A – E F – K L – Q R – Z
Henry Ward Beecher – Prayer covers the whole of a 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.
Corrie Ten Boon – Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.
Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.
E.M. Bounds – God has of his own motion placed himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated himself to answer the prayers of men. He has ordained prayer as a means whereby he will do things through men as they pray, which he would not otherwise do. If prayer puts God to work on earth, then, by the same token, prayerlessness rules God out of the world’s affairs, and prevents him from working. The driving power, the conquering force in God’s cause is God himself. ‘Call on me and I will answer thee and who thee great and mighty things which though knowest not,’ is God’s challenge to prayer. Prayer puts God in full force into God’s work. [E.M. Bounds The Weapon of Prayer Chap. 2]
What the church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations, or more novel methods; but men whom the Holy Spirit can use– men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.
. . . 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.
Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God.
If the devil can get the church to withdraw from prayer by believing reasonable excuses, the church is under his dominion.
God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.
Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.
Thomas B. Brooks – 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.
John Bunyan – In prayer, it is better to have heart without words, than words without heart.
Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin entice a man to cease from prayer. The spirit of prayer is more precious than treasures of gold and silver. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.
The best prayers often have more groans than words.
You can do more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.
John Calvin – To know God as the sovereign disposer of all good, inviting us to present our requests, and yet not to approach or ask of him, were so far from availing us, that it were just as if one told of a treasure were to allow it to remain buried in the ground. [Institutes of the Christian Religion – Of Prayer by John Calvin]
Samuel Chadwick (Puritan preacher) – Hurry is the death of Prayer.
Oswald Chambers – Prayer is not an exercise. It is the life of the saint.
Prayer does not equip us for the greater work, Prayer is the greater work.
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.
Jim Cymbala – The devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials. But he knows his kingdom will be damaged when we begin to lift up our hearts to God. [Jim Cymbala, in Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire] [totop] to Top [/totop]
F – K
Charles G. Finney – Persons never need hesitate, because of their past sins, to approach God with the fullest confidence. If they now repent, and are conscious of fully and honestly returning to God with all their heart, they have no reason to fear being repulsed from the footstool of mercy. [An Approving Heart-Confidence In Prayer from The Way Of Salvation Chapter XXII – Charles G. Finney 1792-1875]
When I speak of moving God, I do not mean that God’s mind is changed by prayer, or that His disposition or character is changed. But prayer produces such a change in us as renders it consistent for God to do as it would not be consistent for Him to do otherwise. [An excerpt from: Revival Lectures Lecture 4 by C. G. Finney (1792-1875)]
Billy Graham – Prayer is spiritual communication between man and God, a two-way relationship in which man should not only talk to God but also listen to Him. Prayer to God is like a child’s conversation with his father. It is natural for a child to ask his father for the things he needs.
Remember that you can pray any time, anywhere. Washing dishes, digging ditches, working in the office, in the shop, on the athletic field, even in prison — you can pray and know God hears!
Avail yourself of the greatest privilege this side of heaven. Jesus Christ died to make this communion and communication with the Father possible.
William Gurnall –Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent, and such fervency ever speeds and returns with victory out of the field of prayer…. The mightier any is in the Word, the more mighty he will be in prayer. [totop] to Top [/totop]
L – Q
C. S. Lewis – For most of us the prayer in Gethsemane is the only model. Removing mountains can wait. [from Letters to Malcom, Chiefly on Prayer.]
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – There are ideas in our hearts, there are wishes, there are aspirations, there are groanings, there are sighings that the world knows nothing about; but God knows them. So words are not always necessary. When we cannot express our feelings except in wordless groanings, God knows exactly what is happening.
Martin Luther – Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.
The fewer the words, the better the prayer.
D.L. Moody – I believe in definite prayer. Abraham prayed for Sodom. Moses interceded for the children of Israel. How often our prayers go all around the world, without real definite asking for anything! And often, when we do ask, we don’t expect anything. Many people would be surprised if God did answer their prayers.”[How to Have a Good Prayer Meeting from Golden Counsels by Dwight L. Moody, 1899.]
The greatest need of the church today is more of the presence and power of the Spirit of God. O that Christians were roused to greater earnestness and importunity in prayer! I believe that the greatest revival the church has ever seen would result. God help us, each one, to be faithful in doing our share. [How to Have a Good Prayer Meeting from Golden Counsels by Dwight L. Moody, 1899.]
George Mueller – I myself have for twenty-nine years been waiting for an answer to prayer concerning a certain spiritual blessing. Day by day have I been enabled to continue in prayer for this blessing. At home and abroad, in this country and in foreign lands, in health and in sickness, however much occupied, I have been enabled, day by day, by God’s help, to bring this matter before Him; and still I have not the full answer yet. Nevertheless, I look for it. I expect it confidently. The very fact that day after day, and year after year, for twenty-nine years, the Lord has enabled me to continue, patiently, believingly, to wait on Him for the blessing, still further encourages me to wait on; and so fully am I assured that God hears me about this matter, that I have often been enabled to praise Him beforehand for the full answer, which I shall ultimately receive to my prayers on this subject. Thus, you see, dear reader, that while I have hundreds, yes, thousands of answers, year by year, I have also, like yourself and other believers, the trial of faith concerning certain matters. [The Wise Sayings Of George Mueller]
Andrew Murray – May God open our eyes to see what the holy ministry of intercession is, to which, as His royal priesthood, we have been set apart. May He give us a large and strong heart to believe what mighty influence our prayers can exert. And may all fear as to our being able to fulfill our vocation vanish as we see Jesus, living ever to pray, living in us to pray, and standing surety for our prayer life.
Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part.
Of all the mysteries of the prayer world the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest. That the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be asked, time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand. It is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. When, after persevering pleading, our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our lazy flesh, and it has all the appearance of pious submission, to think that we must now cease praying, because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request.It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome. [The Power of Persevering Prayer – Andrew Murray 1828-1917]
We have become so accustomed to limit the wonderful love and the large promises of our God, that we cannot read the simplest and clearest statements of our Lord without the qualifying clauses by which we guard and expound them. If there is one thing I think the Church needs to learn, it is that God means prayer to have an answer, and that it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive what God will do for His child who gives himself to believe that his prayer will be heard. God hears prayer; this is a truth universally admitted, but of which very few understand the meaning, or experience the power. [With Christ In the School of Prayer – Andrew Murray 1828-1917]
Time spent in prayer will yield more that 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.
The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.
John Owen – If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world; at least, we should be better enabled to bear them. [totop] to Top [/totop]
R – Z
Leonard Ravenhill – To stand before men on behalf of God is one thing. To stand before God on behalf of men is something entirely different.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon – Intercessory prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! The Word of God teems with its marvelous deeds. Believer, thou hast a mighty engine in thy hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it with faith, and thou shalt surely be a benefactor to thy brethren.
He who lives without prayer, he who lives with little prayer, he who seldom reads the Word, and he who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high — he will be the man whose heart will become dry and barren.
So the preacher of the gospel asks your prayers: and it is a part of the duties arising out of the relationship between Christian men that those who are taught should pray for those who teach God’s Word.
Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom.
Prayer moves the arm that moves the world.
Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. [from The Treasury of David by Spurgeon]
We cannot all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders but we can all be pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer. I would sooner see you eloquent with God than with men.
Prayer can never be in excess.
Spurgeon’s “Boilerroom.” Five young college students were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the famed C.H. Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, “Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?” They were not particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn’t want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a stairway, a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, “This is our heating plant.” Surprised, the students saw 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking a blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above. Softly closing the door, the gentleman then introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon. [Our Daily Bread]
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 Wesley – God only requires of his adult children, that their hearts be truly purified, and that they offer him continually the wishes and vows that naturally spring from perfect love. For these desires, being the genuine fruits of love, are the most perfect prayers that can spring from it. [from A Plain Account of Christian Perfection by John Wesley (1703-1791)]
I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.
It seems God is limited by our prayer life – that He can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him.
God does nothing but in answer to prayer; and even they who have been converted to God without praying for it themselves, (which is exceeding rare,) were not without the prayers of others. Every new victory which a soul gains is the effect of a new prayer.
Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer. [totop] to Top [/totop]