prayer 2 - prayer 3 - prayer 4

  
 Prayer does not change God,
but changes those who pray.

Søren Kierkegaard

  

Have enough faith in the love of God to believe that a short heartfelt prayer
is just as good as a long one.  Too long a session of prayer usually means
that in your heart you really doubt the love of God, and think that a great deal
of effort and toil will be necessary to move Him.  Pray quietly and sincerely
for a reasonable time—and then leave the matter, expecting success.

Emmet Fox

      
The purpose of daily prayer is the cultivation of a sense of the sacred.
Sacred energy renews us. Lives with no more sense of spiritual meaning
than that provided by shopping malls, ordinary television, and stagnant
workplaces are barren lives indeed. Spirituality enriches culture.
Prayer enables us to transform the world, because it transforms us.

Marianne  Williamson
  

There are times in a person's life when, regardless of
the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees in prayer.

Victor Hugo

   

Personal prayer, it seems to me, is one of the simplest necessities of life, as basic
to the individual as sunshine, food and water--and at times, of course, more so.
By prayer I mean an effort to get in touch with the Infinite.  We know that our prayers
are imperfect.  Of course they are. We are imperfect human beings.  A thousand experiences have convinced me beyond room of doubt that prayer multiplies the
strength of the individual and brings within the scope of his capabilities almost any conceivable objective.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

  

Pray for my soul.  More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.  Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.  
For what are people better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friends?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.

Alfred,
Lord Tennyson
    
  
  

A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward.

Phillips Brooks
   

Prayer is not an old woman's idle
amusement.  Properly understood
and applied, it is the most potent
instrument of action.

Mohandas Gandhi
  
  
There is no prayer so blessed as
the prayer which asks for nothing.

O.J. Simon (1895)

  

Prayer, the basic exercise of the spirit, must be actively practiced in our private lives.
The neglected soul of the human being must be made strong enough to assert itself once more.
For if the power of prayer is again released and used in the lives of common men and women;
if the spirit declares its aims clearly and boldly, there is yet hope
that our prayers for a better world will be answered.

Alexis Carrel
  

  

Lift up your hearts to Him, sometimes even at your meals,
and when you are in company; the least little remembrance
will always be acceptable to Him. You need not cry very loud;
He is nearer to us than we are aware.

Brother Lawrence
  

Prayer is neither black magic nor is it a form of a demand note.
Prayer is a relationship. The act of praying is more analogous
to clearing away the underbrush which shuts out a view than it is
to begging on the street. There are many different kinds of prayer.
Yet all prayer has one basic purpose. We pray not to get something,
but to open up a two-way street between us and God,
so that we and others may inwardly become something.

John Heuss
  
From "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

O sweeter than the marriage feast,
'Tis sweeter far to me,
To walk together to the kirk
With a goodly company!

To walk together to the kirk,
And all together pray,
While each to his great Father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving friends
And youths and maidens gay!

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding Guest!
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.


 Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  

The privilege of prayer to me is one of the most cherished possessions,
because faith and experience alike convince me that God himself sees and answers,
and His answers I never venture to criticize. It is only my part to ask.
If it were otherwise, I would not dare to pray at all.

Wilfred T. Grenfell
  

  

Pray till prayer makes you forget
your own wish, and leave it
or merge it in God's will.

Frederick W. Robertson

prayer 2 - prayer 3 - prayer 4
Through prayer we can carry in our heart all human pain and sorrow,
all conflicts and agonies, all torture and war, all hunger, loneliness and misery,
not because of some great psychological or emotional capacity,
but because God's heart has become one with ours.

Henri Nouwen
    

The value of persistent prayer is not that
He will hear us . . .  but that we will finally hear Him.

William  McGill

  

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God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart
to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.

Voltaire
  

They tell about a fifteen-year-old boy in an orphans' home who had an incurable stutter.
One Sunday the minister was detained and the boy volunteered to say the prayer in his stead.
He did it perfectly, too, without a single stutter.
Later he explained, "I don't stutter when I talk to God. He loves me."

Bennett Cerf
  
  
Most Christians expect little from God, ask little,
and therefore receive little and are content with little.

A.W. Pink
  
  

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.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  
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.

Oswald Chambers
  

There is no hope but in prayer.

Andrew Bonar
  

This morning I stood on the river bank to pray.  I knew then that the ancient ones
were wise to pray for peace and beauty and not for specific gifts except fertility
which is continued life.  And I saw that if one has even a small degree of the ability
to take into and unto him or herself the peace and beauty that God surrounds them with,
it is not necessary to ask for more.

Edith Warner

  

  

You must pray for yourself constantly.  How could it be otherwise?  We worship God by
believing in Him, trusting Him, and loving Him wholeheartedly -- and we can attain to
that only through prayer.  The sole object of our being here is that we may grow like
Him -- and we can do that only through prayer.  The more we pray for ourselves the
more power will our prayers have for any other purpose whatever; so praying for
ourselves is the reverse of selfishness -- it is truly glorifying God.

Emmet Fox
  

If you are considering using prayer to help you find your way, I have
some good news:  a guarantee that your prayers will be answered.
How can I guarantee something like that?  It’s easy.  When you pray,
you are changed.  The moment you begin praying, you step into the
mystery and become part of it, and you are, inevitably, changed.
So your prayers are answered because you are
a different person after you pray.

When you embrace the mystery and open yourself to it, a new life
is created, resistant to the old problems.  You will notice at times that
the new life isn’t what you asked for.  But asking for specific items or
for particular events to occur isn’t how I define prayer.  I cannot guarantee
that the orders you place with God will always be filled.  Prayer is not
a test of God, but a call for help to find your inner strength and talent.

Bernie Siegel

  

Where are we taught that prayer is something we can go to at any time,
in any place?  Are we ever taught that in order to get results,
we must pray with faith and persistence?  I will be among the first to admit
that for many years my prayers were results-oriented.  There was something
I wanted, and I thought prayer could get it for me when I could not get it
for myself.  It took me quite some time to realize that prayer is actually an affirmation
of what already exists.  Prayer is a demonstration of our willingness to receive
what exists as an outgrowth of our faith in the truth that is good for us.
Prayer is an acknowledgement of our trust in the Divine to provide
everything we need, when we need it.

Iyanla Vanzant

   
   

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Never will I pray for the material things of the world.  I am not calling
to a servant to bring me food.  I am not ordering an innkeeper to
provide me with room.  Never will I seek delivery of gold, love, good
health, petty victories, fame, success, or happiness.  Only for guidance
will I pray, that I may be shown the way to acquire these things,
and my prayer will always be answered.

Og Mandino
The Greatest Salesman in the World
   

Prayer is not the moment when God and humans are in relationship, for that is always.
Prayer is taking initiative to intentionally respond to God's presence.

L. Robert Keck