Prayer (122)



Prayer is always essential, but thought is essential, too, because prayer can be just an escape mechanism, almost at times a cry in the dark by people who are desperate and defeated. Prayer must be intelligent, and it is only to those who realize that their bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost that the answer will be given and the power will come.Spiritual Depression (173)


1.6K      14
Prayer is the answer to the disease of self-confidence.


1.6K      12
I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is.


2.2K      10
And have we not all known what it is to find that, somehow, we have less to say to God when we are alone than when we are in the presence of others? It should not be so; but it often is.Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (322)


1.1K      5
There is a world of difference between praying and laboring for a renewed mind that discerns how to apply God's Word, on the one hand, and the habit of asking God to give you new revelation of what to do, on the other hand. Divination does not require transformation. God's aim is a new mind, a new way of thinking and judging, not just new information. Sermon Notes (August 22, 2004)


1.3K      5
God ordains our prayers as means of receiving what he plans to give, all to enrich our relationship to him. As the perfect Father of his children, he reserves the right to answer the requests we should have made rather than those we actually made when we have asked for the wrong thing; but he will take action one way or another in every situation of need that we bring before him. Systematic Theology A Lecture


1.5K      4
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. N/A


1.4K      4
Those which are afflicted by God in trials should pray to be bettered before they are delivered.


264      3
If you could be brought once to love secret prayer, and to converse feelingly with God in his word, your heaven will begin on earth; you will enjoy more pleasure than in all manner of riches.


568      3
Prayer must be fired with zeal and fervency.


821      3
What is prayer? It is an offering up of our desires to God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ.Ten Commandments, 239


823      3
A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.


1.2K    3
All the prayers in the Scripture you will find to be reasoning with God, not a multitude of words heaped together.


1.3K      3
I never know a thing well, till it is burned into my heart by prayer.


1.4K      3
The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning.


1.3K      3
Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.


1.4K      3
I am profoundly grateful to God that He did not grant me certain things for which I asked, and that He shut certain doors in my face.


503    2
we read in Acts viii.29: "And the Spirit said unto Philip, GO near, and join thyself to this chariot." It does not say that this thought arose in him, but that a speaking took placePrinciples of Sacred Theology, 442


1K    2
This, then, is a danger in Lectio Divina, that it may teach us to approach the text subjectively rather than objectively, and that in this way it leads to unstable, unsupportable conclusions. Though it appears to elevate piety, it may just train us to preach badly.http://www.challies.com/articles/the-danger-of-lectio-divina


1K    2
The Bible does not tell you which person to marry, or which car to drive, or whether to own a home, where you take your vacation, what cell-phone plan to buy, or which brand of orange juice to drink. Or a thousand other choices you must make. What is necessary is that we have a renewed mind, that is so shaped and so governed by the revealed will of God in the Bible, that we see and assess all relevant factors with the mind of Christ, and discern what God is calling us to do. This is very different from constantly trying to hear God's voice saying do this and do that. People who try to lead their lives by hearing voices are not in sync with Romans 12:2.http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/what-is-the-will-of-god-and-how-do-we-know-it


Do you pray? One of the things that happens in your prayer life is if you think that you gotta earn the favor of God you'll never be a prayer. If you understand the favour of God was granted you in Jesus Christ you'll have a tendency to run to Christ and not from him.Rezweek 2010 Night 1


1.3K    2
[The Bible] frees us to develop our own thoughts and feelings, since we don't have to look for God within our hearts-which is where we are most vulnerable to self-deception and technologies of manipulation. Good News for Anxious Christians (14)


1.1K    2
Beware that you do not help Satan by becoming an unjust accuser of yourself, and an unbeliever in the reality of God's work of grace. I advise you to pray for more knowledge of your own heart, of the fulness of Jesus, and of the devices of the devil. Let doubts and fears drive you to the throne of grace, stir you up to more prayer, send you frequently to Christ. But do not let doubts and fears rob you of your peace.Old Paths, Chapter 8


308      1
Let prayer be the key to open the morning and the bar to shut the evening.


259    1
Many good sermons are lost for lack of much prayer in study.


128    1
One fervent prayer in secret will speak more for our sincerity than many in public.


755    1
Solemn meditation is a serious applying the mind to some sacred subject, till the affections be warmed and quickened, and the resolution heightened and strengthened thereby, against what is evil, and for what is good.


675    1
Reading maketh a full man, prayer a holy man, temptation an experienced man.A Puritan Golden Treasury


84    1
As a body without a soul, much wood without fire, a bullet in a gun without powder, so are words in prayer without spirit.Commentary on Old/New Testaments 5 - 334


209    1
If I throw out a boathook 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.Disciplines of a Godly man


612    1
Don't forget to pray today because God did not forget to wake you up this morning.


344    1
None are so able to plead with men as those who have been wrestling with God on their behalf.Lectures to My Students (p. 45).


0.9K    1
When a young person has to label the voices in her heart "God" in order to believe they're worth listening to, she doesn't really believe it's OK for her to be perceptive about her situation, that it's OK to realize her boyfriend is bad for her and do something about it. In short, she doesn't realize she has a right to be a morally responsible adult. This new theology has undermined her sense of responsibility and self-knowledge-not to mention her faith in God as a real person who exists outside her own thoughts. Relevant Magazine Article: Is This God's Voice or Mine?


1.1K    1
By trying to identify which voice in our hearts is God's we not only misidentify God, we fail to know ourselves for who we really are. Good News for Anxious Christians (8)


1.1K    1
Pray to be taught to pray.


205    0
if thou dost not exercise thyself to godliness in solitude, thou wilt be in great danger of running into sin, and contracting guilt on thy soul.


668    0
What food can compare with the hidden mana? Some persons have excellent banquets in their closets. That bread which the saints each in secret, how pleasant it is!


631    0
Woodruff, an herb of an extraordinary pleasant smell, delighteth in dark and shadowy places; so the Christian, who in company refreseth others with the fragrancy of his graces, loveth sometimes to be obscure and in secret.


537    0
A believer hath business of great weight, when he withdraweth from the press of the world - it is that he might draw nearer to the Lord.


516    0
The saint is many times most busy when he hath nothing to do, and may say more truly than Scipio the African, Nunquam minus solus, quam cum solus, I am never less alone than when alone.


410    0
The fig-tree, olive, and vine, would not leave their sweetness, fatness, and cheerfulness, to be kings over other trees, Judges ix. 11-13. They that know what it is to enjoy God in secret, would not leave it or lose it to be kings or commanders over the whole world.


126    0
Jesus Christ went more willingly to the cross—than we do to the throne of grace.


96    0
Always respond to every impulse to pray. The impulse to pray may come when you are reading or when you are battling with a text. I would make an absolute law of this: always obey such an impulse.


244    0
Prayer is the Christian's element, and as the fish lives in the water as in its element and dies when it is out of it, so a Christian lives in prayer as in his element, and his heart dies when he is out of it.Lifting Up


227    0
The reason why our souls are so empty of joy, is because our mouths are empty of prayer. Both prayer and praise widens the heart for receiving more of Christ's fullness.Works 1 - 33


149    0
You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.Prayer


239    0
The Throne of Grace lieth always open; the more oftener we frequent it, the more welcome. We frown upon one that often troubleth us with his suits, but it is not so with God; we may beg and beg again.Works 7:185


194    0
Paul reminds his readers that the one to whom he prays is more than able to do what is asked. He goes out of his way to stress how far beyond our comprehension God is able to act with the use of phrases such as "above all," and "far beyond" what we might ask or think to ask. The CSB captures it neatly with the contemporary idiomatic translation—God is able to go "above and beyond." Indeed, he is able to do more than we can even imagine asking. Remembering this about God inspires prayer since we know how powerful he is to grant our requests.Pillar Commentary


457    0
only by the Spirit can a person think rightly of the One to whom he prays. They then, not being able to conceive aright of God to whom they pray, of Christ through whom they pray ... how shall they be able to address themselves to God, without the Spirit help this infirmity?


321    0
Prayer is a sincere, sensible, 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 hath promised or, according to the Word, for the good of the church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God


435    0
The effectual prayer of faith is the direct result of a life given up to the will and the love of God. My prayer is heard by God not according to what I try to be when I am praying, but who I am when I am not praying.Believing Prayer


359    0
There can be no true prayer without faith; some measure of faith must precede prayer. Yet prayer is also the way to more faith; there can be no higher degree of faith except through more prayer.Believing Prayer


332    0
Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.


310    0
We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.


304    0
We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there's nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don't want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of 'good time' is seldom in sync with ours.


303    0
Give yourself-not just your time-to prayer. Remember that prayer is not an appendix to your life and your work, it is your life your real, spiritual life-and your work. Prayer is the thermometer of your soul.


300    0
Prayer is abandoning my addiction to other glories and delighting in the one glory that is truly glorious-the glory of God


321    0
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.


260    0
I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?


321    0
A humble and prayerful person will find a thousand things in the Bible, which the proud student will utterly fail to discern.


306    0
Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you.


272    0
Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.


320    0
One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.


272    0
If you would have honour from your children, pray much for them. Not only lay up a portion for them, but lay up a stock of prayer for them. Monica prayed much for her son Augustine; and it was said, it was impossible that a son of so many prayers and tears should perish. Pray that your children may be preserved from the contagion of the times; pray that as your children bear your images in their faces, they may bear God's image in their hearts; pray that they may be instruments and vessels of glory.The Ten Commandments, 137


277      0
O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, 'Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.' Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.


315    0
The thing for us to do is to pray without ceasing; once having come into the presence of God, never to leave it; to abide in His presence and to live, steadily, unbrokenly, continuously, in the midst of whatever distractions or trials, with and in Him. God grant such a life to every one of us!


311    0
For the faithful, Spirit-filled Christian, every place becomes a place of prayer.


270    0
Prayer is not an attempt to get God to agree with you or provide for your selfish desires, but that it is both an affirmation of His sovereignty, righteousness, and majesty and an exercise to conform your desires and purposes to His will and Glory


616    0
The higher the task to which God calls a man, the more does he feel the need of prayer.Daniel Commentary


583    0
Prayer is the very life-breath of true Christianity. It is in prayer, that true religion begins. It is in prayer, that true religion flourishes. It is in prayer, that it decays. Prayer is one of the first evidences of conversion. (Acts 9:11.) Neglect of prayer, is the sure road to a fall. (Matthew 26:40, 41.) Whatever throws light on the subject of prayer, is for our soul's health.https://www.gracegems.org/Ryle/l18.htm


George Mueller confessed that often he could not pray until he had steadied his mind upon a text.22 Is it not the prerogative of God to break the silence? "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek" (Psa 27:8). Is it not fitting that His will should order all the acts of our prayer with Himself? Let us be silent to God, that He may fashion us.The Hidden Life of Prayer


788    0
One sometimes hears it said, "I confess that I do not spend much time in the secret chamber (in quiet, secluded prayer), but I try to cultivate the habit of continual prayer (short prayer in the midst of other activities). And it is implied that this is more and better than that. The two things ought not to be set in opposition. Each is necessary to a well-ordered Christian life; and each was perfectly maintained in the practice of the Lord Jesus.The Hidden Life of Prayer


787    0
And if no better place presents itself, the soul which turns to God may clothe itself in quietness even in the crowded concourse or in the hurrying streets. A poor woman in a great city, never able to free herself from the insistent clamor of her little ones, made for herself a sanctuary in the simplest way. "I threw my apron over my head," she said, "and there is my closet."The Hidden Life of Prayer


787    0
For, although communion with God is the life-energy of the renewed nature, our souls "cleave to the dust," and devotion tends to grow formulaic it becomes emptied of its spiritual content, and exhausts itself in outward acts. The Master reminds us of this grave peril, and informs us that the true defense against insincerity in our approach to God lies in the diligent exercise of private prayer.The Hidden Life of Prayer


786    0
We do not know the true potency of prayer until our hearts are so steadfastly inclined to God that our thoughts turn to Him, as by a divine instinct, whenever they are set free from the consideration of earthly thingsThe Hidden Life of Prayer


794    0
Prayer is the breath of the new creature


803    0
The just man does not desist from praying until he ceases to be just


803    0
Put simply, in the Bible the Spirit is never the object of worship.For the Glory of God, 50


846    0
A true meditation is when a man doth so meditate of Christ as to get his heart inflamed with the love of Christ; so meditate of the Truths of God, as to be transformed into them; and so meditate of sin as to get his heart to hate sin.


793    0
Prayer must carry on our work as well as preaching; he preacheth not heartily to his people, that prayeth not earnestly for them. If we prevail not with God to give them faith and repentance, we shall never prevail with them to believe and repent.


802    0
prayer changes things. Or to put it more theologically, God ordains prayer as a means to change history. There are things that happen because of prayer, and things that do not happen because of no prayer. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says that if his people will humble themselves and pray, then he will forgive their sin and heal their land. In Luke 11:9-10, Jesus says that he who seeks, finds. And James 4:2 says that if we don't have things we need, it is because we do not ask. Prayer really does work.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 26957-26961). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.


831    0
prayer is a means of fellowship with our heavenly Father - In Luke 11:9-13, Jesus says that prayer is like a child's going to his earthly father. Cf. Matt. 6:9. The child wants something, and the father is eager to give. But the father does not give until the child asks. Any of us who are parents understand the dynamic here. We want to give good things to our children, but even more, we want a good relationship with them. Our heavenly Father wants the same. He does not want to be a kind of machine that dispenses goods, but to really be our Father, a real person.Systematic Theology


831    0
How many evils is man exposed to, whether he be at home or abroad! Anacreon lost his life by the kernel of a raisin going wrong down his throat. Fabius, a senator of Rome, in a draught of milk swallowing a small hair, was strangled. Do not your daily sins cry aloud for daily punishments? And should you not in daily prayer cry as loud that God in mercy would prevent them?How May the Duty of Family Prayer Be Best Managed for the Spiritual Benefit of Every One in the Family?


790    0
if God be the Founder, Owner, Governor, and Benefactor of families, then families are jointly to worship God and pray unto Him.How May the Duty of Family Prayer Be Best Managed for the Spiritual Benefit of Every One in the Family?


818    0
what monstrous wickedness it is! God hath kept you all safe in the night, and yet in the morning you do not say, "Where is the Lord that did preserve us? Come, come, let us give joint praises to Him!"What God is to Families


799    0
I hope you will never be averse to it or weary of it. God forbid you should: you are not weary of meal times, if you be healthy. Know and keep these appointed times of coming to God. If you promise to meet a person of quality at such an hour when the clock strikes, you rise up, crave pardon, and tell the company [that someone] tarries for you, you must be gone. Oh, take not more liberty with God than you would do with men, and keep your hearts continually in a frame for duty.A Remedy for Decaying Religion


826    0
May the Lord grant that we may engage in the contemplation of the mysteries of God's heavenly wisdom with ever increasing devotion to God's glory and our edification.


858    0
Texts will often refuse to reveal their treasures till you open them with the key of prayer.Lectures to My Students (p. 43). Zondervan.


0.9K    0
Prayer is not simply petition, but strenuous petition. It is... active pleading with God. It consists not merely in reflection on the promises of God but in taking hold of these promises.


830    0
Christian meditation, however, is quite rational, even argumentative. "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?" David says in Psalm 42, literally contending with his own heart. Mantra meditation seeks to suppress the analytical side of the mind. Christian meditation, however, stimulates our analysis and reflection- and centers it on the glory and grace of God.Prayer, 150


890    0
The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible, but it is noteworthy that the first Psalm is not a prayer per se but a meditation- in fact, it is a meditation on meditation. This Psalm's prime place is not an accident.Prayer, 146


874    0
Prayer- though it is often draining, even an agony- is in the long term the greatest source of power that is possible.Prayer, 140


868    0
It remains for us to seek in him, and in prayers to ask of him, what we have learned to be in him.


853    0
As far as I can see, prayer has been ordained only for the helpless.... Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only he who is helpless can truly pray.


830    0
I pray to the Father through the mediation of the Son and the enabling of the Holy Spirit. I may speak also to the Son and the Spirit directly when this is appropriate: that is, when I am praying about something that Scripture specified as the direct concern of either.


854    0
To come to the Father in Jesus' name, not our own, is to come fully cognizant that we are being heard because of the costly grace in which we stand. This is the one principle of prayer that makes it possible to be heard by God even though no one can follow all the other guidelines and "rules" as we should.Prayer, 125


865    0
This is why in the Lord's Prayer we don't get to the petition for our daily bread and needs until we have spent time remembering the greatness of God and reigniting our love for him. Only then can we pray rightly for happiness and for our needs.Prayer, 87


860    0
The only time in the all the gospels that Jesus Christ prays to God and doesn't call him Father is on the cross, when he says, "My God, my God, why have you forgotten me? Why have you forsaken me?" Jesus lost his relationship with the Father so that we could have a relationship with God as father. Jesus was forgotten so that we could be remembered forever- from everlasting to everlasting. Jesus Christ bore all the eternal punishment that our sins deserve. That is the cost of prayer. Jesus paid the price so God could be our father.Prayer, 80


868    0
a non-cognitive closeness to God in which the mind is emptied of all personal thoughts about him, and indeed of all thoughts whatsoever, [is Eastern] mysticism in Western dress.Praying: Finding Our Way through Duty to Delight (65)


883    0
Davis concludes that, though they are not without their merits, the methods of "Centering Prayer" and "the Jesus Prayer" are not entirely appropriate for those who understand prayer as a response to God's verbal revelation in the Bible and as a gift given to those secure in God's grace. Centering Prayer is based, like the fourteenth-century work The Cloud of Unknowing, on the idea of God as pure spirit within us and beyond all thoughts, concepts, and images.Prayer, 53


886    0
We humans may say, "Let there be light in this room," but then we have to flick a switch or light a candle. Our words need deeds to back them up and can fail to achieve their purposes. God's words, however, cannot fail their purposes because, for God, speaking and acting are the same thing. The God of the Bible is a God who "by his very nature, acts through speaking."Prayer, 53


844    0
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.


0.9K    0
If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation. Let this be one aspect of our daily intercession: 'God, preserve my soul, and keep my heart and all its ways so that I will not be entangled.' When this is true in our lives, a passing temptation will not overcome us. We will remain free while others lie in bondage.


1K    0
God intends to use human prayers to accomplish his most ultimate and universal purposes.


0.9K    0
Do you know that the essence of true prayer is found in the two words in verse 9, Our Father? I suggest that if you can say from your heart, whatever your condition, My Father, in a sense your prayer is already answered. It is just this realization of our relationship to God that we so sadly lack.Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (327)


1K    0
To come in the name of someone means that another person has authorized us to come on his authority, not on our own.Systematic Theology (379)


1K    0
The prayer of a Christian is not an attempt to force God's hand, but a humble acknowledgement of helplessness and dependence.Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God


1K    0
Their petitions are so vague they would scarcely recognize an answer if it were given: their requests are so lacking in precision that the next day the petitioner himself finds it difficult to remember what he asked for. No wonder such praying is profitless to the soul, and brings little to pass


1K    0
Our spiritual immaturity never shows up more than in our lack of praying, be it alone or in a church prayer meeting. Let 20% of the choir members fail to turn up for rehearsal and the choir master is offended. Let 20% of the church members turn up for a prayer meeting, and the pastor is elated.


1K    0
Before you make your requests known unto God, pray, worship, adore. Come into the presence of God and for the time being forget your problems. Do not start with them. Just realize that you are face to face with God.Spiritual Depression (267)


1K    0
The richness of God's Word ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.


1K    0
No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shopwindow to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off.


1K    0
If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word - prayer. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.


1.1K    0
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.


1.1K    0
If the pump of love runs dry, it is because the pipe of prayer isn't deep enough. Desiring God (Chapter 6)


1.1K    0
we should be simple in our wording and reject anything like a repetitive mantra that would imply God is aroused by our monotonous incantations. What Jesus Demands from the World(107)


1.1K    0
People who really believe that man must have the ultimate self-determination, can't consistently pray that God would convert unbelieving sinners. Why? Because if they pray for divine influence in a sinner's life they are either praying for a successful influence (which takes away the sinner's ultimate self-determination), or they are praying for an unsuccessful influence (which is not praying for God to convert the sinner). So either you give up praying for God to convert sinners or you give up ultimate human self-determination. Pleasures of God(219)


1.1K    0
Most of us use "I'm waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life" as a means of avoiding action. Did you hear God calling you to sit in front of the television yesterday? Or to go on your last vacation? Or exercise this morning? Probably not, but you still did it. The point isn't that vacations or exercise are wrong, but that we are quick to rationalize our entertainment and priorities yet are slow to commit to serving God. Crazy Love(167)


1K    0
The practice of listening for God's voice in your heart is a very new development and it's deeply flawed. It has only recently displaced Scripture as the most important way, in the view of many Christians, that God reveals Himself to us, thanks in no small part to widespread promotion of the idea by otherwise evangelical churches and youth groups. Relevant Magazine Article: Is This God's Voice or Mine?


1.1K    0
Prayer has the wonderful capacity to highlight our emptiness and God's fullness at the same time. It is wonderfully suited to express our inadequacy and God's all-sufficiency. When prayer looks away from our flaws and deficiencies to God for his future grace, he gets the glory he deserves and we get the good that we need. Future Grace (107)


1.1K    0
many young people who couldn't recite all Ten Commandments if their life depended on it get up in the morning and "listen" for God to tell them what to do that day. For them, the revealed will of God has been replaced by the thoughts of their own hearts. Good News for Anxious Christians (64)


1.1K    0

v2.12    © 2024 StephenRamsay.com    


Contact Us