Some of my favorite quotes on prayer

Patty asked if I would share some of my favorite quotes on prayer. I’m just going to share all the ones I can think of. I apologize in advance if any of them are repeats from other posts. Hope these encourage others as much as they have me.


“Saints have never yet reached the limit to the possibilities of prayer. Whatever has been attained or achieved has touched but the fringe of the garment of a prayer-hearing God.” -- Dr. A.T. Pierson


“Because you prayed --
God touched our weary bodies with His power
And gave us strength for many a trying hour
In which we might have faltered, had not you
Our intercessors faithful been, and true.

“Because you prayed --
God touched our lips with coals from altar fire,
Gave Spirit-fulness, and did so inspire
That, when we spoke, sin-blinded souls did see;
Sins’ chains were broken;
Captives were made free.

“Because you prayed --
The dwellers in the dark have found the Light;
The glad good-news has banished heathen night;
The message of the Cross, so long delayed,
Has brought them life at last --
Because you prayed.” -- Charles B. Bowser


“THANKSGIVING must be personally applied! A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue; it is the fountain of every other virtue.” -- Author Unknown


“To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us -- and He has given us everything.” -- Thomas Merton


“Someday we shall understand that God has a reason for every NO which He speaks... How often when His people are worrying and perplexing themselves about their prayers not being answered, is God answering them in a far richer way! Glimpses of this we see occasionally, but the full revelation of it remains for the future.” -- STREAMS IN THE DESERT


“Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only be unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, ABOVE ALL that we ask or think. Each time you intercede, be quiet first and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of your place in Christ, and expect great things.” -- Andrew Murray

“[Prayer] is the bridge that spans every gulf and bears us over every abyss of danger or of need.” A.B. Simpson


“Are you in sorrow? Prayer can make your affliction sweet and strengthening. Are you in gladness? Prayer can add to your joy a celestial perfume. Are you in extreme danger from outward or inward enemies? Prayer can set at your right hand an angel whose touch could shatter a millstone into smaller dust than the flour it grinds, and whose glance could lay an army low. What will prayer do for you? I answer: All that God can do for you. ‘Ask what I shall give thee.’ (1 Kings 3:5).” -- Farrar


“The best prayer comes from a strong inward necessity. By human security systems, we often protect ourselves from a dynamic prayer life. Why do we do ourselves this wrong?” -- William MacDonald


“It is a throne set up on purpose for the dispensation of grace and from which every utterance is an utterance of grace. The scepter that is stretched out from it is the silver scepter of grace. The decrees proclaimed from it are purposes of grace. The gifts that are scattered down its golden steps are gifts of grace, and He who sits upon the throne is grace Himself. That it is the throne of grace that we approach when we pray is a mighty source of encouragement to all of us who are praying men and women.” -- Charles Spurgeon


“When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible’s idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.” -- Oswald Chambers


“So we are permitted to apply to God in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, because God in Him is well pleased, and because we are the friends of His Son He answers our requests.” -- Albert Barnes


“The Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, gives wisdom to our ignorance, turns ignorance into wisdom, and changes our weakness into strength. The Spirit Himself does this. He helps and takes hold with us as we tug and toil... He pleads for us and in us. He quickens, illumines, and inspires our prayers. He proclaims and elevates the matter of our prayers, and inspires the words and feelings of our prayers He works mightily in us so that we can pray mightily. He enables us to pray always and ever according to the will of God.” -- E.M. Bounds


“To sum it all up, if you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ... So be filled with God’s Word. Study what Jesus has said, what the Holy Ghost has left on record in this divinely inspired book, and in proportion as you feed on, retain, and obey the Word in your life, you will be a master in the art of prayer.” -- Charles Spurgeon


“I do not believe that there is such a thing in the history of God’s kingdom as a right prayer offered in a right spirit that is forever left unanswered.”
-- Theodore L. Cuyler

“In every circumstance of life, we should go to the Lord in prayer. When in trouble, we should approach Him with earnest entreaties. In times of rejoicing, we should lift our hearts to Him in praise. He wants to be brought into all the changing moods of our lives.” -- William MacDonald


“Lord, if what I ask for does not please You, neither would it please me. My desires are put into Your hands to be corrected. Strike the pen through every petition that I offer that is not right. And put in whatever I have omitted, even though I might not have desired it had I considered it... ‘Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.’”
-- Charles Spurgeon


“Anyone who finds his prayers ineffective should not conclude that the thing which he asks of God is not according to His will, but should go alone with God with the psalmist’s prayer, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me’ (Psalm 139:23-24) and wait before Him until He puts His finger upon the thing that is displeasing in His sight. Then the sin should be confessed and put away.” -- R.A. Torrey


“Prayer does not fit us for the greater works: prayer is the greater work.”
-- Oswald Chambers


“Study may make a biblical scholar; but prayer puts the heart under heavenly teaching and forms the wise and spiritual Christian.” -- Charles Bridges


“God will hear prayer, but He may not answer it at the time which we in our minds have appointed; He will reveal Himself to our seeking hearts, but not just when and where we have settled in our own expectations.” -- Charles Spurgeon


“Whether we praise Him for His unfathomable majesty or petition Him for daily needs, prayer is the expression of our dependence upon God, our whole-souled reliance upon His power to sustain us, His mercy to forgive us, His bounty to supply us, and His glory to overwhelm us as we reflect on who He is.” -- C. Samuel Storms


“Lord, make me sensitive to the promptings of your Holy Spirit’ is a constant prayer of mine. Whenever someone is laid on my heart or brought to my mind, I need to be an intercessor. Often I don’t know exactly what to pray and that is why it is good to study Paul’s prayers and the Lord’s prayer in John 17....
“How little we realize what impact our intercession has in the kingdom of God. God is gracious to give us the privilege of prayer that allows us to participate with Him in ministering to others.” -- Cynthia Heald, in BECOMING A WOMAN OF PRAYER


“The strong man of prayer when he starts to pray for a thing keeps on praying until he prays it through, and obtains what he seeks. We should be careful about what we ask from God, but when we do begin to pray for a thing we should never give up praying for it until we get it, or until God makes it very clear and definite to us that it is not His will to give it.” -- R.A. Torrey


“Certainly, if we are to have a quiet hour set down in the midst of a hurry of duties, and to keep that time inviolate, we must exercise both planning and self-denial. We must be prepared to forego many things that are pleasant, and some things that are profitable. Let no one who can find time for vanities say that they do not have enough time for prayer. We have to reclaim our time. It may be from recreation, or from social events, or from study, or from works of benevolence. Wherever it comes from, we must find time every day to enter into our closet, and having shut the door, to pray to our Father who is in secret.” -- David M’Intryre


“And so we can just pour out the fullness of our heart, the burden of our spirit, the sorrow that crushes us, and know that He hears, He loves, He understands, He receives; and He separates from our prayer all that is imperfect, ignorant, and wrong, and presents the rest, with the incense of the great High Priest, before the throne on high; and our prayer is heard, accepted, and answered in His name.”
--- A.B. Simpson

“Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God.” -- STREAMS IN THE DESERT


I realize there are quite a few quotes here, but I hope these will bless your heart and encourage you in your prayer life!