True prayer is an earnest soul's direct converse with its God.
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Prayer Quotes
Discover notable prayer quotes by influential authors on Mayalines.
  ​ A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward.
Prayer is the breath of a new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it.
True prayer is only another name for the love of God. Its excellence does not consist in the multitude of our words; for our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him. The true prayer is that of the heart, and the heart prays only for what it desires. To pray, then, is to desire—but to desire what God would have us desire.
A life of prayer is a life whose litanies are ever fresh acts of self-devoting love.
Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.
Worship is the earthly act by which we most distinctly recognize our personal immortality; men who think that they will be extinct a few years hence do not pray. In worship we spread out our insignificant life, which yet is the work of the Creator's hands, and the purchase of the Redeemer's blood, before the Eternal and All-Merciful, that we may learn the manners of a higher sphere, and fit ourselves for companionship with saints, and angels, and for the everlasting sight of the face of God.
  ​ Prayer is not conquering God's reluctance, but taking hold upon God's willingness.
Prayer is the act by which man, detaching himself from the embarrassments of sense and nature, ascends to the true level of his destiny.
Prayer is so mighty an instrument that no one ever thoroughly mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale of man's wants and God's goodness.
Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but compunction of soul.
Prayer, then, does not consist in sweet feelings, nor in the charms of an excited imagination, nor in that illumination of the intellect that traces with ease the sublimest truths of God; nor even in a certain consolation in the view of God; all these things are external gifts from His hand, in the absence of which love may exist even more purely, as the soul may then attach itself immediately and solely to God, instead of to His mercies.
Prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul; and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of the spiritual life.
The best and sweetest flowers of paradise God gives to His people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven.
  ​ We lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often and long alone with God. No otherwise can the great central idea of God enter into a man's life, and dwell there supreme.
Any heart turned Godward feels more joy In one short hour of prayer, than e'er was raised By all the feasts of earth since its foundation.
          A good man's prayers Will from the deepest dungeon climb to heaven's height,           And bring a blessing down.
Prayer moves the hand which moves the world.
Consider how august a privilege it is, when angels are present, and archangels throng around, when cherubim and seraphim encircle with their blaze the throne, that a mortal may approach with unrestrained confidence, and converse with heaven's dread Sovereign! O, what honor was ever conferred like this?
  ​ Prayer pulls the rope below, and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly; others give but an occasional pluck at the rope; but he who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously, with all his might.
O Thou by whom we come to God—      The Life, the Truth, the Way; The path of prayer Thyself hast trod;      Lord, teach us how to pray.
When we pray to God with entire assurance, it is Himself who has given us the spirit of prayer.
In presenting the Divine promises at the throne of grace, we present the best of names at a bank that is solvent. Let us, when we would pray, consider well whether we have a promise for our plea.
Let faith each meek petition fill,      And waft it to the skies; And teach our heart 'tis goodness still      That grants it or denies.
A certain joyful, though humble, confidence becomes us when we pray in the Mediator's name. It is due to Him; when we pray in His name it should be without wavering. Remember His merits, and how prevalent they must be. "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace."
  ​ Good prayers never come creeping home. I am sure I shall receive what I ask for or what I should ask.
For spiritual blessings, let our prayers be importunate, perpetual, and persevering; for temporal blessings, let them be general, short, conditional, and modest.
The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, even while in sorrow and sore need, will always end in thankfulness and triumph and praise.
Be not afraid to pray—to pray is right.      Pray if thou canst with hope; but ever pray, Though hope be weak or sick with long delay;      Pray in the darkness, if there be no light.
Ah, what is it we send up thither, where our thoughts are either a dissonance or a sweetness and a grace?
Patience and perseverance are never more thoroughly Christian graces than when features of prayer.
Are we to suppose that the only being in the universe who cannot answer prayer is that One who alone has all power at His command? The weak theology that professes to believe that prayer has merely a subjective benefit is infinitely less scientific than the action of the child who confidently appeals to a Father in heaven.
  ​ Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers. God will suit His returns to our requests. Lifeless services shall have lifeless answers. When men are dull, God will be dumb.
Ah! well it is for us that God is a loving Father, who takes our very prayers and thanksgivings rather for what we mean than for what they are; just as parents smile on the trailing weeds that their ignorant little ones bring them for flowers.
Then let us earnest be,      And never faint in prayer; He loves our importunity,      And makes our cause His care.
Expect an answer. If no answer is desired, why pray? True prayer has in it a strong element of expectancy.
How can He grant you what you do not desire to receive?
Easiness of desire is a great enemy to the success of a good man's prayer. Our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg tamely for those things for which we ought to die; which are more precious than imperial sceptres, richer than the spoils of the sea or the treasures of Indian hills.
The reason why we obtain no more in prayer, is because we expect no more. God usually answers us according to our own hearts.
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Every prayer is a wish, but wishes are not prayers. In the heart of every prayer is a sense of need, but a sense of need is not prayer. Prayer is asking for a felt need; not asking the Universe, but God. No one can intelligently ask who does not believe that he can and may be heard. No one can perseveringly ask, who thinks that asking will bring nothing. Persons who believe that the whole influence of prayer is simply the effect of their own thoughts upon themselves, never pray. They cannot pray. The mouth may utter right words; the heart is not in them. Some prayers are not prayers, for those who say them do not really wish for the things they mention. But the difficulty with most prayers is that there is no grasp of the idea of God—there is no asking. "Ask, and ye shall receive."
There is much seeking for God that does not amount to searching for Him with all the heart. There is much praying, and too little prayer. There are many petitions, but too little expectation. There is too reckless a rushing into the presence of God, and too little patient waiting to hear what He will speak. True prayer has to do directly with the infinitely high and holy God; and true prayer ever finds Him, and in finding Him gets all that Divine wisdom and love can bestow upon the seeker, consistently with God's glory and the creature's highest good
He prayeth best who loveth best      All things both great and small: For the dear God who loveth us,      He made and loveth all.
  ​ He that loveth little prayeth little; he that loveth much prayeth much.
O Lord, we rejoice that we are Thy making, though Thy handiwork is not very clear in our outer man as yet. We bless Thee that we feel Thy hand making us. What if it be in pain? Evermore we hear the voice of the potter above the hum and grind of His wheel. Father, Thou only knowest how we love Thee. Fashion the clay to Thy beautiful will.
Like an echo from a ruined castle, prayer is an echo from the ruined human soul of the sweet promise of God.
He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray; and he who will be constant in prayer, shall know what it is to have a pure heart.
As in poetry, so in prayer, the whole subject matter should be furnished by the heart, and the understanding should be allowed only to shape and arrange the effusions of the heart in the manner best adapted to answer the end designed. From the fullness of a heart overflowing with holy affections, as from a copious fountain, we should pour forth a torrent of pious, humble, and ardently affectionate feelings; while our understandings only shape the channel and teach the gushing streams of devotion where to flow, and when to stop.
" Continuing instant in prayer ." The Greek is a metaphor taken from hunting dogs that never give over the game till they have got their prey.
  ​ Have you never observed how free the Lord's Prayer is of any material that can tempt to subtle self-inspection in the art of devotion? It is full of an outflowing of thought and of emotion toward great objects of desire, great necessities, and great perils.
For "we know not what we should pray for as we ought;" but love leads us on, abandons us to all the operations of grace, puts us entirely at the disposal of God's will, and thus prepares us for all His designs.
There is something in every act of prayer that for a time stills the violence of passion, and elevates and purifies the affections.
When Christ went up into a mountain apart to pray, He dismissed the multitude, to teach us that when we address ourselves to God, we must first dismiss the multitude. We must send away the multitude of worldly cares, worldly thoughts, worldly concerns and business, when we would call upon God in duty.
Prayers born out of murmuring are always dangerous. When, therefore, we are in a discontented mood, let us take care what we cry for, lest God give it to us, and thereby punish us.
  ​ I think that if we would, every evening, come to our Master's feet, and tell Him where we have been, what we have done, what we have said, and what were the motives by which we have been actuated, it would have a salutary effect upon our whole conduct.
Prayer is so necessary, and the source of so many blessings, that he who has discovered the treasure cannot be prevented from having recourse to it, whenever he has an opportunity.
Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere.
There is no burden of the spirit but is lightened by kneeling under it. Little by little, the bitterest feelings are sweetened by the mention of them in prayer. And agony itself stops swelling, if we can only cry sincerely, "My God, my God!"
Lord! Thou art with Thy people still; they see Thee in the night-watches, and their hearts burn within them as Thou talkest with them by the way. And Thou art near to those that have not known Thee; open their eyes that they may see Thee—see Thee weeping over them, and saying, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life"—see Thee hanging on the cross and saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"—see Thee as Thou wilt come again in Thy glory to judge them at the last. Amen.
Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer, and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble.