"MEN OUGHT ALWAYS TO PRAY, AND NOT FAINT"
"Action without prayer is arrogance, Prayer without action is hypocrisy." Jose Zayas
"Give yourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. If you do not pray, God will probably lay you aside from your ministry, as He did me, to teach you to pray." - Robert Murray McCheyne
"The evangelization of the world depends first of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for men - aye, deep down at the bottom of our spiritless life, is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer."- Andrew Murray
"Prayer and praise are to the Christian as the two wings are to the bird. Don't expect the bird to fly if one wing is broken. Even so the Christian needs both prayer and praise." - J. Wesley Adcock, in The Holy Spirit in Life and Labors.
"Before a word of petition is offered, we should have the definite and vivid consciousness that we are talking to God and should believe that He is listening to our petition and is going to grant the thing that we ask of Him. We should look to the Holy Spirit to really lead us into the presence of God and should not be hasty in words until He has actually brought us there." R. A. Torrey, in How to Pray (added 12/14/03)
1 You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. -- A. J. Gordon
2 I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer. -- Martin Luther
3 The story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer. -- E. M. Bounds
4 The greatest and best talent that God gives to any man or woman in this world is the talent of prayer. --Alexander Whyte
5 The world needs more true praying to save it from the reign and ruin of Satan. -- E.M. Bounds
6 Prayer "is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings." --Chrysostom
7 Prayer is the supreme way to be workers together with God. -- Wesley L. Duewel
8 Prayer is the master strategy that God gives for the defeat and rout of Satan. -- Wesley L. Duewel
9 Prayer is God's ordained way to bring His miracle power to bear in human need. -- Wesley L. Duewel
10 Walking with God down the avenue of prayer we acquire something of His likeness, and unconsciously we become witnesses to others of His beauty and His grace. -- E. M. Bounds
11 Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honors God and brings him into active aid. -- E.M. Bounds
12 The first and last stages of holy living are crowned with praying. -- E.M. Bounds
13 The conditions of praying are the conditions of righteousness, holiness, and salvation. -- E. M. Bounds
14 Sainthood's piety is made, refined, perfected, by prayer. The gospel moves with slow and timid pace when the saints are not at their prayers early and late and long. - E. M. Bounds
15 Heaven is too busy to listen to half-hearted prayers or to respond to pop-calls. - E. M. Bounds
16 Praying men must be strong in hope, and faith, and prayer. - E.M. Bounds
17 Jesus taught that perseverance is the essential element in prayer. - E. M. Bounds
18 The goal of prayer is the ear of God. E. M. Bounds
19 Prayer should not be regarded "as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty." - E.M. Bounds
20 God's children should pray. They should cry day and night to Him. God hears every one of your cries in the busy hour of the daytime and in the lonely watches of the night. - Robert Murray McCheyne
21 Prayer succeeds when all else fails. - E.M. Bounds
22 We can never expect to grow in the likeness of our Lord unless we follow His example and give more time to communion with the Father. A revival of real praying would produce a spiritual revolution. - E.M. Bounds
23 Holy living is essential preparation for prayer. - E.M. Bounds
24 Prayer is not the cunning art of using God, subjecting Him to one's selfish ends in an effort to get out of Him what you want. - F.J. Huegel
25 According to Soren Kierkegaard prayer is "a silent surrendering of everything to God."
26 All that true prayer seeks is God Himself, for with Him we get all we need. - The Kneeling Christian
27 The greatest blow sent Satan-ward is made by weeping warriors of prayer. - Dick Eastman
28 Bob Pierce, regarding prayer,"Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God."
29 "Men ought always to pray, and not faint." - Bible, Luke 18:1
30 I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came at some time; no matter at how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the least I would have devised, it came. - Adoniram Judson
31. I live in the spirit of prayer; I pray as I walk, when I lie down and when I rise, and the answers are always coming. - George Mueller
32 Let me burn out for God. After all, whatever God may appoint, prayer is the great thing. Oh, that I might be a man of prayer! - Henry Martyn
33 Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them. - John Calvin
34. Only turning God's house into a house of fervent prayer will reverse the power of evil so evident in the world today. -- Jim Cymbala
35. I learned as never before that persistent calling upon the Lord breaks through every stronghold of the devil, for nothing is impossible with God. For Christians in these troubled times, there is simply no other way. - Jim Cymbala, in Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
36 The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. - Samuel Chadwick
37 The greatest hindrance to effective prayer is sin. Satan's greatest goal is to keep us from our knees. - Dick Eastman
38. We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties. - Oswald Chambers
39 Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian. -- Andrew Murray
40 O Brother, pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; rather fast and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper- and sleep too- than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber. -- Andrew A. Bonar
41 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. -- James 5:16, The Holy Bible
42 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. -- Oswald Chambers
43 "The 1990's will be a decade where we must focus on prayer as the main thrust to accomplish God's will and purpose on earth. The forces against us have never been greater and this is the only way we can release God's power to become victorious." -- John Maxwell, of Injoy Ministries (Amen! Still true! - Miles, 12/01/05)
44 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
45 Prayer, real prayer, is lethal to Satan's cause. -- Selected
46 Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all chains, opens all prisons, and widens all straits by which God's saints have been held. -- E. M. Bounds
47 Prayer is repeating the victor's name (Jesus) into the ears of Satan and insisting on his retreat. -- S. D. Gordon
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. -- James 4:7
48 Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. - The Kneeling Christian
49 He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal. -- C. S. Spurgeon
50 Even so, to our knees, O Christians! Desist the folly of sprinkling today's individual and international iniquity with theological rose water! Turn loose against this putrefaction those mighty rivers of weeping, of prayer, and of unctionized preaching until all be cleansed. -- Leonard Ravenhill
51 The coming revival must begin with a great revival of prayer. It is in the closet, with the door shut, that the sound of abundance of rain will first be heard. An increase of secret prayer with ministers will be the sure harbinger of blessing. -- Andrew Murray
52 Prayer is the only adequate way to multiply our efforts fast enough to reap the harvest God desires. -- Wesley L. Duewel
53 Prayer is the Christian's first line of defense against demonic influence. Fervent, sincere prayer thwarts Satan's activity like nothing else. -- The Bondage Breaker
54 A life growing in its purity and devotion will be a more prayerful life. -- E. M. Bounds
55 Pray alone. Let prayer be the key of the morning and the bolt at night. The best way to fight against sin is to fight it on our knees. -- Philip Henry
56 Holiness is not to love Jesus and do whatever you want. Holiness is to love God and do what He wants. -- C. Peter Wagner
Holiness is as indispenable for a spiritual warrior as is eyesight for a military fighter pilot. - C. Peter Wagner
57 God uses prayer to educate His people and to produce holiness of character in them. - Harold Lindsell
58 The Holy Spirit is the greatest teacher of prayer. Lord, teach us to pray. -- Selected
59 All real growth in the spiritual life,
all victory over temptation,
all confidence and peace in the presence of difficulties and dangers,
all repose of spirit in times of great disappointment or loss,
all habitual communion with God, - depends upon the practice of secret prayer. - The Kneeling Christian
60 If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith. -- Martin Luther
61 The man who has gotten God's word in the prayer closet neither seeks nor expects encouragement from men for the delivery of that word. the Spirit Himself bears witness of the approval. -- Leonard Ravenhill
62 He only can truly pray who is all aglow for holiness, for God, and for heaven. E. M. Bounds
63 The stream of praying cannot rise higher than the fountain of living. -- E. M. Bounds
64 Nothing you can do will benefit you more than prayer. -- Paul Y. Cho
65. When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is set them a-praying. - Matthew Henry
66. "When God has something very great to accomplish for His church, it is His will that there should precede it, the extraordinary prayers of His people; as is manifest by Ezek. 36, 37, together with the context. And it is revealed that when God is about to accomplish great things for His Church, He will begin by remarkably pouring out the spirit of grace and supplication (Zach. 12:10). ...I should think the people of God in this land would be in the way of their duty to do three times as much fasting and prayer as they do" Jonathan Edwards, from his Thoughts on Revival, Part 5.
67. God's command to "pray without ceasing" is founded on the necessity we have of his grace to preserve the life of God in the soul, which can no more subsist one moment without it, than the body can without air. - John Wesley
68. Whether we think of, or speak to, God, whether we act or suffer for him, all is prayer, when we have no other object than his love, and the desire of pleasing him. - John Wesley
69. All that a Christian does, even in eating and sleeping, is prayer, when it is done in simplicity, according to the order of God, without either adding to or diminishing from it by His choice. - John Wesley
70. Prayer continues in the desire of the heart, though the understanding be employed on outward things. - John Wesley
71. In souls filled with love, the desire to please God is continual prayer. - John Wesley
73. 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. - John Wesley
74. To pray with bitterness toward fellowmen nullifies hours on our knees.- Dick Eastman
75. Prayer is the highest order of business, for it links a powerless human to the creative force of God's sovereign power.- Selected
76. The price of prayerlessness far exceeds the price of prayer.- Selected
77. TAKE TIME TO PRAY
78. The prayer of faith is the only power in the universe to which the Great Jehovah yields. Prayer is the sovereign remedy.- Robert Hall
79. If the spirit of prayer departs, it is a sure indication of a backslidden heart, for while the first love of a Christian continues he is sure to be drawn by the Holy Spirit to wrestle much in prayer. -Charles G. Finney, in Revival Lectures
80. To pray as a duty and as if obliging God by our prayer, is quite ridiculous, and is certain indication of a backslidden heart.- Charles G. Finney
81. Probably in the Day of Judgment it will be found that nothing is ever done by the truth, used ever so zealously, unless there is a spirit of prayer somewhere in connection with the presentation of truth.- Charles G. Finney
82. Prevailing , or effectual prayer, is that prayer which attains the blessing that it seeks. - Charles G. Finney
83. When Christians are united, and praying as they ought, God opens the windows of heaven, and pours out His blessing till there is not room to receive it (Read Mal. 3:10).
84. Prayer is the vital breath of the Christian; not the thing that makes him alive, but the evidence that he is alive. - Oswald Chambers
85. A prayer-meeting is an index to the state of religion in a Church. - Charles G. Finney
86. Never say you will pray about a thing; pray about it. -Oswald Chambers
87. Nothing is clearer than that prayer has its only worth and significance in the great fact that God hears and answers prayer. -E. M. Bounds
88. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear me. - David, Psalm 55:17
89. Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in prayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to Him, make prayer a rare and feeble thing. - E. M. Bounds
90. ...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.- James 5:16b
91. Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer. - E. M. Bounds
92. Prayer is the acid test of devotion. - Samuel Chadwick
93. The only power that God will yield to is that of prayer. - Leonard Ravenhill
94. One of the cornerstones of a healthy church is having people who are faithful in prayer. - Selected
95. We don't have praying churches, just praying people who make up praying churches. - Selected
96. It is always too soon to quit praying, even when praying is the last thing we seem able to do. - Harold Lindsell, in When You Pray
96b. Pray without ceasing.- 1Thessalonians 5:17
97. As is the business of tailors to make clothes and cobblers to make shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray. - Martin Luther
98. Prayerlessness is sin. - Harold Lindsell
98b. God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. - Samuel, from 1Samuel 12:23
98c. Prayerlessness is disobedience, for God's command is that men ought always to pray and not faint. To be prayerless is to fail God, for He says, "Ask of me." - Leonard Ravenhill, in Revival Praying
98d. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.-Jer. 33:3
99. Prayer is my chief work, and it is by means of it that I carry on the rest. -Thomas Hooker, Puritan
100. The prayer life does not consist of perpetual repetition of petitions. The prayer life consists of life that is always upward and onward and Godward. - George Campbell Morgan
101. The true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer. - Leonard Ravenhill
102. We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. That is the teaching of Jesus Christ. -E. M. Bounds
103. Notice, we never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray! For prayer is a great detergent. - Leonard Ravenhill
104. Prayer wonderfully clears the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; sweetens and strengthens the spirit. -S.D. Gordon
105. The secret of all failure is our failure in secret prayer. - The Kneeling Christian
106. People may spurn our appeals, reject our messages, oppose our arguments, despise our persons; but they are helpless against our prayers. - Thomas Lindberg.
107. We must bear in mind that mere resolutions to take more time for prayer and to conquer reluctance to pray will not prove lastingly effective unless there is a whole hearted and absolute surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. - The Kneeling Christian
108. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. - The Kneeling Christian (Also, see Philippians 4:6)
109. The prayer of the saints is never self-important, but always God-important. - Oswald Chambers
110. Unless the heart is right the prayer must be wrong. - The Kneeling Christian
111. There is no greater test to spirituality than prayer. The man who tries to pray quickly discovers just where he stands in God's sight. - The Kneeling Christian
112. Prayer is not given us as a burden to be borne or an irksome duty to fulfill, but to be a joy and power to which there is no limit. - The Kneeling Christian
113. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4:16
114. All hindrance to prayer arises from ignorance of the teaching of God's Holy Word on the life of holiness He has planned for all His children or from an unwillingness to consecrate ourselves fully to Him. - The Kneeling Christian
115. ...prayer is partnership with God in His planet-sized purposes, and includes the "all things" beside, as an important detail of the whole. - S. D. Gordon
116. God's greatest agency; man's greatest agency, for defeating the enemy and winning men back is intercession. -S. D. Gordon
117. The mightiest prayers are often those drenched with the Word of God. - Herbert Lockyer
118. The man who, despite the teaching of Scripture, tries to pray without a Savior, insults the deity. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
119. ...True prayer is measured by weight,-not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length. - C. H. Spurgeon
120. If you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ. - C. H. Spurgeon
121. When God's mercies are coming, their footfalls are our desires to pray. -C. H. Spurgeon
122. God will hear His people at the beginning of their prayers if the condition of their heart is ready for it. -C. H. Spurgeon
123. A true prayer is an inventory of needs, a catalog of necessities, an exposure of secret wounds, a revelation of hidden poverty. - C. H. Spurgeon
124. Prayer plumes the wings of God's young eaglets so that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer brings inner strength to God's warriors and sends them forth to spiritual battle with their muscles firm and their armor in place. - C.H. Spurgeon
125. Prayer is not a hard requirement- it is the natural duty of a creature to its creator, the simplest homage that human need can pay to divine liberality. -C. H. Spurgeon
126. God's mercy visits every house where night and morning prayers are made, but where these are neglected, sin is incurred. -C. H. Spurgeon
127. Our prayers may be very beautiful in appearance and might appear to be the very paragon of devotion, but unless there is a secret spiritual force in them, they are vain things. -C. H. Spurgeon
128. Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then, my dear brother; pray, pray, pray. - Edward Payson
129. Little praying is a kind of make believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion. - E. M. Bounds
130. Importunate praying is the earnest inward movement of the heart toward God. -E. M. Bounds
131. No principle is more definitely enforced by Christ than that prevailing prayer must have in it the quality which waits and perseveres, the courage that never surrenders, the patience which never grows tired, the resolution that never wavers. E. M. Bounds
132. The word of God is the food by which prayer is nourished and made strong. - E. M. Bounds
A DAILY PRAYER TO PRAY
133. Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine, and tarry within it until the eventide. Inspire all my thoughts. Pervade all my imaginations. Suggest all my decisions. Lodge in my soul's most inward citadel, and order all my doings. Be with me in silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and the weariness of the evening. Give me grace at all times to rejoice in Thy mysterious companionship. - John Baillie, in Herald of His Coming
134. Prayer is not a load to be carried but a gift to be enjoyed.- Selected
134b. Prayer makes the darkened clouds withdraw;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love,
Brings every blessing from above. - Leonard Ravenhill
135. There is nothing to be valued more highly than to have people praying for us; God links up his power in answer to their prayers. - Oswald Chambers
136. Our greatest victories are won on our knees and with empty stomachs- Julio C. Ruibal
137.Continue in prayer, and though the blessing tarry, it must come; in God's own time it must appear to you.- C. H. Spurgeon
138. ...a man who kneels before God will stand before men.- Leonard Ravenhill
139. ... he that is never on his knees on earth, shall never stand upon his feet in heaven.- C. H. Spurgeon
140. If your faith does not make you pray, have nothing to do with it: get rid of it, and God help thee to begin again. C. H. Spurgeon
141. When we discern that people are not going on spiritually and allow the discernment to turn to criticism, we block our way to God. God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede. - Oswald Chambers
142 If the spiritual life be healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying without ceasing will be natural. - Andrew Murray
143. Without set times of prayer, the spirit of prayer will be dull and feeble. Without the continual prayerfulness, the set times will not avail. - Andrew Murray
144. Scripture calls us to pray for many things: for all saints; for all men; for kings and all rulers; for all who are in adversity; for the sending forth of laborers; for those who labor in the gospel; for all converts; for believers who have fallen into sin; for one another in our immediate circles. - Andrew Murray
145. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is His delight. Proverbs 15:8
146. For this sin hungry age we need a prayer-hungry Church. We need to explore again the "exceeding great and precious promises of God." In "that great day," the fire of judgment is going to test the sort, not the size, of the work we have done. That which is born in prayer will survive the test. Prayer does business with God. Prayer creates hunger for souls; hunger for souls creates prayer. The understanding soul prays, the praying soul gets understanding. To the soul who prays in self-owned weakness, the Lord gives His strength...Lord, let us pray- Leonard Ravenhill, in Why Revival Tarries,
147. It takes a tremendous amount of reiteration on God's part before we understand what prayer is. We do not pray at all until we are at our wits' end. - Oswald Chambers
148. The Ministry of Prayer, if it be anything worthy of the Name, is a ministry of ardor, a ministry of unwearied and intense longing after God and His holiness. - E. M. Bounds
149. The revelation of our spiritual standing is what we ask in prayer; sometimes what we ask is an insult to God; we ask with our eyes on the possibilities or on ourselves, not on Jesus Christ. - Oswald Chambers
150. ...our Lord prayed because He was concentrated on God; that is, He did not worship prayer. - Oswald Chambers
151. ... in times of declension we are inclined to place the need of prayer instead of penitent approach to God in the fore front. - Oswald Chambers
152. The purpose of prayer is the maintenance of fitness in an ideal relationship with God amid conditions which ought not to be merely ideal but really actual. ...by prayer we lay hold on God and He unites us into His consciousness. - Oswald Chambers
152b. The purpose of prayer is to reveal the presence of God equally present all the time in every condition. - Oswald Chambers
153. Our Lord did not say it was wrong to pray in the corners of the street, but He did say it was wrong to have the motive to "be seen of men". - Oswald Chambers
154. It is not wrong to pray in the early morning, but it is wrong to have the motive that it should be known. - Oswald Chambers
155. To pray strenuously needs careful cultivation. We have to learn the most natural methods of expressing ourselves to our Father. - Oswald Chambers
156. ...a most beneficial exercise in secret prayer before the Father is to write things down exactly so I see exactly what I think and want to say. Only those who have tried these ways know the ineffable benefit of such strenuous times in secret. - Oswald Chambers
157. Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our person- but they are helpless against our prayer. Fellow Christians who love the cause of Christ- to prayer! To prayer! The times are calling us to it. We must press on. -- Sidlow Baxter
158. Prayer is not logical, it is a mysterious moral working of the Holy Spirit. - Oswald Chambers
159. We lean to our own understanding, or we bank on service and do away with prayer, and consequently by succeeding in the external we fail in the eternal, because in the eternal we succeed only by prevailing prayer. - Oswald Chambers
160. Prayer means that I come in contact with an almighty Christ, and almighty results happen along the lines He laid down. - Oswald Chambers
161. See that you do not use the trick of prayer to cover up what you know you ought to do., Oswald Chambers
162. The man who has gotten God's word in the prayer closet neither seeks nor expects encouragement from men for the delivery of that word. The Spirit himself bears witness of the approval.- Leonard Ravenhill
163. How wilt thou get a word from God if thou do not seek it? And how canst thou seek it but by earnest prayer? If otherwise, thou mayest get something that is the product of thy empty head to mumble over before the people, and spend a little time with them in the church. But O, it is a miserable preaching where the preacher can say, "Thus say I unto you, but no more",; and cannot say, "Thus saith the Lord." - Thomas Boston of Simprin (1699)
164. All earthly things with earth will pass away; Prayer grasps eternity. Then pray, always pray! - E. H. Bickersteth
166. True prayer is a lonely business - Samuel Chadwick
167. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Power helpeth our infirmity in prayer.
The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Life ends our deadness in prayer.
The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Wisdom delivers us from ignorance in this holy art of prayer.
The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Fire delivers us from coldness in prayer.
The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Might comes to our aid in our weakness as we pray. - Leonard Ravenhill
168. (Re: "rend your hearts" Joel 2:13) We rend our hearts:
by godly consideration and examination;
by the conviction of the Holy Spirit;
by recognition of our failure to pray;
by confessing that we have more appetite for material food than for spiritual;
by acknowledging that we like the company of men more than the company of God;
by abhorring ourselves because we love to play more than pray. - Leonard Ravenhill,
169. Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian.- Andrew Murray
170. A sense of the need of souls;
a Christlike love in the heart;
a consciousness of personal impotence;
faith in the power of prayer;
courage to persevere in spite of refusal;
and the assurance of an abundant reward;
these are the dispositions that constitute a Christian an intercessor, and call forth the power of prevailing prayer. - Andrew Murray
171. Every work of God can be traced to some kneeling form. - Dwight L. Moody
172. ...get a place for prayer where no one imagines that that is what you are doing. Shut the door and talk to God. - Oswald Chambers
173. Learn to be vicarious in public prayer. Allow two rivers to come through you: the river of God, and the river of human interests. Beware of the danger of preaching in prayer, of being doctrinal. - Oswald Chambers
174. We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties. Oswald Chambers
175. Prayer is God's ordained way, the insignificant way of prayer. -- Oswald Chambers
176. ...the purpose of prayer is to reveal the Presence of God, equally present at all times and in every condition. -- Oswald Chambers
177. Prayer is the key to success. Not to pray is to fail. To pray aright is never to fail. - Amzi Clarence Dixon
178. The place of real prayer is the Christian's treasure chamber. He is there in the midst of the treasures of grace which God has given him, and it is there that God enriches him more and more; but in the secret place of the Most High where he dwells, he is rich in love, joy, peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit. - Amzi Clarence Dixon
179. HOW TO PRAY:
A. Pray Genuinely. Matt. 6:5 In prayer be genuine, for you are dealing with God.
B. Pray Secretly. Matt. 6:6 All real prayer is private with God the only auditor.
C. Pray Definitely. Matt. 6:7 God wants us to express our needs in a clear, intelligent manner.
D. Pray Fraternally. Matt.6:9 "Our Father" We are...united in family ties to all Christians.
E. Pray Reverently. Matt. 6:9 " Hallowed be thy name" Let no word pass our lips which in any way takes the name of God in vain.
F. Pray Loyally and Hopefully. Matt. 6:10 "Thy kingdom come" While we are permitted to be lovingly familiar, we must be loyally true.
G. Pray Submissively and Aggressively. Matt. 6:10 "Thy will be done" His will is law, and it is never violated. Such is the standard we should have before us, and we should be satisfied with nothing less.
H. Pray dependently. Matt. 6:11 "Give us this day our daily bread" ...the word "daily"...has in it no thought of time. It means "needed", "necessary."
I. Pray Cautiously. Matt. 6:13 "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One." We should keep as far from danger as possible.
-taken from sermon "How to Pray", by Amzi Clarence Dixon
180. ...Our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered. - Oswald Chambers
181. The tendency nowadays is to worship prayer, stress is put on nights of prayer and the difficulty and cost of prayer. It is not prayer that is strenuous, but the overcoming of our own laziness. If we make the basis of prayer our effort and agony and nights of prayer, we mistake the basis of prayer. The basis of prayer is not what it costs us, but what it costs God to enable us to pray. - Oswald Chambers
182. God answers prayer on the ground of Redemption and on no other ground. - Oswald Chambers
183. The whole meaning of prayer is that we may know God. - Oswald Chambers
183b. If God sees that my spiritual life will be furthered by giving the things for which I ask, then He will give them, but that is not the end of prayer. The end of prayer is that I come to know God Himself. - Oswald Chambers
184. Inarticulate prayer, the impulsive prayer that looks so futile, is the thing God always heeds. The habit of ejaculatory prayer ought to be the persistent habit of each one of us. - Oswald Chambers
185. When we learn to pray in the Holy Ghost, we find there are some things for which we cannot pray, there is a sense of restraint. Never push and say, "I know it is God's will and I am going to stick to it." Beware, remember what is recorded of the children of Israel: "He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." - Oswald Chambers
186. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life. - Oswald Chambers
187. We think of prayer as a preparation for work, or a calm after having done work, whereas prayer is the essential work. It is the supreme activity of everything that is noblest in our personality. - Oswald Chambers
188. The whole life of the believer should be prayer--and this is the summary and conclusion--every act, every word, every wish. The act that is not prayer in the ultimate, and the word which is not prayer in the last analysis, and the wish that is not prayer in the profoundest depth are to be put away; they do not become the life of faith. They are things that produce fainting. - George Campbell Morgan
189. Prayer is life passionately wanting, wishing, desiring God's triumph. Prayer is life striving and toiling everywhere and always for that ultimate victory. - George Campbell Morgan
190. Oh, how strenuous is life! I know a little of it. Men "ought always to pray, and not to faint." How fierce the battle! I know something of the conflict, but I ought not to faint, because I can pray. - George Campbell Morgan
191. Men ought not to faint because men ought to pray. - George Campbell Morgan
192. Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer can do. — Charles Spurgeon
193. Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible. — Corrie ten Boom
194. Prayer for revival will prevail when it is accompanied by radical amendment of life; not before. - A.W.Tozer
195. "Too busy; O forgive, Dear Lord, that I should ever be, too much engrossed in earthly tasks, to spend an hour with thee." -- A.B. Christiansen
196. "O, let the place of secret prayer become to me the most beloved spot on earth." -- Andrew Murray
197. "The secret of praying is praying in secret." -- Leonard Ravenhill
198. "Prayer itself is an art which only the Holy Ghost can teach us. He is the giver of all prayer. Pray for prayer- pray till you can pray." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
199. The prayer of the feeblest saint who lives in the Spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to Satan. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer; no spiritualistic seance can succeed in the presence of a humble praying saint. No wonder Satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer. -- Oswald Chambers
200. Let none expect to have the mastery over his inward corruption in any degree, without going in weakness again and again to the Lord for strength. Nor will prayer for others, or conversing with the brethren, make up for secret prayer. - George Mueller
201. The prayer life does not consist of perpetual repetition of petitions. The prayer life consists of life that is always upward and onward and Godward. - George Campbell Morgan
202. Prayer is simple, prayer is supernatural, and to anyone not related to our Lord Jesus Christ, prayer is apt to look stupid. - Oswald Chambers
203. Our true character comes out in the way we pray. - Oswald Chambers
204. Prayer imparts the power to walk and not faint. - Oswald Chambers
205. Prayer is not getting things from God, that is the most initial stage; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God; I tell Him what I know He knows in order that I may get to know it as He does. - Oswald Chambers
206. Prayer is the answer to every problem there is. - Oswald Chambers
207. Never make the blunder of trying to forecast the way God is going to answer your prayer. - Oswald Chambers
208. It will be a wonderful moment for some of us when we stand before God and find that the prayers we clamoured for in early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and that God's silence has been the sign of the answer. If we always want to be able to point to something and say, "This is the way God answered my prayer," God cannot trust us yet with His silence. - Oswald Chambers
