Quotes on Prayer

[Josh]

I'm going to keep a log of my favorite quotes on prayer here, especially as I'm reading through the book Prayer by Philip Yancey:

"The prayer preceding all prayers is 'May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to'" CS Lewis

"The well-known pastor Haddon Robinson begins almost every sermon with the same brief confession: 'God, if these people knew about me what you know about me, they wouldn't listen to a word I said'" Philip Yancey

"It occurred to me one day that though I often worry about whether or not I sense the presence of God, I give little thought to whether God senses the prescence of me." Philip Yancey

"Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge." Philip Yancey

"Prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them"

"It seems to me we must conclude that such promises (as in Mark 11:24) about prayer with faith refer to a degree or kind of faith which most believers never experience. A far inferior degree is, I hope acceptable to God. Even the kind that says "Help thou my unbelief" may make way for a miracle. Again, the absence of such faith as insures the granting of the prayer is not even necessarily a sin; for Our Lord had no such assurance when He prayed in Gethsemene"

"There are no doubt, passages in the New Testament which may seem at first sight to promise an invariable granting of our prayers. But that cannot be what they really mean. For in the very heart of the story we meet a glaring instance to the contrary. In Gethsemene the holiest of all petitioners prayed ... that a certain cup might pass from him. It did not. After that the idea that prayer is recommended to us as a sort of infallible gimmick may be dismissed".


Have any favorite quotes about prayer? Post them as a reply.

[krhagan19]

Super Evil Devil's Advocate quotation: "Prayer is a self serving substitute for action."

[Josh]

Ouch.

But that does raise an interesting question: what is the relationship between action and prayer?

[robin]

In many cases it is difficult to know what actions to take without first praying.

[Josh]

Likewise, I find that if one is inactive spiritually, it's hard to want to pray.

[grokit]

Prayer would be considered an action by many.

[yeshuafreak]

but why pray when God knows everything... and why pray when it was God who allowed the situation to happen in the first place, or may have directly caused it?!

i think there is a place for prayer, and i know the question for the above- but i wont answer it just yet, just to stimulate more posts.

shalom

[Josh]

Sept 14, 2009 6:13:12 GMT -8 grokit said:

Prayer would be considered an action by many.

Yes, agreed. My point was simply that the need to pray is often fueled by other spiritual actions.

[Margot]

Sept 14, 2009 11:28:43 GMT -8 @yeshuafreak said:

but why pray when God knows everything... and why pray when it was God who allowed the situation to happen in the first place, or may have directly caused it?!

Always good questions! One of my answers would be that I think prayer is a lot more about cultivating our relationship with God than about "getting answers" from Him. Every time I pray I cement my connection to Him a little more--I get a better picture of Him in me and me in Him. The things I ask for and the answers I get, start to become more secondary.

[Kirby]

An actress who is late for an audition is driving around and around and there's no parking anywhere.
She says aloud, “Dear all powerful and merciful God please find me a place to park and I’ll do anything for you.”
As she finishes praying, a space opens up and she says, “Oh, never mind. I found one.”

[yeshuafreak]

Always good questions! One of my answers would be that I think prayer is a lot more about cultivating our relationship with God than about "getting answers" from Him. Every time I pray I cement my connection to Him a little more--I get a better picture of Him in me and me in Him. The things I ask for and the answers I get, start to become more secondary.

this is similar to what i would say- buit i will hold off a little longer to explain it... i really want to know others take on this as well.

An actress who is late for an audition is driving around and around and there's no parking anywhere.
She says aloud, “Dear all powerful and merciful God please find me a place to park and I’ll do anything for you.”
As she finishes praying, a space opens up and she says, “Oh, never mind. I found one.”

lol.

shalom

[Josh]

Something worth reading on prayer from C.S. Lewis:


Footnote to All Prayers

He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow
When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,
And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart
Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art.
Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme
Worshipping with frail images a folk-lore dream,
And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address
The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless
Thou in magnetic mercy to Thyself divert
Our arrows, aimed unskilfully, beyond desert;
And all men are idolators, crying unheard
To a deaf idol, if Thou take them at their word.

Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great
Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.