PRAYER-PRIORITY
We don’t drift into spiritual life; we do not drift
into disciplined prayer. We do not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That
means we must set aside time to do nothing but pray. What we actually do
reflects our highest priorities. That means that we can proclaim our commitment
to prayer until the cows come home, but unless we actually pray, our actions
disown our words
D.A. Carson
A Call to
Spiritual Reformation, Baker, 1992, p. 19.
Without
extended, concentrated prayer, the ministry of the Word withers. And when the ministry of the Word declines, faith (Rom. 10:17; Gal.
3:2, 5) and holiness (John 17:17) decline. Activity may continue, but
life and power and fruitfulness fade away. Therefore, whatever opposes prayer
opposes the whole work of ministry.
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, Bethlehem
Baptist Church, 2002, p. 60.
Above all –
and again this I regard as most important of all – always respond to every
impulse to pray… It is the work of the Holy Spirit… So never resist, never
postpone it, never push it aside because you are busy.
Give yourself to it, yield to it; and you will
find not only that you have not been wasting time with respect to the
matter with which you are dealing, but that actually it has helped you greatly
in that respect.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan,
1971, p. 170-171.
The ultimate
test of my understanding of the scriptural teaching is the amount of time I
spend in prayer. As theology is ultimately the knowledge of God, the more
theology I know, the more it should drive me to seek to know God. Not to know
"about" Him but to know Him! The whole object of salvation is to
bring me to knowledge of God... If all my knowledge does not lead me to prayer
there is something wrong somewhere.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
When a man is speaking to God he is at his
very acme. It is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at
the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition. There is
nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer
life. Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.
D.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Eerdmans,
1971, v. 2, p. 46.
Sometimes the
Father may box us in, place us in a situation in which, one by one, all our
secondary helps and supports are taken from us, in order that, defenseless, we
may lean on His mercy alone – prayer. Once we see this, we will no longer
regard prayer as a pious cop-out but as our only rational activity.
Dale Ralph Davis
1 Samuel, Christian Focus Publications, 1
Samuel, p. 76.
You can do
more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until
you have prayed. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to
God, and a scourge to Satan.
John Bunyan
Prayer, 1999, p. 23, by permission
Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
O what peace
we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!
Joseph Scriven
Be sure no
time is so well spent as that which a man spends on his knees.
J.C. Ryle
Thoughts for Young Men.
Prayer is the
mightiest weapon that God has placed in our hands. It is the best weapon to use
in every difficulty, and the surest remedy in every trouble. It is the key that
unlocks the treasury of promises, and the hand that draws forth grace and help
in time of need. It is the silver trumpet that God commands us to sound in all
our necessity, and it is the cry He has promised always to listen to, just as a
loving mother listens attentively to the voice of her child.
J.C. Ryle
The Duties of Parents.
Mastering the
art of prayer, like any other art, will take time, and the amount of time we
allocate to it will be the true measure of our conception of its importance.
J. Oswald Sanders
It is
impossible for a believer, no matter what his experience, to keep right with
God if he will not take the trouble to spend time with God. Spend plenty of
time with him; let other things go, but don't neglect Him.
J. Oswald Sanders
You may as
soon find a living man who does not breathe, as a living Christian who does not
pray.
Matthew Henry
P.T. Forsyth
once said, "The worst sin is prayerlessness." We usually think of
murder, adultery, or theft as among the worst. But the root of all sin is
self-sufficiency, independence from God. When we fail to wait prayerfully for
God's guidance and strength, we are saying, with our actions if not our lips,
that we do not need Him. How much of our service is characterized by
"going it alone?"
Charles Hummel
Do
not tell people you will pray for them and then fail to do it. That is
hypocritical love. Genuine love takes the promises of prayer to heart and
follows through in keeping those promises.
Alexander Strauch
Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 122, Used by
Permission.
I was almost
constantly in ejaculatory prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed to be natural
to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent.
Jonathan Edwards
The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Selections, pg. 61, Published by the Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA 17013.
What a mercy
was it to us to have parents that prayed for us before they had us, as well as
in our infancy when we could not pray for ourselves!
John Flavel
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 43.
If you sow in
prayerlessness, you will reap powerlessness, peacelessness,
joylessness, fruitlessness and backsliddenness.
Raymond Kwong
Prayer is our
highest privilege, our gravest responsibility, and the greatest power God has
put into our hands. Prayer, real prayer, is the noblest, the sublimest, the most stupendous act
that any creature of God can perform.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 12.
You can do
more than pray, after you have prayed
but not until.
Author Unknown
A church is
never more like the New Testament church than when it is praying.
Author Unknown
A prayerless soul is a Christless
soul.
Author Unknown
A family
without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the
storms of Heaven.
Author Unknown
Quoted in: A. W. Pink, Family Worship.
Prayer
is the acid test of devotion.
Samuel Chadwick
What you are
when you are alone with God, that you are – and nothing more. You may make a
great show of love and faith in church, singing like Pavarotti or attracting
the masses to your profound Sunday school lectures. But if there is no private
communion between you and Jesus – frequent and deep communion – then your
religion is worthless.
Kris Lundgaard
The Enemy Within, P&R Publishing,
1998, 119.
For Jesus, time alone with God was not an option… The gospel of Luke tells us that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Lk. 5:16)… This is precisely where you and I so often miss out on all that God has for us. Unlike Jesus, we attempt to live life in our own energy. We think we can keep giving out without getting replenished. Then, wearied and weakened by the demands of life and ministry, we become impatient and annoyed with the very ones God has sent us to serve. Rather than exhibiting a gracious, calm, joyous spirit, we become uptight, frazzled, and frenzied (people), resenting, rather than welcoming, the people and opportunities God brings into our lives.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
A Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p. 29.
We must learn
to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and
responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our
hearts. Many of us, I suspect, have no idea how impoverished we are at this
level. Let us ask the Lord to show us.
J.I. Packer
In times of
special need and of the church's weakness, there is a biblical and historical
warrant to resort to extraordinary prayer for revival… We must recognize,
however, that prayer is a spiritual gift, something that cannot be created
artificially or regimented. We are not to think that we can organize prayer as
if we are in control. The very ability to pray with unction and faith is given
by the Holy Spirit, and although that activity largely precedes revival, prayer
also is an integral part of revival.
Erroll
Hulse
A Call to Extraordinary Prayer for
Revival.
Anyone who
spends one, two, three hours in prayer and meditation before breakfast will
soon discover the beneficial effect early rising has on the outward and inward
man.
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p.
118. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with
permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian
bookstores everywhere.
For more than
half a century, I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could
get through. For 40 years, I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most
of these have passed through my own hands. I have nine assistants always at
work corresponding in German, French, English, Danish, Italian, Russian, and
other languages. Then, as pastor of a church with 1200 believers, great has
been my care. I have had charge of five orphanages; also at my publishing
depot, the printing and circulation of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles.
But I have always made it a rule never to begin work till I have had a good
season with God.
George Mueller
Prayer is the
spontaneous response of the believing heart to God. Those truly transformed by
Jesus Christ find themselves lost in wonder and joy of communion with Him.
Prayer is as natural for the Christian as breathing.
John MacArthur
Until the
gate of hell is shut upon a man we must not cease to pray for him. And if we
see him hugging the very doorposts of damnation, we must go to the mercy seat
and beseech the arm of grace to pluck him from his dangerous position. While
there is life there is hope, and although the soul is almost smothered with
despair, we must not despair for it, but rather arouse ourselves to awaken the
Almighty arm.
C.H. Spurgeon
A prayerless church member is a hindrance. He is in the body
like a rotting bone or a decayed tooth. Before long, since he does not
contribute to the benefit of his brethren, he will become a danger and a sorrow
to them. Neglect of private prayer is the locust which devours the strength of
the church.
C.H. Spurgeon
If a church
is to be what it ought to be for the purposes of God, we must train it in the
holy art of prayer. Churches without prayer-meetings are grievously common.
Even if there were only one such, it would be one to weep over. In many
churches the prayer-meeting is only the skeleton of a gathering: the form is
kept up, but the people do not come. There is no interest, no power, in
connection with the meeting. Oh, my brothers, let it not be so with you! Do
train the people to continually meet together for prayer. Rouse them to
incessant supplication. There is a holy art in it. Study to
show yourselves approved by the prayerfulness of your people. If you
pray yourself, you will want them to pray with you; and when they begin to pray
with you, and for you, and for the work of the Lord, they will want more prayer
themselves, and the appetite will grow. Believe me, if a church does not pray,
it is dead. Instead of putting united prayer last, put it first. Everything
will hinge upon the power of prayer in the church.
C.H. Spurgeon
We should
pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair
an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a proper mood, for it would
be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition.
C H. Spurgeon
We shall
never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer
meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.
C.H. Spurgeon
If any of you
should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say it is in
that one word – prayer.
C.H. Spurgeon
Anything is a
blessing which makes us pray.
C.H.
Spurgeon
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
Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the
Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without
asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is.
I'd rather be
able to pray than to be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught his
disciples how to preach, but only how to pray.
D.L. Moody
Leadership, v. 1, n. 1.
You can do
more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until
you have prayed.
John Bunyan
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 210.
God
has no greater controversy with His people today than this, that with boundless
promises to believing prayer, there are so few who actually give themselves
unto intercession.
A.T. Pierson
From
the day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any
land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three. And
no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings have
declined. It is in exact proportion to the maintenance of such joint and
believing supplication and intercession that the Word of the Lord in any land
or locality has had free course and been glorified.
A.T. Pierson
Is
prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
Corrie
ten Boom
A family
without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the
storms of heaven.
Thomas Brooks
Prayer does
not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.
Oswald Chambers
Quoted
by: Bill Thrasher, A Journey to Victorious Praying,
Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 131.
Prayer
pursues joy in fellowship with Jesus and in the power to share His life with
others. And prayer pursues God’s glory by treating Him as the inexhaustible
reservoir of hope and help. In prayer we admit our poverty and God’s
prosperity, our bankruptcy and His bounty, our misery and His mercy. Therefore,
prayer highly exalts and glorifies God precisely by pursuing everything we long
for in Him and not in ourselves.
John Piper
Desiring God, 1996, p. 156, Used by
Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
To be a
Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without
breathing.
Martin Luther
The majority
of Christian men and women who pray to a Living God know very little about real
prevailing prayer. Yet prayer is the key that unlocks the door of God’s
treasure-house. It is not too much to say that 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.
Andrew
Murray
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