1.
I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.
Mother Teresa
I formerly thought that supplication could alter circumstances, but now I understand that prayer alters us, and we adjust things.
2.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love.
Francis of Assisi
3.
You don't even have to be the one praying, but if you get around somebody who really know how to pray-prayer will lift you when you've fallen, prayer will catch you when you've lost your grip, prayer will stop you from going overboard, prayer will bring you out!
T. D. Jakes
4.
You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.
Fannie Lou Hamer
You can implore until you become exhausted, but unless you take matters into your own hands, fortune will not bestow upon you.
5.
Today, Jesus stands ready to hear your cry and to answer prayer for you. He is interested in every detail of your life. He knows you better than you know yourself.
Kathryn Kuhlman
Today, Jesus is prepared to listen attentively to your supplication and respond to prayer for you. He is mindful of every component of your life. He understands you better than you comprehend yourself.
6.
The beginning of prayer is silence. If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. And to be able to see that silence, to be able to hear God we need a clean heart; for a clean heart can see God, can hear God, can listen to God; and then only from the fullness of our heart can we speak to God. But we cannot speak unless we have listened, unless we have made that connection with God in the silence of our heart.
Mother Teresa
7.
No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect, except those who have learned it by experience. Whenever I have prayed earnestly, I have been heard and have obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but He always comes.
Martin Luther
8.
Be sure that someday you'll praise and thank God for your unanswered prayers that once you had wept for them.
Shams Tabrizi
Be certain that one day you will give thanks to the Lord for your unrequited supplications that you once sobbed over.
9.
As long as you are performing prayer, you are knocking at the door of Allah, and whoever is knocking at the door of Allah, Allah will open it for him.
Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya
'As long as you are supplicating, you are knocking at the door of Allah, and whoever is calling out to Him, He will respond.'
10.
Never do I argue with a man with a desire to hear him say what is wrong, or to expose him and win victory over him. Whenever I face an opponent in debate I silently pray - O Lord, help him so that truth may flow from his heart and on his tongue, and so that if truth is on my side, he may follow me; and if truth be on his side, I may follow him.
Al-Shafiâi
11.
When you find yourself in a position to help someone, be happy because Allah is answering that personâs prayer through you.
Nouman Ali Khan
When you have the capability to assist somebody, be joyful as Allah is granting that individual's supplication through you.
12.
Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.
Saint John Chrysostom
Meditation is the safe harbor for every apprehension, a cornerstone for joyfulness, an origin of perpetual delight, a safeguard against gloom.
13.
I don't often spend more than half an hour in prayer at one time, but I never go more than half an hour without praying.
Smith Wigglesworth
'I rarely take more than a half-hour to commune with the divine, yet I never go for too long without praying.'
14.
Prayer is an act of faith. Just by praying to God, you are declaring our trust in someone other than yourself. Your faith is increased as you pray and watch how God answers your prayers. God says in Jeremiah 33:3, Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know. God is awesome in power and there is never a time when He is not beside you. He is faithful and holy.
Charles Stanley
15.
Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God, first fill your own house with the fragrance of love. Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God, first remove the darkness of sin from your heart. Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer, first learn to bow in humility before your fellow men. Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees, first bend down to lift someone who is down trodden. Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins, first forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you.
Rabindranath Tagore
16.
In modern day evangelism, this precious doctrine [of regeneration] has been reduced to nothing more than a human decision to raise one's hand, walk an aisle, or pray a 'sinner's prayer.' As a result, the majority of Americans believe that they've been 'born again' even though their thoughts, words, and deeds are a continual contradiction to the nature and will of God.
Paul Washer
17.
Let us all resign ourselves into His hands, and pray that in all things He may guide us to do His Holy Will ... When thoughts of this or that come I turn to Him and say: "Only what you will, my God. Use me as You will".
Mary MacKillop
18.
The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.
Martin Luther
The Bible is animated, it resonates with me; it has legs, it pursues me; it has arms, it grasps me.
19.
Prayer is that which enables the soul to realize its divinity. Through prayer human beings worship absolute truth, and seek an eternal reward. Prayer is the foundation-stone of religion; and religion is the means by which the soul is purified of all that pollutes it. Prayer is the worship of the first cause of all things, the supreme ruler of all the world, the source of all strength. Prayer is the adoration of the one whose being is necessary.
Avicenna
20.
Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word âconcernâ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.
Robert E. Lee
21.
Central Truth: Prayer is successful only when it is based on the promises in Godâs Word!
Kenneth E. Hagin
Essential Verity: Invocation is triumphant only when it is grounded in the guarantees in God's Scripture!
22.
How much more of the mosque, of prayer and fasting?
Better go drunk and begging round the taverns.
Khayyam, drink wine, for soon this clay of yours
Will make a cup, bowl, one day a jar.
When once you hear the roses are in bloom,
Then is the time, my love, to pour the wine;
Houris and palaces and Heaven and Hell-
These are but fairy-tales, forget them all.
Omar Khayyam
23.
I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.
Ravi Zacharias
24.
People count with self-satisfaction the number of times they have recited the name of God on their prayer beads, but they keep no beads for reckoning the number of idle words they speak.
Al-Ghazali
Tally with delight the times they have invoked the Lord's name on their rosary, yet no beads are kept to enumerate the number of aimless utterances they make.
25.
By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder - infinitely prouder - to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle field but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, Our Father Who Art in Heaven.
Douglas MacArthur
26.
No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.
Leonard Ravenhill
27.
Prayer doesn't change things - God changes things in answer to prayer.
John Calvin
'Supplication does not alter circumstances - God rectifies affairs in response to supplication.'
28.
God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart. When you are so weak that you cannot do much more than cry, you coin diamonds with both your eyes. The sweetest prayers God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but his love.
Charles Spurgeon
29.
If God seems slow in responding, it is because He is preparing a better gift. He will not deny us. God withholds what you are not yet ready for. He wants you to have a lively desire for His greatest gifts. All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.
Saint Augustine
30.
All my discoveries have been made in answer to prayer.
Isaac Newton
My breakthroughs have been in response to supplication.
31.
Beloved, it is not our long prayers but our believing God that gets the answer.
John G. Lake
'My dearest, it is not our lengthy supplications but our faith in the Almighty that elicits a response.'
32.
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
33.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
Saint Augustine
Entreat fervently as if everything depended on Deity. Act as though the burden of success was solely yours to bear.
34.
The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer.
Barack Obama
The most melodious din I am familiar with is the Islamic call to prayer.
35.
Prayer is a walk with God....We can minister to the Lord as a group but I'll tell you one thing about it, you'll never have that intimacy of ministering to the Lord and worshiping Him with a group that you'll have in your own individual life.
Kenneth E. Hagin
36.
A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men.
Leonard Ravenhill
A man who is close with the Divine will never be daunted by mortals.
37.
All my weak days have a common cause - I have neglected communion with God through my neglect of the Scriptures & prayer. When will I learn?
Paul Washer
My lack of spiritual fortitude can be attributed to ignoring my relationship with the Lord through shoddy Bible study and prayer. How much longer will it take for me to understand this?
38.
I'd rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught his disciples how to preach, but only how to pray.
Dwight L. Moody
I'd prefer to be able to supplicate rather than be an eloquent orator; Jesus Christ never instructed his followers how to extol, but only how to intercede.
39.
Prayer can truly change your life. For it turns your attention away from yourself and directs your mind and your heart toward the Lord. If we look only at ourselves, with our own limitations and sins, we quickly give way to sadness and discouragement. But if we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, then our hearts are filled with hope, our minds are washed n the light of truth, and we come to know the fullness of the Gospel with all is promise and life.
Pope John Paul II
40.
Prayer begins by talking to God, but it ends by listening to Him. In the face of Absolute Truth, silence is the soul's language.
Fulton J. Sheen
Meditation begins by conversing with the Divine, but culminates in hearing its Voice. In the presence of Ultimate Reality, stillness is the soul's tongue.
41.
I prayed to dispel my fear, until suddenly, and I do not know how the idea came to me, I began to pray for others. I prayed for everyone who came into my thoughts - - people with whom I had traveled, those who had been in prison with me, my school friends of years ago. I do not know how long I continued my prayer, but this I do know - - my fear was gone! Interceding for others had released me!
Corrie Ten Boom
42.
The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church, grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil.
Leonard Ravenhill
43.
When the saint ceases to seek after holiness, purity, righteousness, truth; when he ceases to pray, stops reading the Word and gives way to carnal appetites, then it is that Satan comes.
Smith Wigglesworth
When one abandons the pursuit of holiness, virtue, justice, accuracy; when they forsake prayer, cease to read sacred texts and indulge in sinful desires, then it is that Lucifer arrives.
44.
The bottom line is pray. If youâre tired, sick, emotionally overwhelmedâpray. If youâre on cloud nine and life seems perfectâpray. If you lack directionâpray. If you doubt that prayer makes any differenceâpray. If the circumstances of your life are out of your controlâpray. If the circumstances of your life seem well within youâre your controlâpray even harder. Whatever you doâpray.
Tony Evans
45.
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
Desmond Tutu
When the evangelists arrived in Africa they had their scriptures and we held sway over the terrain. They said 'Let us supplicate.' We shut our peepers. When we opened them again we had the scriptures and they held dominion over the land.
46.
Prayer is powerful beyond limits when we turn to the Immaculata who is queen even of God's heart.
Maximilian Kolbe
Invocation is mighty beyond measure when we appeal to the Perfect One who is sovereign even of God's core.
47.
Prayer is an earnest and familiar talking with God, to whom we declare all our miseries, whose support and help we implore and desire in our adversities, and whom we laud and praise for our benefits received. So that prayer contains the exposition of our sorrows, the desire of God's defence, and the praising of His magnificent name, as the Psalms of David clearly do teach.
John Knox
48.
For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
49.
You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan.
John Bunyan
You can take action after you have prayed, but you cannot take action until you have supplicated. Supplicate diligently, for prayer is a safeguard for the spirit, an offering to the Divine, and a torment to the Devil.
50.
It is Godâs will through His wonderful grace, that the prayers of His saints should be one of the great principal means of carrying on the designs of Christâs kingdom in the world. When God has something very great to accomplish for His church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people; as is manifest by Ezekiel 36:37. and it is revealed that, when God is about to accomplish great things for His church, He will begin by remarkably pouring out the spirit of grace and supplication (see Zechariah 12:10).
Jonathan Edwards