more quotes and passages on prayer and praying

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

Samuel Shoemaker

There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us well-nigh 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

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

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.

unattributed

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

F.B. Meyer

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

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

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

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 - prayer 2 - prayer 4

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

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

There is a moment between intending to pray and actually praying that
is as dark and silent as any moment in our lives. It is the split second
between thinking about praying and really praying. For some of us, this
split second may last for decades. It seems, then, that the greatest
obstacle to prayer is the simple matter of beginning, the simple exertion
of will, the starting, the acting, the doing. How easy it is, and yet--between
us and the possibility of prayer there seems to be a great gulf fixed:
an abyss of our own making that separates us from God.

Emilie Griffin
Clinging: The Experience of Prayer

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.

Emilie 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

Articles and book excerpts on prayer:

Darrel Scott's Testimony before Congress
My Favorite Four-Letter Words Norman Vincent Peale
Benefits of Prayer Dale Carnegie

The only certainties that don't break down are those acquired in prayer.

Reinhold Schneider

Whatever a person prays for, one prays for a miracle. Every prayer
reduces itself to this: "Great God, grant that twice two be not four."

Ivan Turgenev

Prayer is such an ordinary, everyday, mundane thing. Certainly, people who
pray are no more saints than the rest of us. Rather, they are people who want
to share a life with God, to love and be loved, to speak and to listen,
to work and to be at rest in the presence of God.

Roberta Bondi

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Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily
admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have
a heart without words than words without a heart.

Mohandas Gandhi

Proper praying is like a person who wanders through a field gathering
flowers--one by one, until they make a beautiful bouquet. In the same
manner, a person must gather each letter, each syllable, to form
them into words of prayer.

Rabbi Nachman

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!

Prayer is a force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men,
after all other therapy has failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the
serene effort of prayer. It is the only power in the world that seems to overcome
the so-called "laws of nature"; the occasions on which prayer has dramatically
done this have been termed "miracles." But a constant, quieter miracle takes
place hourly in the hearts of men and women who have discovered that prayer
supplies them with a steady flow of sustaining power in their daily lives.
Too many people regard prayer as a formalized routine of words, a refuge
for weaklings, or a childish petition for material things. We sadly undervalue
prayer when we conceive it in these terms, just as we should underestimate rain
by describing it as something that fills the birdbath in our garden. Properly
understood, prayer is a mature activity indispensable to the fullest development
of personality--the ultimate integration of people's highest faculties. Only in
prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind,
and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.

Alexis Carrel

Prayer is not flight; prayer is power. Prayer does not deliver a person from
some terrible situation; prayer enables a person to face and to master a situation.

William Barkley

Prayer! I couldn't live without it; I would have died a
thousand times if it had not been for my chance to
talk it over with God, and gain strength in it from him.

Dale Evans Rogers

Prayer is not a vain attempt to change God's will; it is a filial desire
to learn God's will and to share it. Prayer is not a substitute for
work: it is the secret spring and indispensable ally of all true work.

George Buttrick

True prayer is not begging or beseeching, it is right knowing. It is not
a matter of trying to make something happen, but of becoming aware
of what already is. It is not a time to say "Please" but to say "Thank you."

Elinor MacDonald

Prayer is always acceptable to God when dictated by the heart, for
the intention is everything in his sight; and the prayer of the heart is
preferable to one read from a book, however beautiful it may be,
if read with the lips rather than with the thought.

Allan Kardec