PRAYER-TIME
The time of
business does not differ with me from the time of prayer; and in the noise and
clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for
different things, I possess God in as great
tranquility as if I were on my knees.
The Practice of the Presence of God, Revell, 1958, p. 30, 31.
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
You do not
become a master musician by playing just as you please, by imagining that
learning the scales is sheer legalism and bondage! No, true freedom in any area
of life is the consequence of regular discipline. It is no less true of the
life of prayer.
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Grow in Grace, by permission of Banner of
Truth, Carlisle, PA. 1989, p. 105.
It is a
mistake to imagine that prayers must be long in order to be effective and
pleasing to God. Martin Luther
said: “Look to it that you do not try to
do all of it, do not try to do too much, lest your spirit grow weary. Besides a good prayer mustn’t be too long. Do not draw it
out. Prayer ought to be frequent and fervent.” It is far better to have ten
minutes of concentrated prayer than an hour in which one’s mind wanders from
Jerusalem to Timbuktu. A legalistic commitment to duration
will inevitable torpedo your prayer life.
Kent and Barbara Hughes
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway
Books, 2004, p. 81.
If I fail to
spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the
day and I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours
daily in prayer.
Martin Luther
Indeed,
a person who lives in the exercise of faith and love, and who finds by
experience that it is good for him to draw near to God, will not need to be
told how often he must pray, any more than how often he must converse with an
earthly friend. Those whom we love, we love to be much with. Love is the best
casuist, and either resolves or prevents a thousand scruples and questions,
which may perplex those who only serve God from principles of constraint and
fear. A believer will account those his happiest days, when he has most leisure
and most liberty of spirit for the exercise of prayer.
John Newton
John Newton’s Letters, Family Worship.
Self must be
denied as to time and attention for prayer. All-prayer cannot be wielded
without the expenditure of time. “A minute with God” seldom lays hold of Him.
Sustained prayer is necessary. Such time may only be found by snatching it from
personal pursuits, however legitimate they may be.
Walter J. Chantry
The Shadow of the Cross – Studies in
Self-Denial, 1981, p. 72, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
Are you a
hypocrite? One way to tell is to compare the amount of time you spend in private
prayer to the amount of time you spend in public prayer. As D. A. Carson
rightly observes, “The person who prays more in public than in private reveals
that he is less interested in God's approval than in human praise. Not piety
but a reputation for piety is his concern.”
Philip Graham Ryken
No man dare
prescribe for another how long a time he ought to spend in prayer, nor do we
suggest that men should make a vow to pray so many minutes or hours a day.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 2.
[God] never
condemns long prayers that are sincere. Let us not forget that our Lord
sometimes spent long nights in prayer. We are told of one of these – we do not
know how frequently they were (Luke 6:12). He would sometimes rise a “great
while before day” and depart to a solitary place for prayer (Mark 1:35). The
perfect Man spent more time in prayer than we do. It would seem an undoubted
fact that with God's saints in all ages nights of
prayer with God have been followed by days of power with men.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 7.
Prayer is
measured, not by time, but by intensity.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 7.
The amount of
time we give to prayer indicates how important prayer is to us.
Author Unknown
A man who
prays much in private will make short prayers in public.
D.L. Moody
Christian History, n. 25.
The
time factor in prayer is very important. In the exercise of prayer God is not
tied to our clocks. Neither is He at the other end of the phone to receive and
answer our two-minute calls. It takes time to know the mind of God, to shut out
the material things of earth and to be wholly abandoned.
Hugh McCullough
A legalistic
commitment to duration can kill one’s prayer life.
R. Kent Hughes
Disciplines of a Godly Man, Crossway Books,
1991, p. 104.
Prayer can
never be in excess.
C.H. Spurgeon
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
For more than
thirty-five years I have had much intercourse with dying saints and sinners of
various ages and conditions. In all that time I have not heard one express regret that he had spent too much time in prayer;
I have heard many mourn that they had so seldom visited a throne of grace.
William
Plumer
Quoted in: Samuel
Prime, The Power of Prayer, p.
244.
Whatever is
you best time in the day, give that to communion with God.
Hudson Taylor
Be sure no
time is so well spent as that which a man spends on his knees.
J.C. Ryle
Thoughts for Young Men.
What is the reason that some believers are so much brighter and holier than
others? I believe the difference, in nineteen cases out of twenty, arises from
different habits about private prayer. I believe that those who are not
eminently holy pray little, and those who are eminently holy pray much.
J.C. Ryle
A Call to Prayer, Baker, 1979, p. 35.
The great
souls who became mighty in prayer and rejoiced to spend three and four hours a
day alone with God were once beginners.
Samuel
Chadwick
The Path of
Prayer, p. 32.
After my return
to London, I decided to do something to help my brothers in the seminary. I
suggested we meet together every morning from six until eight to pray and read
the Scriptures. After the evening prayer, my communion with God was so sweet
that I would continue praying until after midnight. Then I would go to a
brother’s room, and we would pray together until one or two in the morning.
Even then, I was sometimes so full of joy that I could not sleep. At six in the
morning, I would again call the brethren together for prayer.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p.
27. 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.
In every good
work, we must depend on the Lord. If anyone rises so that he may give the time
which he takes from sleep to prayer and meditation, let him be sure that Satan
will try to put obstacles in the way.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p.
119. 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.
In these days
there is no time to pray; but without time, and a lot of it, we shall never
learn to pray.
Samuel
Chadwick
The Path of
Prayer, p. 24.
Whether or
not our prayer is heard depends not on the number of our words, but on the
fervor of our souls.
John
Chrysostom
Prayer worth
calling prayer, prayer that God will call true prayer and will treat as true
prayer, takes for more time by the clock than one man in a thousand thinks.
Alexander
Whyte
I used to
write in my daily calendar “7-7:30 a.m.: Prayer.” But many times I passed that
up. It was one more thing to pass by that day. Now I write “7-7:30 a.m.: God.”
Somehow that's a little harder to neglect.
Don Postema
From the files of Leadership.