“Prayer is humbling work. It abases intellect and pride, crucifies vainglory, and signs our spiritual bankruptcy, and all these are hard for flesh and blood to bear. It is easier not to pray than to bear them.”

“It (prayer) dispels frivolity and drives away all skin-deep forms of worship, and makes worship a serious and deep-seated service, impregnating body, soul, and spirit with its heavenly infusion.”

“Once we admit that God is the creator and preserver of all men, and concede that he is wise and intelligent, we are logically driven to the conclusion that Almighty God has a direct superintendence of those whom he has created and whom he preserves in being. In fact, creation and preservation suppose a superintending providence. What is called divine providence is simply Almighty God governing the world for its best interests, and overseeing everything for the good of mankind.”

“More than this, the possibilities of prayer are seen in the fact that it changes the purposes of God. It is in the very nature of prayer to plead and give directions. Prayer is not a negation. It is a positive force. It never rebels against the will of God, never comes into conflict with that will, but that it does seek to change God’s purpose is evident. Christ said, “The cup which My Father hath given Me shall I not drink it” and yet He had prayed that very night, “If it be possible let this cup pass from Me.” Paul sought to change the purposes of God about the thorn in his flesh. God’s purposes were fixed to destroy Israel, and the prayer of Moses changed the purposes of God and saved Israel. In the time of the Judges Israel were apostate and greatly oppressed. They repented and cried unto God and He said: “Ye have forsaken Me and served other gods, wherefore I will deliver you no more:” but they humbled themselves, put away their strange gods, and God’s “soul was grieved for the misery of Israel,” and he sent them deliverance by Jephthah.”

“In many places an alarming state of things has come to pass, in that the many who are enrolled in our churches are not praying men and women. Many of those occupying prominent positions in church life are not praying men. It is greatly to be feared that much of the work of the Church is being done by those who are perfect strangers to the closet. Small wonder that the work does not succeed.”

“The lazy man does not, will not, cannot pray, for prayer demands energy.”

“promised. They are not after being saved from some sin, but saved from all sin, both inward and outward. They are after not only deliverance from sinning, but from sin itself, from its being, its power and its pollution. They are after holiness of heart and life. Prayer believes in, and seeks for the very highest religious life set before us in the Word of God. Prayer is the condition of that life. Prayer points out the only pathway to such a life. The standard of a religious life is the standard of prayer. Prayer is so vital, so essential, so far-reaching, that it enters into all religion, and sets the standard clear and definite before the eye. The degree of our estimate of prayer fixes our ideas of the standard of a religious life. The standard of Bible religion is the standard of prayer. The more there is of prayer in the life, the more definite and the higher our notions of religion. The”

“Salvation never finds its way to a prayerless heart. The Holy Spirit never abides in a prayerless spirit. Preaching never edifies a prayerless”

“He who is too busy to pray will be too busy to live a holy life. Other”

“No man gets God who does not follow hard after him, and no soul follows hard after God who is not after him in early morn.”

“My Creed leads me to think that prayer is efficacious, and surely a day’s asking God to overrule all events for good is not lost. Still there is a great feeling that when a man is praying he’s doing nothing, and this feeling makes us give undue importance to work, sometimes even to the hurrying over or even to the neglect of prayer.”

“there in spirit, and that souls may be saved there; to pray daily for my sick patients and for the patients of other physicians; at my entrance into any home to say, “May the peace of God abide here”; after hearing a sermon, to pray for a blessing on God’s truth, and upon the messenger; upon the sight of a beautiful person to bless God for His creatures, to pray for the beauty of such an one’s soul, that God may enrich her with inward graces, and that the outward and inward may correspond; upon the sight of a deformed person, to pray God to give them wholeness of soul, and by and by to give them the beauty of the resurrection.”

“Prayer was to open doors for apostolical labors, but at the same time it was to open apostolic lips to utter bravely and truly the apostolic message. Hear”

“God’s people were always safe when their princes were princes in prayer. An”

“The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil everywhere.”

“The requisites of true prayer are the requisites of scriptural, vital, personal religion. They are the requisites of real religious service in this life. Primary among these requisites is that in serving, we serve. So in praying, we must pray. Truth and heart reality, these are the core, the substance, the sum, the heart of prayer. There are no possibilities in prayer without we really pray in all simplicity, reality and trueness. Prayerless praying—how common, how popular, how delusive and vain!”

“Praying which does not result in pure conduct is a delusion.”

“Did you bring people to where the action could be found?" God asks: "if you just entertain them or console them, tickle theirs, woe to you! At the throne of grace, I could have CHANGED THEIR LIVES! Did you dazzle them with your cleverness or did you make them hunger for ME!?" If a meeting doesn't end with people touching God - what kind of meeting is it? - Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”

“God will manifest himself in direct proportion to our passion for him.”

“If the times are indeed as bad as we say they are … if the darkness in our world is growing heavier by the moment … if we are facing spiritual battles right in our own homes and churches … then we are foolish not to turn to the One who supplies unlimited grace and power. He is our only source. We are crazy to ignore him.”