Prayer

“Lord, I will never come away from Thee without Thee.”

“Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels.”

“The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel.”

“Prayer delights God's ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul.”

“Prayer as it comes from the saint is weak and languid; but when the arrow of a saint's prayer is put into the bow of Christ's intercession it pierces the throne of grace.”

“Those prayers God likes best which come seething hot from the heart.”

“A wicked man in prayer may lift up his hands, but he cannot lift up his face.”

“The prayer that is faithless is fruitless.”

“If we do not regard God when he speaks to us, he will not regard us when we pray to him.”

“God comes down to us by his Spirit, and we go up to him by prayer.”

“We pray most fervently when we pray most feelingly.”

“The tree of the promise will not drop its fruit unless shaken by the hand of prayer.”

“He that leaves off prayer leaves off to fear God.”

“A good Christian holds secret communication with heaven. Private prayer keeps up the trade of godliness. When private holiness is laid aside, a stab is given to the heart of piety.”

“If, when God speaks to us in his word, we are deaf, when we speak to him in prayer, he will be dumb.”

“Christ's prayer takes away the sins of our prayers.”

“The Christian should work as if all depended upon him, and pray as if it all depended upon God.”

“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.”

“Let your cares drive you to God. I shall not mind if you have many of them if each one leads you to prayer.”

“I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to Him.”

“Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.”

“Every promise of Scripture is a writing of God, which may be pleaded before Him with this reasonable request, 'Do as Thou hast said.”

“Prayer bends the omnipotence of heaven to your desire. Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.”

“When we cannot pray as we would, it is good to pray as we can.”

“When John Knox went upstairs to plead with God for Scotland, it was the greatest event in Scottish history.”

“Young people, you must pray, for your passions are strong, but your wisdom is little.”

“If I feel myself disinclined to pray, then is the time when I need to pray more than ever.”

“Prayer is the safest method of replying to a word of hatred.”

“The streaming wounds of Jesus are the sure guarantees for answered prayer.”

“When you plead the name of Christ, you plead that which shakes the gates of hell and that which the hosts of heaven obey.”

“A true prayer is an inventory of needs, a catalog of necessities, an exposure of secret wounds.”

“If God's mercies were to come to us unasked, they would not be half as useful as they now are.”

“Prayer must not be our chance work, but our daily business, our habit and vocation.”

“To a great extent in spiritual things we get what we expect of the Lord.”

“Wean our heart from every creature Thee to love and Thee alone.”

“Let us take all our perplexities to Him, and say, 'Lord, what will you have me to do?”

“The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, will be well understood by the Most High.”

“The minister is not always in the act of prayer, but he is always in the spirit of it.”

“It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.”

“Faith grows by the exercise of prayer.”

“You are no Christian if you do not pray. A prayerless soul is a Christless soul.”

“It is not a matter of time so much as a matter of heart. If you have the heart to pray, you will find the time.”

“He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal.”

“A family without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the storms of heaven.”

“Prayer crowns God with the honor and glory due to His name, and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort. The most praying souls are the most assured souls.”

“God's hearing of our prayers doth not depend upon sanctification, but upon Christ's intercession; not upon what we are in ourselves, but what we are in the Lord Jesus; both our persons and our prayers are acceptable in the beloved.”

“Prayer is nothing but the breathing that out before the Lord, that was first breathed into us by the Spirit of the Lord.”

“The best and sweetest flowers of paradise God gives to His people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven.”

“Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers.”

“God hears no more than the heart speaks; and if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf.”

“A godly man has contentment by opening and letting out his heart to God.”

“When God will have any great matters done, he sets his people's hearts to work at prayer by a kind of gracious instinct. He stirs them up and moves their hearts by the influence of his Holy Spirit.”

“Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayers and worn with thanks.”

“The Spirit prays in you, because Christ prays for you. He is an intercessor on earth, because Christ is an intercessor in heaven.”

“Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again.”

“You now have, Christian, the armour of God; but take heed thou forgettest not to engage the God of this armour by humble prayer.”

“Go to God by prayer for a key to unlock the mysteries of His Word.”

“Pray often rather than very long at a time. It is hard to be very long in prayer, and not slacken in our affections.”

“Satan cannot deny but that great wonders have been wrought by prayer. As the spirit of prayer goes up, so his kingdom goes down.”

“Praying is the same to the new creature as crying is to the natural.”

“Cease to pray, and you will begin to sin. Prayer is not only a means to prevail for mercy, but also to prevent sin.”

“Never was a faithful prayer lost. Some prayers have a longer voyage than others, but then they return with their richer lading at last, so that the praying soul is a gainer by waiting for an answer.”

“The Christian in prayer comes up close to God, with a humble boldness of faith, and takes hold of him, wrestles with him; yea, will not let him go without a blessing.”

“Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent.”

“Let prayer be the key to open the morning and the bar to shut the evening.”

“He that would be little in temptation, let him be much in prayer.”

“No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times at His throne of grace.”

“If we would talk less and pray more, things would be better than they are in the world; at least, we would be better enabled to bear them.”

“We ought as much to pray for a blessing upon our daily rod as upon our daily bread.”

“Do not plunge straight into prayer or worship, but spend time meditating on the glory of Christ first, and in this way the graces necessary for carrying out that duty will be roused and ready.”

“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.”

“He who is more frequent in his pulpit to his people than he is in his closet for his people, is but a sorry watchman of souls.”

“When the soul is alone in holy meditation and prayer, then not an angel—but God's own Spirit does come to comfort him.”

“So God has his file in heaven where all faithful prayers are kept on record.”

“Let the Holy Spirit descend upon me. 'Create in me a clean heart, O God'.”

“You may open the treasuries in heaven; and it shall never be in vain.”

“He is an intercessor on earth because Christ is an intercessor in heaven.”

“To despise the world is the way to enjoy heaven; and blessed are they who delight to converse with God by prayer.”

“As God is ever near to us, "for in him we live, and move, and have our being," we are permitted to hold intercourse with him at all times, and in all places.”

“Whatever spiritual thoughts such men have in and by their prayers, they are not spiritually minded.”

“We see what great friends do procure oftentimes with but a word speaking, even that which money, no, nor anything could have obtained.”

“I am not as other men!" sayest thou; but is this the way to go to God in prayer?”

“In the days of his flesh he dictated a form of prayer unto his disciples, and put petitions unto God into their mouths, and his Spirit to intercede in their hearts.”

“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.”

“Long prayers should in general be avoided, especially where several people are to pray successively; or else even spiritual hearers will be unable to keep up their attention.”

“He answereth not always according to our wills, but always according to our good.”

“Another mysterious way a godly person learns how to abound is this: by sanctifying all that he has by the Word and prayer.”

“How often did holy Moses by his tears—quench the wrath of an angry God!”

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

“When thou prayest, rather let thy hearts be without words, than thy words without a heart.”

“When the messenger of Satan buffeted Paul by wicked suggestions, (as is supposed) he mourned before God on account of it.”

“While faithful lips abound in prayer, and send forth songs of praise, and tell in gladsome strains the wonders of redeeming grace; what are the sinner's sounds?”

“Again, God is a great God that we call to, and it is fit for us to wait, and to wait long.”

“But is not this great grace, that we should thus be called upon to come to God for mercy?”

“When we seek spiritual things much, in the height of our spirits, then doth God answer us also in temporal things.”

“When our hearts are hot within us, it is good for us to keep silence, and hold our peace: so David did; and when he did speak, it was in prayer to God, and not in reply to the wicked that were before him.”

“Look, as the bleeding of a vein cools, eases, and refreshes a feverish body; so the opening of the soul by acts of communion with God, gives sensible ease to a burdened soul: griefs are eased by groans heavenward.”

“The spirit of prayer is more precious than treasures of gold and silver.”

“How zealously did I seek the Lord at that time and how abundantly was the Spirit of prayer poured out upon me!”

“Eternal Spirit, mighty source of light and inward life, give Your help!”

“The desire of the heart may be satisfied when God gives some other thing, but the counsel of the heart is then fulfilled when a man is answered in that particular which his own judgment pitched upon as best for him.”

“And all the prayers that ever we put up for the church will be answered, and the blessing of all will come upon the churches.”

“Though his purpose was that of redeeming a world, and though he knew that his personal ministry on earth would be very short, yet he never neglected communion with God.”

“Lord, I am come, in obedience to thy command; thou saidst, Seek ye my face, thou biddest me come to thee, and wilt thou put away thy servant in anger?”

“How often does the poor soul cry out, 'O Lord, how gladly would I serve you—but vain thoughts will not let me!”

“There is never a holy sigh, never a tear we shed, which is lost.”

“In all things let us, with confession of our wants, have an eye unto his fulness, and then we shall find the more of his abundance, when we set not upon these duties in our own strength only.”

“Vocula pater dicta in corde [The little word ‘father’ spoken in the heart], says Luther.”

“And therefore we must every day live upon this branch of his priestly office, his mediation.”

“Therefore if it is not in vain for the wicked to seek the Lord, much less is it in vain for the seed of Jacob to seek him.”

“If we could go home, and take our brethren with us, weeping with our face towards Zion, asking the way thitherward, He would bring back our captivity.”

“The field of the sluggard is overgrown with thistles. you grow barren, raw, sapless, and lose the choiceness of your spirits, and the savouriness of your thoughts, when you are seldom with God.”

“If thou callest to mind the errors of the day, sleep not without a confession to God, and a hope of pardon.”

“These are they that sowed so many prayers, which God gave them not time to reap the fruits of on earth, but now they shall reap the fruit and comfort of them for ever.”

“Father, have mercy on them; and mercies speed on rapid wing.”

“I called upon the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.”

“If I did call to God in the time of affliction that God did send for trial, it may be God would hear me.”

“Can you go whole weeks, months, and never speak to him by secret and intimate prayer, so as to take him alone, as you would do a friend, into a corner, and there pour out your heart before him, and tell him all your secrets?”

“To which of Christ's three offices does his work of intercession belong?”

“When business is over, and everything calm, it is good to take a turn with God in the evening.”

“Therefore, do you think your prayers are accepted at all, notwithstanding their weakness?”

“Come to him boldly therefore, under the name of a father, that he may move his bowels, and surely will hear us.”

“He was in agony; he "continued all night in prayer," Luke vi. 2.”

“Again, Christ takes all the prayers of the seed of Jacob, and tenders them up to his Father for acceptance.”

“Is the seeming denial of your prayers, an occasion of despondency?”

“O Lord, open our eyes, give us understanding to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

“I will tell you what I am labouring after in my own heart; and the Lord direct you to find out what will be more useful!”

“The daily language of the penitent soul is this, "Lord, when will you heal the maladies of my soul?”

“And Christ is ‘not ashamed’ of us, his poor kindred; but being allied to us by his nature, he deigns to call us brethren, and is grieved that we come no oftener to him, with petitions of favour to be put up by him.”

“Lord, at the beginning of thy dealing with me, by thy law and my works I die, therefore do not so much as enter into judgment with me, O Lord.”

“So that a man may lawfully, under the guidance and conduct of the Spirit of God, direct his prayer immediately to the person of Christ.”

“We should do more good with our prayers at home than they shall do by fighting abroad; as Moses did more good in the mount by prayer than they did in the valley by fighting.”

“God's Word is pledged in many forms that prayer shall not go forth in vain.”

“And does he not still invite me to cast my care upon him, and assure me that he cares for me?”

“Lord, we are being forced to do what is contrary to our nature; we were never made to be serviceable to the lusts of men.”

“A prayer with vain thoughts is like beer or wine that is dead, and has lost the spirits.”

“When God has clipped his children's wings by poverty—they fly swiftest to the throne of grace.”

“But his prayer was the offspring of sincerity and truth; the answers which came gave evidence that the petitions were sanctified by the Spirit and accepted of the Lord.”

“Ah, Lord, this mercy I humbly beg, that you would rather take me into your own hand, and do anything with me, than give me up to those sad errors to which thousands have married their souls and are in the way of perishing forever.”

“The Spirit has been tuning your soul, and now you make sweet melody in prayer.”

“We are directed to pray for one another in this view, that, if it is the Lord's pleasure to prolong life and to restore health, our sense of the mercy may be heightened by the consideration that it is bestowed in answer to prayer.”

“Oh say with the psalmist, "What shall I render to the Lord for all his favors, and great benefits.”

“Wait for the time when His own holy hand shall hold them to your nose; and if ye would have present comfort under the cross, be much in prayer, for at that time your faith kisseth Christ and He kisseth the soul.”

“The heart misgives secretly that God does not hear, nor will he grant.”

“God’s promises and the saints’ prayers in the holy Scripture seem to intend a grace that would give us a real internal ability to do what is spiritually good.”

“Now you seek God, but this is in your affliction, and will God regard you now?”

“As a father to hear the language of his child, though it be none of the best; so it is sweet music in God's ears to hear the prayers of his children.”

“Indeed, the denying of a petition, it is a dishonor and a confounding of the face; but God will not confound the faces of his people.”

“Yet behold, I that am thus your maker, give you leave to dispose by your prayers the great works of my hands, which concern my children, my sons, the affairs of kingdoms, even so far as they relate to their good.”

“The words here used, “in earth as it,” etc., do not signify an equality (as though our obedience could in this life be in the same degree of perfection with angels), but a similitude, standing in the like manner of obedience.”

“When a man comes to a king to put up a petition unto him, and comes with a dagger in his hand to stab him, will the king accept of this man's petition?”

“The devil will never long keep dominion over us who beseech the Lord to cast him forth.”

“If a man pretend an application to God, and sleep and snore all the time, without question such a one did not worship.”

“God loves that his people should plead his promises; and he who does shall find God near him, though friends should leave him, and the world be in arms against him, etc.”

“But now the next and more difficult question is, when the thing is not granted, how shall we then discern and know that God doth notwithstanding hear the prayer?”

“Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an argument.”

“We may be tempted, yet not enter into temptation.”

“God can make a way for a man to escape; when he is in, he can break the snare, tread down Satan, and make the soul more than a conqueror, though it have entered into temptation.”

“It is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to believe the Scripture to be the word of God, and infallibly to evidence it unto our minds.”

“His work it is to support, cherish, relieve, and comfort the church, in all trials and distresses.”

“Learn, ye that would have death pleasant, so to rule and square this life, that it may agree in some measure with the life to come.”

“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.”

“There is in prayer an unbosoming of a man's self, an opening of the heart to God, an affectionate pouring out of the soul in requests, sighs, and groans.”