To pray well is the better half of study.
~ Martin Luther
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Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul.
~ Hannah More
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Study your prayers, a great part of my time is spent getting in tune for prayer.
~ Robert McCheyne
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Too many women have too much leisure time for their own good. They have time for criticism, gossip, faultfinding, and complaining. They have time for idle games and lay too much attention to things of the flesh. There are other women who have too little time for the enduring things of life. They are too busy flitting about doing this and that. They have great activity and much doing, but they lack time for building Christian characters. Both kinds of women -- the too-idle and the too-busy need to take time for meditation and quiet repose in prayer to God. They need time to cultivate their souls that in turn they may cultivate their children's lives.
~ Billy Graham
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If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in its Master's presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in our Lord's presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour will be very well employed.
~ St.Francis de Sales
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MAHATMA GANDHI, one of the busiest and most famous men in the world, used to set aside Monday as a Day of Silence. He needed the stillness, he said, in order to rest his vocal cords and to promote inner harmony in his soul amid the turmoil of life around him. I wonder what power would be released if all Christians devoted one day a week to listening to the voice of God to discern His coded message for our lives.. The Counsellor can only lead us if we receive His voice.
~ Paul Brand in "In His Image" page 211
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I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished.... I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation of it.
~ George Mueller of Bristol
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How to listen to God:
"We are either in the process of resisting God's truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth."
~ Charles Stanley
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Since God knows our future, our personalities, and our capacity to listen, He isn't every going to say more to us than we can deal with at the moment.
~ Charles Stanley
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We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.
~ Charles Stanley
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An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate.
~ Charles Stanley
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Of all the things Christ wants for us, loving Him and focusing our attention on Him are the most important.
~ Charles Stanley
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The amount of time we spend with Jesus - meditating on His Word and His majesty, seeking His face - establishes our fruitfulness in the kingdom.
~ Charles Stanley
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I'm convinced that the man who has learned to meditate upon the Lord will be able to run on his feet and walk in his spirit. Although he may be hurried by his vocation, that's not the issue. The issue is how fast his spirit is going. To slow it down takes a period of time.
~ Charles Stanley
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The essence of meditation is a period of time set aside to contemplate the Lord, listen to Him, and allow Him to permeate our spirits.
~ Charles Stanley
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On silence:
"Often times God wants us to sit before Him in quietness. He doesn't want us to do all the talking. As Is. 30:15 says "In quiet and confidence will be your strength."
~ Charles Stanley
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To have God speak to the heart is a majestic experience, an experience that people may miss if they monopolize the conversation and never pause to hear God's responses.
~ Charles Stanley
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Yieldedness is vital in listening to what He has to say.
~ Charles Stanley
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If we rationalize our problems when He points them out, we will spend less and less time meditating because we won't want to face God in that area of our lives.
~ Charles Stanley
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He wants you all to Himself to put His loving, divine arms around you.
~ Charles Stanley
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How can God speak to us if we don't take time to listen? Quietness is essential to listening. If we are too busy to listen, we won't hear. It takes time and quietness to prepare to listen to God. Ps. 62:5
~ Charles Stanley
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God's voice is still and quiet and easily buried under an avalanche of clamour.
~ Charles Stanley
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God will never tell us to do something that gratifies the flesh.
~ Charles Stanley
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When God speaks, oftentimes His voice will call for an act of courage on our part.
~ Charles Stanley
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His voice leads us not into timid discipleship but into bold witness.
~ Charles Stanley
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"The Christian needs to be alone during a definite period of each day for meditation on scripture...and for prayer...even during times of spiritual dryness and apathy.
It matters little what form of prayer we adopt...or how many words we use. What matters is the faith which lays hold on God, knowing that He knows our needs before we even ask Him. That is what gives Christian prayer its boundless confidence and its joyous certainty. We simply make petitions and requests to One who has the heart of a Father.
Of course, God's will must be the primary object of our prayers... and we must recognize prayer as an instrument of God's will. Therefore, we pray that God's will may be done throughout the world...and in intercessory prayer we bring people... from around the world...into the presence of God.
Every intercession potentially draws the one for whom it is intended into a life-changing relationship with Christ. And in intercession I move into the other man's place. I inter his life...his guilt and distress. I am afflicted by his sins and his infirmity. If...as we pray...we recognize our own responsibility for the world's guilt and our own guilt in the death of Christ...then we can act upon and affect the lives of men and women throughout the world."
~ Dietrich Bonhofer
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The best way in the world to deceive believers is to cloak a message in religious language and declare that it conveys some new insight from God.
~ Charles Stanley
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The greatest gift we can give to others is our prayers.
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Prayer for Jesus Christ, formed the brackets in which He accomplished His earthly work. It fortified Him with wisdom and power before action occurred, and it renewed, refreshed, and revived Him when His human strength was exhausted. On the front end, He prayed for fruit, in the middle, He bore fruit. Afterwards, He thanked God for fruit.
~ Dan Hayes
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Every morning lean thine arms awhile
Upon the window-sill of heaven
And gaze upon thy Lord,
Then, with vision in thy heart,
Turn strong to meet thy day.
~ Thomas Blake
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What can I give Him poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would give Him a lamb,
If I were a wise man, I would do my part,--
But what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
~ Christina G. Rossetti
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I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, A shiny sliver out of one hour. I dropped it carelessly. O God! I knew not I held opportunity.
~ Hazel Lee
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To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The more we pray, the more we come to heartbeat of God. Prayer starts the communication process between ourselves and God. All the options of life fall before us. At that point we will either forsake our prayer life and cease to grow, or we will pursue our prayer life and let Him change us.
Either option is painful. To not grow in His likeness is to not enjoy his fulness. When this happens, a haunting voice continues to ask, ‘What could I have become in him if I would have been a man of prayer?’ To grow in His likeness is to enjoy His fullness. When this happens, the priorities of the world begin to fade away.”
~ Richard Foster
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I shall see no hope until the individual members of the church are praying for revival, perhaps meeting in one anothers' homes, meeting in groups amongst friends, meeting together in churches, meeting anywhere you like, and praying with urgency and concentration for a shedding forth of the power of God.... There is no hope until we do.
~ D.D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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In the house of God there is never-ending festival; the angel choir makes eternal holiday; the presence of God's face gives joy that never fails. And from that everlasting, perpetual festivity there sounds in the ears of the heart a strain, melodious, mysterious, sweet-provided the world does not drown it.
~ St. Augustine from Patrologia
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Worshipping God is the great essential of fitness. If you have not been worshipping...when you get to work you will not only be useless yourself, but a tremendous hindrance to those who are associated with you.
~ Oswald Chambers
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