“Behind everything stands God. He must speak to you. He will speak to you. Oh, do not try to shut out His voice. Listen to Him that you may live. Be ready for any overturnings—even of the things which have seemed to you most eternal—if by them He can come to be more than the King of his own earth.
When God speaks to you, you must not make believe to yourself that it is the wind blowing or the torrent falling from the hill. You must know that it is God…You must listen as if listening were your life. And then, then only, can come peace. All other sounds will be caught up into the prevailing richness of that voice of God.”
Phillips Brooks, American Episcopal bishop (1835-93)
“The Christian left to himself does not know how to pray or what he ought to pray for. But God has stooped to meet us in this helplessness of ours by giving us the Holy Spirit to pray for us. That operation of his Spirit is deeper than our thoughts or feelings, yet it is acknowledged and answered by God.
“Our first work, therefore, ought to be to come into God’s presence, not with many words and thoughts, but in the confidence that the divine work of the Holy Spirit is being carried out within us. This confidence will encourage reverence and quietness. It will also enable us, in dependence on the help that the Spirit gives, to lay our desire and deepest needs before God.
“The supreme lesson for every prayer is first of all to commit to the leading of the Holy Spirit and, in total dependence on Him, to give Him first place. Through Him, your prayer will have value you cannot imagine.”
Andrew Murray, 19th century S. African missionary-pastor
“Someone once said to him [Br. Giles]: ‘I see many who seem to have the grace of feelings of devotion and tears as soon as they go to pray. But I can hardly feeling anything while praying.’
“Br. Giles replied: ‘Labor faithfully and devoutly, because the grace that God does not give you at one time He may give you at another time. And what He does not give you another day or one week or month or year, He could give you another day or another week or month or year. Place your labor firmly in God, and God will place his grace in you as it may please Him. A metal worker making a knife strikes many blows on the iron out of which he is making the knife before the knife is finished. But finally the knife is finished with one blow.”
From St. Francis Assisi, The Little Flowers, 14th century
“Thank Him for the specific things He has done for you personally. How many can you recall”
From Appointment with God, 20th century
“A ‘Quiet Time’ is more than just the time we spend in a quiet place each morning. It’s a relationship throughout the day.”
Paul Ronka, 20th century writer
“The Bible knows of God’s hiding His face, of times when the contact between heaven and earth seems to be interrupted. God seems to withdraw Himself utterly from the earth and no longer to participate in its existence. The space of history is then full of noise, but, as it were, empty of divine breath.”
Martin Buber, 20th century Jewish theologian-philosopher
“The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the little time we give to it.”
E.M Bounds (1835-1913), Power Through Prayer
“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 opportunities and its freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God, will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day.”
E. M Bounds
“The value of prayer does not lie in the number of prayers, or the length of prayers, but its value is found in the great truth tht we are privileged by our relations to God to unburden our desires and make our requests know to God….”
E.M. Bounds
“The secret of true obedience is the clear and close personal relationship to God. All our attempts after full obedience will be failures until we get access to his abiding fellowship. ….Our Lord Jesus spoke of his relation to the Father as the type and the promise of our relation to him, and to the Father through him. With us as with him the life of continual obedience is impossible without continual fellowship and continual teaching. It is only when God comes into our lives, in a degree and a power which many never consider possible, when his presence as the Eternal and Ever-present One is believed and received….that there can be any hope of a life in which every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
Andrew Murray, The School of Obedience
“[God’s people ought to pray] because prayer is the most important part
of the thankfulness God requires of us,
And also because God gives his grace and Holy Spirit
only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly,
asking God for these gifts
and thanking him for them.”
Heidelberg Catechism #116
“If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.”
Martin Luther (1483-1546), German Protestant Reformer
“I overheard him in prayer, but, good God, with what life and spirit did he pray! It was with so much reverence, as if he were speaking to God, yet with so much confidence, as if he wre speaking to his friend.”
Theodorus’ comment on Martin Luther’s praying
“All that a college course can do for a student is coarse and external compared with the spiritual and delicate refinement obtained by communion with God. …All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared with our [prayer] closets. We grow, we wax might, we prevail in private prayer.”
Charles Spurgeon, Eng. preacher (1834-92) from Lectures to My Students
“If the veil of the world’s machinery were lifted off, how much we would find is done in answer to the prayers of God’s children.”
Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-43), Scottish preacher
“Where shall my wond’ring soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?
A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire.
How shall I equal triumphs raise,
Or sing my great Deliverer’s praise?”
Charles Wesley, 18th century English hymnwriter
“Secret, fervent, believing prayer lies at the root of all personal godliness.”
William Carey (1761-1834), Baptist missionary to India
“Amen means,
This is sure to be!
It is even more sure
That God listens to my prayer
Than that I really desire
What I pray for."
Heidelberg Catechism #129 |
