Quotes about Prayer

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.(1 John 5:14—15)

Prayer is both a right and a privilege of redeemed man, who is now in a position to enter fully into a relationship of love with God and to agree that "His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (See Matthew 6:10.)

The ninth verse is part of His discourse on prayer: "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Prayer is therefore not an option for mankind but a necessity. If we don't pray, heaven cannot interfere in earth's affairs. It is imperative that we take responsibility for the earth and determine what happens here by our prayer lives.

Yet James said that if we doubt, we are being double-minded. That means that we don't have integrity—we're not holy. Since God is holy, we also have to be holy if we want to receive answers to our prayers.

Purpose is the raw material for your prayer life.

Prayer should not be open-ended. It should be purpose-driven, motivated by a knowledge of God's ways and intentions.

When Jesus's followers asked him to teach them to pray, he didn't tell them to divide into focus groups and look deep within their own hearts.

The crucifixion was the shocking answer to the prayer that God's kingdom would come on earth as in heaven.

After defending the value of prepared prayers, the author cautions against over-reliance on them. Just as David could not fight in the armor of King Saul, we are called to fight in the way God has equipped us uniquely.

When Jesus gave his disciples this prayer, he was giving them part of his own breath, his own life, his own prayer. The prayer is actually a distillation of his own sense of vocation, his own understanding of his Father's purposes. If we are truly to enter into it and make it our own, it can only be if we first understand how he set about living the Kingdom himself.

In a sense, learning to follow Jesus is simply learning to pray the Lord's Prayer.