“He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life.” ——William Law
“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.” ——Martin Luther
“Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all chains, opens all prisons, and widens all straits by which God’s saints have been held.” ——E. M. Bounds
“A life growing in its purity and devotion will be a more prayerful life.” ——E. M. Bounds
“Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer.” ——E. M. Bounds
“Prayer is the acid test of devotion.” ——Samuel Chadwick
“When asked how much time he spent in prayer, George Muller’s reply was, ‘Hours every day. But I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk and when I lie down and when I arise. And the answers are always coming.'” ——Author Unknown
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” ——Samuel Chadwick
“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” ——Charles Spurgeon
“The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.” ——Andrew Murray
“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” ——Robert Murray McCheyne
“Prayer wonderfully clears the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; sweetens and strengthens the spirit.” ——S. D. Gordon
“Little praying is a kind of make believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion.” ——E. M. Bounds
“The word of God is the food by which prayer is nourished and made strong.” ——E. M. Bounds
“If the spiritual life be healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying without ceasing will be natural.” ——Andrew Murray
“We do not pray at all until we are at our wits’ end.” ——Oswald Chambers
“The great people of the earth today are the people who pray! I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor those who explain prayer; but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. That something else is important, very important and pressing, but still, less important and pressing than prayer. There are people who put prayer first, and group the other items in life’s schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong their lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field, where the thickest fighting is going on, and in keeping the old earth sweet a little while longer.” ——S. D. Gordon
One day George Mueller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Mueller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Mueller’s funeral the last one was saved.
On persevering prayer: ‘I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before.’
‘Eighteen-year-old Hudson Taylor wandered into his father’s library and read a gospel tract. He couldn’t shake off its message. Finally, falling to his knees, he accepted Christ as his Savior. Later, his mother, who had been away, returned home. When Hudson told her the good news, she said, ‘I already know. Ten days ago, the very date on which you tell me you read that tract, I spent the entire afternoon in prayer for you until the Lord assured me that my wayward son had been brought into the fold.’ Our Daily Bread, July 19, 1989. [Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) was a famous missionary in China. He was founder of the China Inland Mission which, at his death, included 205 mission stations with over 800 missionaries, and 125,000 Chinese Christians. He spent 51 years in China].
“Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power.” —— Hudson Taylor
“Where there is no vision of eternity, there is no prayer for the perishing.” ——David Smithers
“Prayer is buried, and lost and Heaven weeps. If all prayed the wicked would flee from our midst or to the refuge.” ——Evan Roberts
Spurgeon’s “boilerroom.” Five young college students were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the famed C.H. Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, “Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?” They were not particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn’t want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a stairway, a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, “This is our heating plant.” Surprised, the students saw 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking a blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above. Softly closing the door, the gentleman then introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon. Our Daily Bread, April 24.
“Prayer does not influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence His purpose. It does influence His action.” ——S. D. Gordon
“Prayer is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.” ——John Chrysostom
“Prayer is not learned in a classroom but in the closet.” ——E. M. Bounds
“Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part.” Andrew Murray
“Prayer is weakness leaning on omnipotence.” ——W. S. Bowd
“Our prayers lay the track down which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails.” ——Watchman Nee
“Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honors God and brings him into active aid.” ——E. M. Bounds
“We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.” ——Oswald Chambers
“Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.” ——Corrie ten Boom
“Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.” ——E. M. Bounds
“The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day.” ——E.M. Bounds
“God’s cause is committed to men; God commits Himself to men. Praying men are the vice-regents of God; they do His work and carry out His plans.” E.M. Bounds
“Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian.” ——Andrew Murray
“If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” ——Martin Luther
“The most important thing a born again Christian can do is to pray.” ——Chuck Smith
“Prayer does not change the purpose of God. But prayer does change the action of God.” ——Chuck Smith
“Prayer is where the action is.” ——John Wesley
“The battle of prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts, and lack of intimacy with God’s character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline.” ——Oswald Chambers
“As is the business of tailors to make clothes and cobblers to make shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.” ——Martin Luther
“Prayer is my chief work, and it is by means of it that I carry on the rest.” ——Thomas Hooker, Puritan
“The true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer.” ——Leonard Ravenhill
“We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. That is the teaching of Jesus Christ”. ——E. M. Bounds
“Up in a little town in Maine,things were pretty dead some years ago. The churches were not accomplishing anything. There were a few Godly men in the churches, and they said: ‘Here we are, only uneducated laymen; but something must be done in this town. Let us form a praying band. We will all center our prayers on one man. Who shall it be?’ They picked out one of the hardest men in town, a hopeless drunkard, and centered all their prayers upon him. In a week, he was converted. They centered their prayers upon the next hardest man in town, and soon he was converted. Then they took up another and another, until within a year, two or three hundred were brought to God, and the fire spread out into all the surrounding country. Definite prayer for those in the prison house of sin is the need of the hour.” ——Dr. R. A. Torrey
“Therefore, whether the desire for prayer is on you or not, get to your closet at the set time; shut yourself in with God; wait upon Him; seek His face; realize Him; pray.” ——R. F. Horton
“Time spent alone with God is not wasted. It changes us; it changes our surroundings; and every Christian who would live the life that counts, and who would have power for service must take time to pray.” ——M. E. Andross
“Make time to pray. “The great freight and passenger trains are never too busy to stop for fuel. No matter how congested the yards may be, no matter how crowded the schedules are, no matter how many things demand the attention of the trainmen, those trains always stop for fuel.” ——M. E. Andross
“There is no other activity in life so important as that of prayer. Every other activity depends upon prayer for its best efficiency.” ——M. E. Andross