"Prayer is political action. Prayer is social energy. Prayer is public good. Far more of our nation's life is shaped by prayer than is formed by legislation. That we have not collapsed into anarchy is due more to prayer than to the police. That society continues to be livable and that hope continues to be resurgent are attributable to prayer far more than to business prosperity or a flourishing of the arts. The single most important action contributing to whatever health and strength there is in our land is prayer. Not the only thing, of course, for God uses all things to effect His sovereign will, and the 'all things' most certainly includes police and artists, senators and professors, therapists and steelworkers. But prayer is, all the same, the source action." - Eugene Peterson, Living the Message (Harper San Francisco, 1996)

"Compassion lies at the heart of our prayer for our fellow human beings. When I pray for the world, I become the world; when I pray for the endless needs of the millions, my soul expands and wants to embrace them all and bring them into the presence of God. But in the midst of that experience I realize that compassion is not mine but God's gift to me. I cannot embrace the world, but God can. I cannot pray, but God can pray in me. When God became as we are, that is, when God allowed all of us to enter into the intimacy of the divine life, it became possible for us to share in God's infinite compassion." - Henri Nouwen in Seeds of Hope, Christianity Today - March 2, 1998

"The rule in a monastery was not 'Do not speak,' but 'Do not speak unless you can improve on the silence.' Might not the same be said of prayer?" - Anthony de Mello, Taking Flight

"Remember that REPENTANCE is the key... PRAYER is the answer...GOD is the POWER." - Rev. Don Miller, Bible Based Ministries, June 1997

"Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth, but from falling in love." - Richard Foster

"Our growth in prayer may be to us the test of our growth in all other respects. 'Lord, teach us to pray,' is a prayer for the young beginner and for the more advanced disciple; it is a suitable petition for us all, for we have none of us yet learned to the full the sacred art of supplication." - Charles H. Spurgeon in Let It Begin with Me

"Think of the last thing you prayed about - were you devoted to your desire or to God'? Determined to get some gift of the Spirit or to get at God? 'Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.' The point of asking is that you may get to know God better. 'Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.' Keep praying in order to get a perfect understanding of God Himself." - Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest

"Some people think the prayer of faith is crawling out on a limb and then begging God to keep someone from sawing it off. But that is not real prayer, that is presumption. If God makes it clear that he wants you out on a limb, tine - you will be perfectly safe there. If not, it is presumptuous to crawl out on that limb, expecting God to keep you there." - Ray C. Stedman in Man of Faith

"Prayer pulls the rope below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God, Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly. Others give but an occasional pluck at the rope. But he who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously, with all his might." - Charles H. Spurgeon in The Quotable Spurgeon

"We all tend to prescribe the answers to our prayers. We think that God can come in only one way. But Scripture teaches us that God sometimes answers our prayers by allowing things to become much worse before they become better. He may sometimes do the opposite of what we anticipate...yet it is a fundamental principle in the life and walk of faith that we must always be prepared for the unexpected when we are dealing with God." - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Faith: Tried and Triumphant

"In times when you are sad and troubled, do not give up the good works of prayer and penance which you have been in the habit of doing. For the devil will try to persuade you to abandon them, and unsettle you. Rather, practice them more than before, and you will see how quickly the Lord will come to your aid." - Theresa of Avila in A Life of Prayer

"Prayer is the plumb line that finds its rest in the place where our hearts beat in rhythm with the heart of God. Scripture is the weight that propels the plumb line's fall." - Wendy M. Wright in Weavings (July/Aug 1996)

"I have learned that God's silence to my questions is not a door slammed in my face. I may not have answers. But I do have Him." - Dave Dravecky in When You Can't Come Back

"Our lives must be as holy as our prayers. Our prayers are to prove their reality by the fruit they bear in the holiness of our life. True devotion in prayer will assuredly be rewarded, by God's grace, with the power to live a life of true devotion to Him and His service." - Andrew Murray in Aids to Devotion

"When we pray for ourselves, our petitions usually center around what we think we need or what we are sure so and so needs. God sees needs in our lives that are far more urgent than those we have written on our heavenly supermarket list and daily present to our 'Need-Meeter' in the sky. Our need for changed attitudes, a new acceptance of someone we have been rejecting, our need to be 'cut down to size' - these are not things we pray for too readily. On the other hand, we do find we can pray these things for other people!" - Jill Briscoe in Before You Say 'Amen'

"No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect, except those who have learned it by experience. It is important when we have a need to go to God in prayer. I know, whenever I have prayed earnestly, that I have been heard and have obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but He always comes." - Martin Luther

"What a man is on his knees before God, that he is - and nothing more." - Robert Murray McCheyne

"You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed." - Charles Swindoll

"If God answered all our petitions we might find the response to our desires tragic." - Source unknown

"Some things are proved by the unbroken uniformity of our experiences. The law of gravitation is established by the fact that, in our experience, all bodies without exception obey it. Now even if all the things that people prayed for happened, which they do not, this would not prove what Christians mean by the efficacy of prayer. For prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted." - C. S. Lewis in The World's Last Night

"The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says 'Amen' and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving Him your ideas." - Frank Laubach in Frank C. Laubach, Teacher of Millions

Prayer