As we have read and studied the topic of prayer, we have come across so many wonderful insights into the topic by many men and women of God. These have helped us better understand prayer itself, the importance of praying, and how to pray. We hope you find them to be helpful for you as well.
WeI pray that you are encouraged and inspired by some of these thoughts and insights on prayer.
PRAYER & POWER
"If you are strangers to prayer you are strangers to power." - Billy Sunday
“Most of the great movements of God can be traced to a small group of people He called together to begin praying.” - Donald Whitney
“Little prayer, little power. Much prayer, much power.” - Rick Warren
PRAYER & TIME
“I’m too busy not to pray.” - Martin Luther
“That four hours of work for which one hour of prayer prepares, is far better than five hours of work without prayer.” - George Mueller
“I feel it is far better to begin with God - to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.” - Robert Murray Mc Cheyne
“Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish.” - E.M. Bounds
“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. We contrive to find time for that which we deem most important.” - J. Oswald Sanders
PRAYER & METHODS
“The church’s organization, methods, marketing, and machinery are powerless to deliver apart from prayer.” - Bruce Zachary
“We are constantly straining to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Gospel. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use - men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men - men of prayer.” - E.M. Bounds
PRAYER & FASTING
“Prayer links us to heaven and fasting separates us from earth.” - C.H. Spurgeon
"Fasting is typically associated with abstaining from food. Nevertheless, we can appropriate God’s power by drawing close to Him by abstaining from certain material pleasures. For example, you can say “no” to television so that you can say “yes” to God. By spending time praying and reading the Bible rather than watching television, we are in effect fasting." - Bruce Zachary
PRAYER & SATAN
“God’s child can conquer everything by prayer. Is it any wonder that Satan does his utmost to snatch that weapon from the Christian or to hinder his use of it.” - Andrew Murray
“Satan the hinderer may build a barrier about us, but He can never roof us in so that we cannot look up.” - J. Hudson Taylor
PRAYER & SUBMISSION
“Our motive in prayer should be for us to desire to do things God’s way, not to get God to do things our way.” - Bruce Zachary
PRAYER & IMPORTANCE
“Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.” - E.M. Bounds
“As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.” -Martin Luther
“Prayer is the vital breath of Christians. Not the thing that makes us alive, but the evidence we are alive.” - Oswald Chambers
PRAYER & PLANNING
“Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the main reasons so many of God’s children don’t have a significant prayer life is not so much that we don’t want to, but we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing’s ever ready. We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure, And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences of prayer. The opposite of planning is the rut. If you don’t plan a vacation you will probably stay home and watch tv. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer you must plan to see it.” - John Piper
PRAYER & GODILNESS
“The neglect of prayer is a grand hindrance to holiness.” - John Wesley
"Prayer is a means for spiritual acorns to become mighty spiritual oak trees." -Bruce Zachary
“Through prayer, our hearts are aligned with God’s heart so that we gain spiritual insight.” - Bruce Zachary
“Prayer - secret, fervent, believing prayer - lies at the root of all personal godliness.” - William Carey
“What is the reason that some believers are so much brighter and holier than others? I believe the difference, in 19 cases out of 20, arises from different habits about private prayer. I believe that those who are not eminently holy pray little, and those who are eminently holy prayer much?” - JC Ryle
“This much we do know---Jesus prayed. Luke tells us ‘But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed’ (Luke 5:16). If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do we need to pray? Prayer is expected because we need it. We will not be like Jesus without it.” - Donald Whitney
PRAYER & GOD’S WORD
“The more familiar we are with God’s Word, the clearer His will is to us. The clearer His will is to us, the more confident we become that He will respond to our prayers.” - Bruce Zachary
“The great lack of our faith is that we do not know God.” - Andrew Murray
PRAYER & ACTION
"We learn most about prayer by praying." - Bruce Zachary
“Reading a book about prayer, listening to lectures and talking about it is very good, but it won’t teach you to pray. You get nothing without exercise, without practice. I might listen for a year to a professor of music plating the most beautiful music, but that won’t teach me to play an instrument.” - Andrew Murray
“Reading about prayer instead of praying will simply not do. But reading about prayer in addition to praying can be a valuable way to learn.” - Donald Whitney
PRAYER & PERSEVERANCE
“If the ships of prayer do not come home speedily, it is because they are more heavily freighted with blessings. - C.H. Spurgeon
“It is comforting to know that God is never late. However, He is rarely early. As we ask, and while we wait, we learn to depend on God.” - Bruce Zachary
“The great fault of the children of God is, they do not continue in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere. If they desire anything for God’s glory, they should pray until they get it.” - George Muller