Prayer is such a personal thing for each of us

Prayer may not change things for you,
but it sure changes you for things.

Samuel Shoemaker

Prayer is such a personal thing for each of us, yet somehow we let others tell us that there are certain ways to pray, certain methods that we must use, certain things that we must say. The bottom line is this: prayer is communication between the individual and God. If you trust yourself, you will know best how to communicate with your God. If it's having a chat with him while you're taking a long walk, writing a friendly, informal letter to him about your wants and needs, or kneeling before an altar in church and speaking to him formally, you should find the way that works for you. The world is full of individuals, and we each will find our unique ways of communicating with the Lord as we see Him (or Her, or It, since God is beyond gender). When you pray, it's between you and God. Enjoy it!

One of the experiences of prayer is that it seems that nothing happens. But when you start with it and look back over a long period of prayer, you suddenly realize that something has happened. What is most close, most intimate, most present, often cannot be experienced directly but only with a certain distance. When I think that I am only distracted, just wasting my time, something is happening too Immediate for knowing, understanding, and experiencing. Only in retrospect do I realize that something very important has taken place.

Henri J. Nouwen

Answers to prayer often come in unexpected ways. We pray, for instance,
for a certain virtue; but God seldom delivers Christian virtues all wrapped
in a package and ready for use. Rather He puts us in situations where by
His help we can develop those virtues. Henry Ward Beecher told of a woman
who prayed for patience, and God sent her a poor cook. The best answers to prayer
may be the vision and strength to meet a circumstance or to assume a responsibility:

C.R. Fidley

The truest prayer begins when we pass beyond word
into deep silence, when lips are hushed; when
racing thoughts are stilled; when emotions are placid
as "the dawning over the waveless ocean."

Albert E. Day

Asking for anything is allowed with the understanding that God's answers
come from God's perspective. They are not always in harmony
with our expectations, for only He knows the whole story.

Unknown

The great tragedy of life is not
unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.

F.B. Meyer

There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us
wellnigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul,
or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God. He is always whispering to us,
only we do not always hear, because of the noise, hurry, and distraction
which life causes as it rushes on.

Frederick William Faber

Prayer for worldly goods is worse than fruitless,
but prayer for strength of soul is that passion
of the soul which catches the gift it seeks.

George Meredith

Prayer is believing in something bigger than yourself,
or anything you've ever touched or known.
It's telling a river or an open field that you need a little help.

Ashley Rice

I would love to have a more earnest prayer life! In my life, prayer is the single most difficult discipline.
I love God and there’s something in me that would rather do things for God than talk to God.
I’m not by nature a mystical, devotional person. I like to do things. And so it’s a challenge
for me to have a faithful prayer life, but I know God loves me and He’s not mad at me.
He just wishes I would slow down and turn things over to Him.
And that’s what I think you achieve through prayer.

Max Lucado

My prayers seem to be more of an attitude than anything else.
I indulge in very little lip service, but ask the Great Creator silently,
daily, and often many times a day, to permit me to speak to Him through
the three great Kingdoms of the world which He has created--the animal,
mineral, and vegetable Kingdoms--to understand their relations to each other,
and our relations to them and to the Great God who made all of us.
I ask Him daily and often momently to give me wisdom, understanding,
and bodily strength to do His will; hence I am asking and receiving all the time.

George Washington Carver

My way of communicating with God as a boy (and often
even now) was through the lyrics of a song. . . .
So I didn't have the problem some people do who say,
"I don't know how to pray." I used the songs to communicate with God. . . .
To me, songs were the telephone to heaven,
and I tied up the line quite a bit.

Johnny Cash

When we know in our hearts that there is a God, the Father of all creation, someone who knows all things and is on our side, it is so natural to want to commune with Him every day. . . in praise and thankfulness, requesting help and direction for our lives and for those we love.

The repetition of starting each day with prayer helps us decide where we're going, what we want to accomplish, and how we can reach our goals. Prayer quiets our souls, makes us feel centered, and opens the door to getting our needs met. When we look to God as our provider and caregiver, we know we can go to Him boldly with our prayer requests and expect an audience with a compassionate and loving Father. Through our daily prayers, we learn to trust that God wants to supply our needs and give us the desires of our hearts. For what father doesn't want the best for his children?

When we speak our words to God with thanksgiving and release them with the faith that our requests will be granted, we put ourselves in a position to receive. God does not change and nature's laws are absolute and impartial. Thus, prayer has the potential for changing us. It connects us with God's spirit, and it is the key to His kingdom. Whatever your religious persuasion, it's a good thing to start every day with prayer.

Donna Fargo

How do you spell peace? P-R-A-Y-E-R! Anything you believe you need
is available to you through prayer. We are not talking here about a magic formula
of proper and distinct words. Oh no! We are talking about opening your heart
and your mouth, saying what's on your mind,
knowing that once you do, the answer will be revealed.

Iyanla Vanzant

Prayer is not a lazy substitute for work. It is not a short cut to skill or knowledge.
And sometimes God delays the answer to our prayer in final form
until we have time to build up the strength, accumulate the knowledge,
or fashion the character that would make it possible for Him to say "yes" to what we ask.

Roy M. Pearson

Our prayers run by one road and God's answers by another,
and by and by they meet.

Adoniram Judson

Prayer is not a substitute for work; it is an effort to work further and be
efficient beyond the range of one's powers.

George Santayana

The minds of people are so cluttered up with everyday living these days
that they don’t, or won’t, take time out for a little prayer – for mental cleansing,
just as they take a bath for a physical, outer cleaning. Both are necessary.

Jo Ann Carlson

Those who pray must commit themselves and their wants
to the transforming power of God. They must seek
what is genuinely the greatest good and not merely
the specific things which will satisfy their present wants.

Henry N. Nieman

Prayer is sort of like an unlocked door with a giant, red-lettered sign on it that says:
"Welcome. Feel Free to Take What You Need." Inside is the storehouse of all that God is.
He invites us to share it all. He doesn't intend for us to stay on the outside and struggle
all alone with the perplexities of life, and He not only invites us to come in,
but to stay in. . . . It is an on-going process, not just an occasional religious-sounding
speech we make to a nebulous divinity "out there somewhere." Prayer is
meant to be a part of our lives, like breathing and thinking and talking.

Gloria Gaither

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Prayer is always the solution. No matter what kind of difficulty may be facing you,
no matter how complicated your problem may seem – prayer can solve it. Of course
you will also take whatever practical steps seem to be indicated, and if you do not
know what steps to take, prayer will show you. Prayer is constantly bringing about
the seemingly impossible, and there is no conceivable problem that has not
at some time been solved by prayer.
When we remember that God really is omnipotent, untrammeled by what we call
time or space or matter, or the vagaries of human nature, it is easy to see that there
can be no limit to the power of prayer. You can pray about a problem and solve it
at any stage, but of course the earlier you tackle it the easier your work will be.

Emmet Fox

The best reason to pray is that God is really there. In praying,
our unbelief gradually starts to melt. God moves smack into
the middle of even an ordinary day. . . . Prayer is a matter
of keeping at it. . . . Thunderclaps and lightning flashes
are very unlikely. It is well to start small and quietly.

Emily Griffin

When you pray, remember that you are not praying to a distant God, but to the God
that dwells within you. Don’t just speak the words; feel what they mean in your life.
Don’t pray from your lips, but from your heart. Your prayers aren’t for God, they are for you,
to remind you of the presence of the Holy Spirit within you. When you say “Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,” remember that you are loved and protected. God has planned
greater things for us than we can imagine. The more we maintain an awareness of God’s
unchanging love, the safer and more at home we will feel in the world.

Susan L. Taylor

Prayer is often a temptation to bank on a miracle of God instead of
on a moral issue; that is, it is much easier to ask God to do my work
than it is to do it myself. Until we are disciplined properly, we will always
be inclined to bank on God’s miracles and refuse to do the moral thing
ourselves. It is our job, and it will never be done unless we do it.

Oswald Chambers

When praying for healing, ask great things of God and expect
great things from God. But let us seek for that healing that
really matters, the healing of the heart, enabling us to trust
God simply, face God honestly, and live triumphantly.

Arlo F. Newell

If we are willing to spend hours on end to learn to play the piano,
operate a computer, or fly an airplane, it is sheer nonsense for us to imagine
that we can learn the high art of getting guidance through communion
with the Lord without being willing to set aside time for it.

Paul Rees