessness, discord, anarchy. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; The Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. 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. Pray, always pray; when sickness wastes thy frame, Prayer brings the healing power of Jesus' name. Prayer is of transcendent importance. Prayer is the mightiest agent to advance God's work. Praying hearts and hands only can do God's work. Prayer succeeds when all else fails. The goal of prayer is the ear of God, a goal that can only be reached by patient and continued and continuous waiting upon Him, pouring out our heart to Him and permitting Him to speak to us. Only by so doing can we expect to know Him, and as we come to know Him better we shall spend more time in His presence and find that presence a constant and ever-increasing delight. Prayer honors God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid. The whole meaning of prayer is that we may know God. Prayer crowns God with the honor and glory due to His name, and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort. The most praying souls are the most assured souls. The purpose of prayer is to reveal the presence of God equally present, all the time, in every condition. The value of consistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will hear Him. The influence of prayer on the human mind and body ... can be measured in terms of increased physical buoyancy, greater intellectual vigor, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of the realities underlying human 1 relationships. Prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. 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. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength. Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. Today any successful and competent businessman will employ the latest and best-tested methods in production, distribution, and administration, and many are discovering that one of the greatest of all efficiency methods is prayer power. To have a curable illness and to leave it untreated except for prayer is like sticking your hand in a fire and asking God to remove the flame. One night alone in prayer might make us new men, changed from poverty of soul to spiritual wealth, from trembling to triumphing. Every time we pray our horizon is altered, our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes but every time, and the amazing thing is that we don't pray more. It is not so true that "prayer changes things" as that prayer changes me and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's disposition. Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things. 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. Praying is learned by praying. The only way to pray is to pray, and the way to pray well is to pray much. The less I pray, the harder it gets; the more I pray, the better it goes. Prayer is a trade to be learned. We must be apprentices and serve our time at it. Painstaking care, much thought, practice and labour are required to be a skillful tradesman in praying. Practice in this, as well as in all other trades, makes perfect. If we are willing to spend hours on end to learn to play the piano, operate a computer, or fly an airplane, it is sheer nonsense for us to imagine that we can learn the high art of getting guidance through communion with the Lord without being willing to set aside time for it. The great thing in prayer is to feel that we are putting our supplications into the bosom of omnipotent love. All the prayers in the Scripture you will find to be reasoning with God, not a multitude of words heaped together. Scream at God if that's the only thing that will get results. You need not cry very loud; he is nearer to us than we think. Rejoice always, pray constantly, and in all circumstances give thanks. God tells us to burden him with whatever burdens us. Do I want to pray or only to think about my human problems? Do I want to pray or simply kneel there contemplating my sorrow? Do I want to direct my prayer toward God or let it direct itself towards me? O thou, by whom we come to God, The Life, the Truth, the Way, The path of prayer Thyself hast trod- Lord teach us how to pray. Dealing in generalities is the death of prayer. Don't try to reach God with your understanding; that is impossible. Reach him in love; that is possible. The right way to pray, then, is any way that allows us to communicate with God. Grant us grace, Almighty Father, so to pray as to deserve to be heard. He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. - Bible He that will learn to pray, let him to sea. Incense is prayer That drives no bargain. Child, learn from incense How best to pray. When we go to our meeting with God, we should go like a patient to his doctor, first to be thoroughly examined and afterwards to be treated for our ailment. Then something will happen when you pray. Natural ability and educational advantages do not figure as factors in this matter of prayer; but a capacity for faith, the power of a thorough consecration, the ability of self-littleness, an absolute losing of one's self in God's glory and an ever present and insatiable yearning and seeking after all the fullness of God. We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties. If our petitions are in accordance with His will, and if we seek His glory in the asking, the answers will come in ways that will astonish us and fill our hearts with songs of thanksgiving. 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. Prayer can assume very different forms, from quiet, blessed contemplation of God, in which eye meets eye in restful meditation, to deep sighs or sudden exclamations of wonder, joy, gratitude or adoration. To pray is nothing more involved than to open the door, giving Jesus access to our needs and permitting Him to exercise His own power in dealing with them. He prays best who does not know that he is praying. When you cannot pray as you would, pray as you can. If you can't pray as you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean. Pray till you pray. A day without prayer is a boast against God. Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. I care not what black spiritual crisis we may come through or what delightful spiritual Canaan we may enter, no blessing of the Christian life becomes continually possessed unless we are men and women of regular, daily, unhurried, secret lingerings in prayer. 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. Prayer is a kind of calling home every day. And there can come to you a serenity, a feeling of at-homeness in God's universe, a peace that the world can neither give nor disturb, a fresh courage, a new insight, a holy boldness that you'll never, never get any other way. O God, if in the day of battle I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me. Seven days without prayer makes one weak. Lord, you know how busy I must be this day. If I forget you, do not you forget me. 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. Let prayer be the key of the morning and the bolt at night. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray. - Bible Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life. As impossible as it is for us to take a breath in the morning large enough to last us until noon, so impossible is it to pray in the morning in such a way as to last us until noon. Let your prayers ascend to Him constantly, audibly or silently, as circumstances throughout the day permit. To God your every Want In instant Prayer display, Pray always; Pray, and never faint; Pray, without ceasing, Pray. Constant prayer quickly straightens out our thoughts. Teach us to pray often, that we may pray oftener. Abiding fully means praying much. Pray, always pray; beneath sins heaviest load, Prayer claims the blood from Jesus' side that flowed. Pray, always pray; though weary, faint, and lone, Prayer nestles by the Father's sheltering throne. When the knees are not often bent, the feet soon slide. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be; the mightier the forces against evil everywhere. Those who always pray are necessary to those who never pray. Tomorrow I plan to work, work, from early until late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer. Begin to realize more and more that prayer is the most important thing you do. You can use your time to no better advantage than to pray whenever you have an opportunity to do so, either alone or with others; while at work, while at rest, or while walking down the street. Anywhere! It is impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer. Sometimes we think we are too busy to pray. That is a great mistake, for praying is a saving of time. Prayer time must be kept up as duly as meal-time. The minds of people are so cluttered up with every-day living these days that they don't, or won't, take time out for a little prayer-for mental cleansing, just as they take a bath for physical, outer cleansing. Both are necessary. The Christian will find his parentheses for prayer even in the busiest hours of life. Time spent in prayer is never wasted. No time is so well spent in every day as that which we spend upon our knees. Other duties become pressing and absorbing and crowd our 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. When it becomes clear to us that prayer is a part of our daily program of work, it will also become clear to us that we must arrange our daily program in such a way that there is time also for this work, just as we set aside time for other necessary things, such as eating and dressing. I have to hurry all day to get time to pray. While others still slept, He went away to pray and to renew His strength in communion with His Father. He had need of this, otherwise He would not have been ready for the new day. The holy work of delivering souls demands constant renewal through fellowship with God. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. - Bible Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God. It is by no haphazard chance that in every age men have risen early to pray. The first thing that marks decline in spiritual life is our relationship to the early morning. The entire day receives order and discipline when it acquires unity. This unity must be sought and found in morning prayer. The morning prayer determines the day. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning. - Bible In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee. - Bible If you have ever prayed in the dawn you will ask yourself why you were so foolish as not to do it always: it is difficult to get into communion with God in the midst of the hurly-burly of the day. 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. In general it is best to have at least one hour alone with God before engaging in anything else. Lord, if any have to die this day, let it be me, for I am ready. Temptations which accompany the working day will be conquered on the basis of the morning breakthrough to God. Decisions, demanded by work, become easier and simpler where they are made not in the fear of men, but only in the sight of God. He wants to give us today the power which we need for our work. The man who says his prayers in the evening is a captain posting his sentries. After that, he can sleep. When at night you cannot sleep, talk to the Shepherd and stop counting sheep. I did this night promise my wife never to go to bed without calling upon God, upon my knees, in prayer. 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. There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes. Ordinarily when a man in difficulty turns to prayer, he has already tried every other means of escape. When life knocks you to your knees, and it will, why, get up! If it knocks you to your knees again, as it will, well, isn't that the best position from which to pray? Now I am past all comforts here, but prayer. Prayer begins where human capacity ends. "Oh, God, if I were sure I were to die tonight I would repent at once." It is the commonest prayer in all languages. If you are swept off your feet, it's time to get on your knees. When I am weak, then am I strong. - Bible To pray is to open the door unto Jesus and admit Him into your distress. Your helplessness is the very thing which opens wide the door unto Him and gives Him access to all your needs. My helpless friend, your helplessness is the most powerful plea which rises up to the tender father-heart of God. You think that everything is closed to you because you cannot pray. My friend, your helplessness is the very essence of prayer. Listen, my friend! Your helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas. He hears it from the very moment that you are seized with helplessness, and He becomes actively engaged at once in hearing and answering the prayer of your helplessness. Helplessness is unquestionably the first and the surest indication of a praying heart. ... Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only he who is helpless can truly pray. 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 more helpless you are, the better you are fitted to pray, and the more answers to prayer you will experience. Being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly. - Bible When a man is at his wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality. When my soul fainted within me ... my prayer came in unto thee. - Bible He will regard the prayer of the destitute. - Bible My strength is made perfect in weakness. - Bible God listens to our weeping when the occasion itself is beyond our knowledge, but still within His love and power. Trouble and prayer are closely related. . . . Trouble often drives men to God in prayer, while prayer is but the voice of men in trouble. Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble. An agnostic found himself in trouble, and a friend suggested he pray. "How can I pray when I do not know whether or not there is a God?" he asked. "If you are lost in the forest," his friend replied, "you do not wait until you find someone before shouting for help." Many people pray as if God were a big aspirin pill; they come only when they hurt. You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. He who cannot pray when the sun is shining will not know how to pray when the clouds come. All those football coaches who hold dressing-room prayers before a game should be forced to attend church once a week. Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble: prayer is a life attitude. Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying man. Get an inner chamber in which to pray where no one knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Nowhere can we get to know the holiness of God, and come under His influence and power, except in the inner chamber. It has been well said: "No man can expect to make progress in holiness who is not often and long alone with God." Private place and plenty of time are the life of prayer. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy room, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. - Bible When you enter your secret chamber, take plenty of time before you begin to speak. Let quietude wield its influence upon you. Let the fact that you are alone assert itself. Give your soul time to get released from the many outward things. Give God time to play the prelude to prayer for the benefit of your distracted soul. There is no need to get to a place of prayer; pray wherever you are. Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer. Prayer, to the patriarchs and prophets, was more than the recital of well-known and well-worn phrases-it was the outpouring of the heart. Without the incense of heartfelt prayer, even the greatest of cathedrals is dead. Follow your own way of speaking to our Lord sincerely, lovingly, confidently, and simply, as your heart dictates. Sincerity is the prime requisite in every approach to the God who ... hates all hypocrisy, falsehood, and deceit. The Lord's Prayer may be committed to memory quickly, but it is slowly learnt by heart. God hears no more than the heart speaks; and if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be dumb. Deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie-I found that out. Prayers not felt by us are seldom heard by God. Many pray with their lips for that for which their hearts have no desire. God may turn his ears from prattling prayers, or preaching prayers, but never from penitent, believing prayers. Two went to pray? Better to say one went to brag, the other to pray. I pray like a robber asking alms at the door of a farmhouse to which he is ready to set fire. God's ear lies close to the believer's lip. Heaven is never deaf but when man's heart is dumb. Do not pray by heart, but with the heart. Our prayers must mean something to us if they are to mean anything to God. Our prayers must spring from the indigenous soil of our own personal confrontation with the Spirit of God in our lives. God eagerly awaits the chance to bless the person whose heart is turned toward Him. We must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us. In prayer the lips ne'er act the winning part, without the sweet concurrence of the heart. The cry of a young raven is nothing but the natural cry of a creature, but your cry, if it be sincere, is the result of a work of grace in your heart. 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. When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart. He offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying at the bottom of the sea. Prayer is a serious thing. We may be taken at our words. 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 And help us, this and every day, to live more nearly as we pray. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go. It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk. She heard the snuffle of hypocrisy in her prayer. S |