Sayings about PrayerSome quotations suitable to illustrate teaching

If we would return to apostolic practice — waiting upon the Lord for apostolic power — we could then go forth to apostolic possibilities! Ravenhill

The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones that do. The Apple Advert

When we are one with God’s love, we own all things in him. They are ours to offer him in Christ his Son. For all things belong to the sons and daughters of God and we are Christ’s and Christ is God’s. Thomas Merton

It continues…

Prayer is the language of one burdened with a sense of need. It is the voice of the beggar, conscious of his poverty, asking of another the things he needs. Not to pray is not only to declare there is nothing needed, but to admit to a non-realisation of that need. E.M.Bounds

To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all-seeing, within you. Theophan the Recluse

God has left certain things open to prayer — things which will never be done except as we pray. Stanley Jones

God does nothing on earth save in answer to believing prayer. John Wesley

It is the spirit of gratitude that draws down upon us the overflow of God’s grace. No sooner have we thanked him for a blessing than he speedily sends us ten additional gifts. Therese of Lisieux

Prayer is doing business with God and is every bit as practical as any earthly transaction. Virginia Whitman

A good image of persistence in prayer — it is like love of your children — you take care of them and their needs no matter how you happen to be feeling at the moment. Jim Forest

If there be anything I know, anything that I am quite assured of beyond all question, it is that praying breath is never spent in vain. Charles Spurgeon

Prayer is not manipulating an unseen deity to get one’s way, but a risking of one’s being in the incandescent source of love. Anon

The work of praying is prerequisite to all other work in the kingdom of God, for the simple reason that it is by prayer that we couple the powers of heaven to our helplessness, the powers which can turn water into wine and remove mountains in our lives and the lives of others, the powers which can awaken those who sleep in sin and raise up the dead, the power which can capture strongholds and make the impossible possible. Professor Hallesby

It is only in prayer that we can communicate with one another at the deepest level of our being. Behind all words and gestures, behind all thoughts and feelings, there is an inner centre of prayer where we can meet one another in the presence of God. It is this inner centre which is the real source of all life and activity and of all love. Bede Griffiths

The devil’s favourite word is «tomorrow». He is always trying to keep us from praying today. One of his main jobs is to keep Christians off their knees. Hope MacDonald

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde

The sovereign God has for his own reasons so designed the world that much of what is truly his will he makes contingent on the attitudes of human beings. He allows humans to make decisions that can influence history. Human inaction does not nullify the atonement. We do not and cannot in anyway take away from the wonderful truth of Jesus’ gift of salvation but human inaction can make the atonement ineffective for lost people. Peter Wagner

A man who rejects the supernatural is like a physician who rejects bacteria. You begin to think he isn’t all there. A physician who says bacteria aren’t real operates from prejudice, not science, and someone who says the supernatural isn’t real operates the same way. Bishop Fulton Sheed

Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of God’s willingness. Archbishop Richard Trench

To pray is nothing more involved than to let Jesus into our needs permitting him to exercise his own power in dealing with them. Anon

Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer. R.A.Torrey

Concentration is the essence of prayer…distraction is the root of sin. Simone Weil

Prayer is serving on an executive committee for world evangelisation. Change the World School of Prayer

To sing the praises of God: it is that for which we were made, and it is that which will be, for all eternity, our greatest joy. Among Cardinal Hume’s last words