c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
A Prayer for Daily InsightOpen my eyes, God. Help me to perceive what I have ignored, to uncover what I have forgotten, to find what I have been searching for. Remind me that I don't have to journey far to discover something new, for miracles surround me, blessings and holiness abound. And You are near. Amen.
— Naomi Levy, Talking to God: Personal Prayers for Times of Joy, Sadness, Struggle, and Celebration
There can be no prevailing in prayer without travailing in prayer.
— Oswald J. Smith, The Revival We Need
If you are religious, pray. If you are philosophical, contemplate. If you are spiritual, meditate.
— John K.  Brown
Some part of me broke in prayer that morning, and some part of me was reborn as I gave myself fully and completely to prayer and to God in that moment.
— Ariana Carruth, Love for Our Afflictions: Allowing Pain to Pave the Way to Peace
My intellect is so limited, Lord, that I can only trust in You to preserve me as I should be.
— Flannery O'Connor
I began praying for the health and safety of my boys before each one was born. Once a week for two years prior to Joseph’s death, I also gathered with other moms to pray for my sons and their schools, and I specifically asked God to protect the health and safety of Joseph, Curt, and Wyatt. My prayers were not answered the way I had hoped. Despite countless prayers for Joseph to be safe, God said no. His plan remains a mystery. I have had to accept that mystery and trust Him in the dark.
— Shelley Ramsey, Grief: A Mama's Unwanted Journey
If prayers emitted light, you'd see ours (Liberty students') from space.
— Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University
Prayer is making space available for God to do beautiful things with your life.
— Anthony J. Ciorra, Beauty: A Path to God
Prayer turns problems into promises and possibilities.
— Lori Nawyn, Fill Your Day With Hope
The Word is light and the Holy Spirit is oxygen
—  to pray is to see and breathe.
Why bother praying? It does not matter if we have developed bad habits in limiting prayer to only asking for things, but prayer is much, much richer than that. By all means let's keep asking God to keep changing us, but let's also give praise and thanksgiving; crying out in lamentation; affirm our trust and faith; sing of our salvation; and simply wait upon the Lord. There is a way to pray for all seasons under the sun.
— Richard Leonard, Sj
Our prayer life and rule of prayer will be shaped by the different stages of our spiritual journey as well. Many people who have just come to know Christ find that their words flow easily. Prayer is a joy for them. But, as with romantic relationships, there is a natural movement beyond this honeymoon phase. When feelings of intense connection with God ebb, we have a new opportunity to engage God - not based on cool spiritual vibes but as an expression of our genuine love for God. Times of spiritual dryness are normal for almost everyone, even if we haven't sinned and to the best of our knowledge haven't done anything to wall off our relationship with God. God may allow this dryness so that we can mature in our relationship with him and learn to seek him not for an ecstatic spiritual experience but out of a deeper love and commitment.
— Ken Shigematsu, God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God
Prayer for today:Dear Lord, the eternal ecstatic joy within me is often turned into bondage by my labeling mind. Please, give me some meditative wisdom.
— Saurabh Sharma
Whether we write lyrics or craft legislation, sell homes or teach classes, design spaces or open franchises, prayer is a critical part of the creative process. Don’t just brainstorm; praystorm.
— Mark Batterson, Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
Of all spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.
— Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
By then I wasn't just asking questions; I was being changed by them. I was being changed by my prayers, which dwindled down nearer and nearer to silence, which weren't confrontations with God but with the difficulty--in my own mind, or in the human lot--of knowing what or how to pray. Lying awake at night, I could feel myself being changed--into what, I had no idea.
— Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow
. . . you have no idea how many people there are in the world whose day could be made and their life changed for the better if someone would just look them in the eye, smile, and say, "Hello.
— Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Life: Finding the Freedom, Wholeness, and True Success God Has for You
Our vision of the heavenly realm...can sustain us through the most difficult of days and circumstances. It births hope amidst hardship and nurtures faith amidst opposition.
— David Timms, Living the Lord's Prayer
He who neglects to pray alone and in private, however assiduously he frequents public meetings, there gives his prayers to the wind.
— John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Vols
I must exchange whispers with God before shouts with the world.
— Lysa TerKeurst
Lord, please restore to us the comfort of merit and demerit. Show us that there is at least something we can do. Tell us that at the end of the day there will at least be one redeeming card of our very own. Lord, if it is not too much to ask, send us to bed with a few shreds of self-respect upon which we can congratulate ourselves. But whatever you do, do not preach grace. Give us something to do, anything; but spare us the indignity of this indiscriminate acceptance.
— Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace
Closing one’s eyes when praying doesn’t increase the odds of the prayer being answered. It merely decreases the odds of being distracted.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana
What is it?”“A prayer.”“For a child?”She nodded.“For me?”Another nod.“On a tree?”“Trees spend all day looking up at God.
— Mitch Albom, For One More Day
Prayer unaccompanied by perseverance leads to no result.
— John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Vols
But we need to pray daily for humility and honesty to see these sinful attitudes for that they really are, and then for grace and discipline to root them out of our minds and replace them with thoughts pleasing to God.
— Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness
The music, the prayers, the bowing and rising, the incense--all of it was breaking down my defenses. That's what good liturgy does. It breaks your heart open and turns you toward God.
— Fred Bahnson, Soil and Sacrament: Four Seasons Among the Keepers of the Earth
Mortals were such fickle creatures. They called into the dark, demanded answers and attention from forces they could not comprehend, and yet when they had that attention and those answers, they complained about them.
— Philippa Ballantine, Spectyr
Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
He regards it as the highest insult for the wicked to boast of His covenant while profaning His sacred Name by their whole lives.
— John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Vols
…when you lonely is the best time to pray, to speak to the Lord, and most important, to listen to the Lord…
— Andrew Galasetti, These Colors Don't Run
My prayer time alone with the Lord Jesus is more important than any other thing I do each day. There in the secret place, the devil's plans are shattered and God's victories are won, evil is thwarted and blessings are unleashed, sicknesses are overcome and sin is denied its sway over the lives of the weak. Our God is an answering God.
— Lee Ann Rubsam
Men in prayer give greater license to their unlawful desires than if they were telling jocular tales among their equals.
— John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Vols
To live, pray. To learn, read. To love, give. To listen, pay attention. But to be wise, apply all that you have acquired
— Israelmore Ayivor
God almighty, Franny," he said. "If you're going to say the Jesus Prayer, at least say it to Jesus, and not to St. Francis and Seymour and Heidi's grandfather all wrapped up in one. Keep him in mind if you say it, and him only, and him as he was and not as you'd like him to have been.
— J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
O God, make me worthy of this calling, that the name of Jesus may be glorified in me and I in him.
— Arthur Bennett, The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions
The "more" of Christianity is a myth; a deceitful illusion designed to keep you busy and running in circles, always seeking but never finding, always learning but never coming to the knowledge of the Truth—a carrot on a stick, if you will.
— D.R. Silva, It's All About Jesus: What They Never Told You in Church
The ascetic remembrance of death is opposed to akedia, to anxiety, to depression, and becomes a powerful reminder of eternity, its joyful nostalgia.
— Paul Evdokimov, Orthodoxy
Rather than walk about holy places we can thus pause in our thoughts, examine our heart, and visit the wheel promised land.
— Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Volume 54: Table Talk
Sniffing glue is a homeless nonbeliever's prayer.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Holiness grants us access to God's blessings, for without it,ACCESS DENIED!!!
— Seyi Ayoola
For Mercier, it was the ceremony of the mass that eased his soul: the sweetish smoke trailing from the censer, the ringing of the bell, the Latin incantations of the priest. In Warsaw, he attended early mass, at a small church near the apartment, once or twice a month, confessing to his vocational sins – duplicity, for example – in the oblique forms provided by Catholic protocol. He’d grown up an untroubled believer, but the war had put an end to that. What God could permit such misery and slaughter? But, in time, he had found consolation in a God beyond understanding and prayed for those he’d lost, for those he loved, and for an end to evil in the world.” ― Alan Furst, The Spies of Warsaw
— Alan Furst, The Spies of Warsaw
Each prayer is like a seed that gets planted in the ground. It disappears for a season, but it eventually bears fruit that blesses future generations. In fact, our prayers bear fruit forever.
— Mark Batterson, Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
I have a handful of prayers that I pray all the time... One is that God will put my books into the right hands at the right times. I've prayed this prayer thousands of times, and God has answered it in dramatic fashion countless times. The right book in the right hands at the right time can save a marriage, avert a mistake, demand a decision, plant a seed, conceive a dream, solve a problem, and prompt a prayer. That is why I write. And that's why, for me, a book sold is not a book sold; a book sold is a prayer answered. I don't know the name and situation of every reader, but God does, and that's all that matters.
— Mark Batterson, Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
Prayer adds an element of surprise to your life that is more fun than a surprise party or surprise gift or surprise romance. In fact, prayer turns life into a party, into a gift, into a romance.
— Mark Batterson, Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
So what do you do when you are stuck?The first thing I do when I am stuck is pray. But I’m not talking about a quick, Help me Lord, Sunday’s a comin’ prayer. When I get stuck I get up from my desk to head for my closet. Literally. If I‘m at the office I go over to a corner that I have deemed my closet away from home. I get on my knees and remind God that this was not my idea, it was His…None of this is new information to God…Then I ask God to show me if there is something He wants to say to prepare me for what He wants me to communicate to our congregation. I surrender my ideas, my outline and my topic. Then I just stay in that quiet place until God quiets my heart…Many times I will have a breakthrough thought or idea that brings clarity to my message. . .Like you, I am simply a mouthpiece. Getting stuck is one way God keeps me ever conscious of that fact.
— Andy Stanley, Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication
My love for you is a prayer, she thought. Love is the only prayer I know.
— Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon
Prayer is the difference between seeing with our physical eyes and seeing with our spiritual eyes.
— Mark Batterson, Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
. . . you must not build upon foundations of prayer and contemplation alone, for, unless you strive after the virtues and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs.
— Teresa of Ávila, Interior Castle
The single most important piece of advice about prayer is one word: Begin!
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
Léon Bloy wrote: 'Life holds only one tragedy: not to have been a saint
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
I've never thought there was anything I could hope to get by praying for it.
— Julianna Baggott, Pure
Close your eyes, and with Jesus, journey back through your day. As you do, confess sin as you see it...
— Kyle Idleman, Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus
The more you concentration on God, the longer your conversation with him lasts and the holier his consacration will be on you. Let your communication with him be controlled by your committment.
— Israelmore Ayivor
I understand our mornings can be busy; however, if we cannot make time for God now, then when?
— Ashley Ormon, God in Your Morning
When we pray, instead of trying to produce love in our souls toward God, we should be basking in God's love for us. How foolish to stay indoors in the cold, dark little room off the self, trying to turn on the light and turn up the heat, when we can just go outside into God's glorious Sonlight and receive his rays! How silly to fuss with artificial tanning salons and lotions and lights when the Son is out!
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
There is something in us that fears prayer as a maggot fears light. We must do violence to this voice, for it is not ourselves. It is our Enemy.
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
Prayer is easier than we think. we want to think it is too hard or too high and holy for us, because that gives us an excuse for not doing it. This is false humility. We can all do it, even the most sinful, shallow, silly, and stupid of us.
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
We must pray in order to grow, and we must grow because Infinite Love will not, cannot, settle for less than the greatest joy of which his beloved creature is capable.
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
God makes it easy to begin: just do it! God also makes it easy to progress in prayer, for he rewards our efforts with peace and joy. And he makes it easiest of all at the end, for it gradually becomes more natural and delightful.
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
Make this poor self grow less and less, Be Thou my life and aim ; Oh, make me daily, through Thy grace, More worthy of Thy name.
— Johann Kaspar Lavater
Patience is the path to opportunities. We gain patience through prayer and meditation. Within that vein, we never consider ourselves having failed.
— Ellen J. Barrier
Let us live this day in that light, that life, and that peace, so that we may gain the victory over those things that press us down.
— George   Dawson
High and holy ambition--to be a saint--is not opposed to holy humility--total reliance on God's grace. Exactly the opposite. Ambition without humility is ambition that fails. It is pride, which goes before a fall (Prov 16:18). Humility without ambition is false humility.
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.
— Max Lucado
I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to Him.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon
When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.
— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
That is to say, I pray for you. And there's an intimacy in it. That's the truth.
— Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Prayer is like lying awake at night, afraid, with your head under the cover, hearing only the beating of your own heart. It is like a bird that has blundered down the flue and is caught indoors and flutters at the windowpanes. It is like standing a long time on a cold day, knocking at a shut door.
— Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow
But now I understood that, although words were God's first creation, silence was closer to His divine spirit, and that prayers given in silence were infinitely greater than the thousands of words men might offer up to heaven.
— Alice Hoffman, The Dovekeepers
Oh Lord of melons, of mercy, though I am not ready, nor worthy, I am climbing towards you.
— Mary Oliver, Thirst
The best formula for a prayer that gives J.O.Y:J- 1st, Pray to JESUSO- 2nd, Pray for OTHERSY- 3rd, Pray for YOURSELFMost people distort the formula by praying selfish prayers for their own personal gains. JYO is not the spelling for joy. In JOY, O comes before Y. It means you pray for OTHERS before YOURSELF.
— Israelmore Ayivor
We pray to obey God, not to 'play God'. We pray, not to change God's mind, but to change our own; not to command God, but to let God command us. We pray to 'let God be God'. Prayer is our obedience to God even when it asks God for things, for God has commanded us to ask (Mt. 7:7).
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there he still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community
One common cause of this mistake of preferring to imagine and admire a great ideal instead of beginning to do little deeds is our impatience with little baby steps, our lack of humility.
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
Prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.
— Teresa of Ávila, The Way of Perfection
When we face our fear of death and slow down our busy lives, we come to realize our relationships are precious, a part of life’s foundation. Knowing this fact helps us to understand that death’s true purpose is to teach us how to live.
— Molly Friedenfeld, The Book of Simple Human Truths
Though sleep was dearly needed, it was not welcomed, for even in sleep I was tormented.
— Dave  Moore
It is possible to pray in such a way that one does not transcend the world, in such a way that the divine is degraded to a functional part of the workaday world... then it is no longer devotion to the divine, but an attempt to master it.
— Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis Of Culture
love the people God gave you because He will need them back one day.
— Becky Kinder
Hadn’t retired reporter Stan warned him of how protective Cosimo was of his granddaughters? What if the Carusos had discovered his identity and wanted to rub him out as they’d rubbed out his father?Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now andat the hour of our death.
— Christie Ridgway, An Offer He Can't Refuse
The circumstances of our lives are pieces of a larger scheme in the puzzle of life, and in His Perfect Wisdom, the pieces fit.
— Renae Jones, Perfect Wisdom
Author challenges parents to bridge the gap with maturing, more independent kids with what he calls "Knock and Pray". He says parents should invite their kids to unscheduled times to "pray... big".
— Jay Payleitner
More than happiness or joy or lower blood pressure, the practice of God’s presence gives us meaning. Through this practice we become more closely aligned with Jesus and we learn His desire for us more completely.Life can be hard. The Practice of The Presence of God makes it easier. As Brother Lawrence said, “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.
— David Paul Kirkpatrick, Breakfast in the temple
Practicing the Presence of God is bringing our “heart” – body, soul, and mind – to God, to be in His Presence – to love Him, to worship Him, to lay our troubles and triumphs with Him, to rest in Him. What a glorious idea….but few of us ever find that rest!
— David Paul Kikrpatrick
Fill my mouth with the accuracy and potency of Your word and Spirit that I may make war through prayer with swift precision (Psalm 144:1).
— Shawntel Jefferson, Prayers that Ignite Change for Kids
How do we listen to his voice? With the ear of our heart. With love. Love has ears, as love has eyes. Just be there, and love him, and let him love you." (35). Easier said than done. "What will happen then? What will we hear? Let God take care of that. Seek only him, do not use him as a means to seek any other end. He is not your Santa, he is your Savior. I cannot tell you what he will give you, except for one thing: he will give you himself. He will give you more of himself the more you want him, that is, the more you love him. He wants to pour infinite riches into your soul; prayer is a way of opening up your soul so more of God can enter.
— Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners
For the first time in my life, I fully realized that I was not in charge. I knew that I needed to submit to Heavenly Father's will. I couldn't have what I wanted when and how I wanted it just because I was keeping the commandments. The purpose of prayer was not to tell Heavenly Father what to do, rather to find out what He would have me do and learn. I needed to align my will with His...Prayer is less about changing our circumstances and more about changing us. It is about seeking His will and asking for His help to do what we need to do."June 2013 Ensign, "Improving Your Personal Prayers
— Kevin W. Pearson
We don’t read the Bible, the Bible reads us.
— David Paul Kikrpatrick
God requires solitude and quiet – this is part of the way He instructs us to pray to Him. We are obligated through our Love to worship Him as He sees fit. This is not the law. This is the language of Love: we love Him in the way He chooses for us to Love Him.
— David Paul Kirkpatrick, Breakfast in the temple
Jesus walked to a solitary place to pray. He went somewhere and found a physical place. We must do the same, so the “going to”, and “the passing through” become a beautiful imitation of our Teacher as we seek to be like Him and be with Him. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
— David Paul Kikrpatrick
If all else fails, we then factor (fall) into our equation. And pray hard, someone factors (catching us) into theirs.
— Noor Iskandar
Choose God, his word, prayer, and spiritual vitamins. As you fight the battle with these tools, you will also be simultaneously choosing your victory.
— Tracie Miles, Stressed-Less Living: Finding God's Peace in Your Chaotic World
I found myself praying: "May I love and accept myself just as I am.
— Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
Prayer was never meant to be magic,' Mother said.'Then why bother with it?' Suzy scowled.'Because it's an act of love,' Mother said.
— Madeleine L'Engle
To love is to respect.
— Mary Mihalic, Made to Make It
Many people have found prayer impossible because they thought they should only pray for wonderful but remote needs they actually had little or no interest in or even knowledge of. Prayer simply dies from efforts to pray about ‘good things’ that honestly do not matter to us. The way to get to meaningful prayer for those good things is to start by praying for what we are truly interested in. The circle of our interests will inevitably grow in the largeness of God’s love.” --Dallas Willard
— Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God
It takes a habit to break a habit. You can pray every day for a generous heart, but until you start acting in that direction, nothing's going to change.
— Andy Stanley, Enemies of the Heart: Breaking Free from the Four Emotions That Control You
Sometimes you are the answer to your own prayer.
— Dillon Burroughs
Real life is messy and hard and never turns out like I’ve imagined. Usually it’s better. So, I try not to dream but rather to pray. If there is one thing I know, it’s that I have no clue what I want. I’m fickle. I’m picky. And I’m scared of a lot of things. Especially commitment.
— Katie Kiesler, 22 and Single: A Coming of Age Story...in Progress
We formed an impromptu circle just so we could look at each other and memorize faces. We hardly noticed the waiting officials. We hardly noticed anything but our little family whose ties weren’t loosening at all. In fact, this impending separation only seemed to be binding us together with a double overhand knot, hard to untie and unfailing.
— Laura Anderson Kurk, Perfect Glass
In anguish and desperation, I reached out as I had many times before to the presence I call the Beloved. This unconditionally loving and wakeful awareness had always been a refuge for me.
— Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
I couldn’t stop crying because it was so intimate, in that way I always thought being physical with him would feel. If someone had walked in they might have thought Henry was barely touching me. I knew the truth of it.He was laying me open and bare to him and to God.There wasn’t a more intimate act. I would never recover from this.
— Laura Anderson Kurk, Perfect Glass
May spending time with You be my first priority, may listening and obeying mark my life, may extravagant childlike joy and amazement mark my demeanor, may an openness to share your grace quickly and easily flow from me, may I seek your forgiveness and excitedly accept it.
— Katie Kiesler, My Problem with Grace
God promises to hear and answer our prayers, but he doesn't always answer the way we want him to.
— Shirley Corder, Strength Renewed: Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer
Love and Trust God, It's a life time commitment!!!
— John  Dye
What would your prayers look like if you believed that the cross really was the measure of God's compassion for someone?
— J.D. Greear, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary
We fail to prevail with unconverted men because of our more fundamental failure to prevail with God in prayer.
— John R. Mott
New rules—we needed new rules. No one opens the main doors but me. No one leaves the property without me. No one goes outside without letting me know. I had these horrible images in my head of kids being restrained against their wills, of kids crying my name out, begging me to help them when I was powerless. Desperate times… Lord, my soul called out. Lord…somehow that’s as far as I could get. I didn’t have the words.
— Laura Anderson Kurk, Perfect Glass
...It is far more sinful to pray irregularly than not to pray at all.
— Paul Bowles, The Spider's House
Why is it that we feel bad when “all” we can do for a person is pray for them? We feel like we need to work to help, but remember: prayer is the work.
— Dillon Burroughs
(God's) nature, identity, and overarching purposes are no doubt unchanging. But his intentions with regard to many particular matters that concern individual human beings are not. This does not diminish him. Far from it. He would be a lesser God if he could not change his intentions when he thinks it is appropriate.
— Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God
Pure motives are prerequisite to the ability to call down the powers of heaven. The Lord will not sustain your efforts to achieve, excel or receive special blessings if your desires are vain.
— Grant Von Harrison, Drawing on the Powers of Heaven
She inhaled a worry. She exhaled a prayer." Mary Lou Quinlan, author
— Mary Lou Quinlan
Perhaps the prayer that is offered when the time for praying is over is more terribly pathetic than any other. Yet one might hesitate to say that this prayer was unanswered.("The Undying Thing")
— Barry Pain, Gaslit Nightmares: Stories by Robert W. Chambers, Charles Dickens, Richard Marsh, and Others
He asked me if I ever prayed-- and I lied.Then he asked me if I ever got an answer, or a sign that my prayer was heard-- and I told him the truth."Yeah... me neither."His hands sounded like leather as he slowly rubbed some warmth into his knotted knuckles."So what happens to all of those lost prayers?"I didn't know if I should tell him the truth of what I really believed... or not.I put my hand on his slumping shoulder, smiled and told him the truth of what I believe, "Don't worry...
— Spuds Crawford
If you are not realizing your desires, you are not desiring in faith with all your heart.
— Grant Von Harrison, Drawing on the Powers of Heaven
When others doubt the power of Jesus, be the one who asks Him to perform the impossible. He often will.
— Dillon Burroughs, Thirst No More: A One-Year Devotional Journey
I get that. For you, it’s more than following a bunch of rules—no sex, no booze, no swear words, pray every night and twice on Sunday.
— Laura Anderson Kurk, Perfect Glass
Prayer is our Christian duty. It is an expression of submission to God and dependence upon Him. For that matter, prayer is arguably the most objective measurement of our dependence upon God. The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle. The things you neglect to pray about are the things you trust you can handle on your own.
— H.B. Charles Jr.
God didn’t design your life so you would constantly fall down, but he does hope that you will be brought to your knees.
— Shannon L. Alder
I'll pray that you grow up a brave man in a brave country. I will pray you find a way to be useful.I'll pray, and then I'll sleep.
— Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Throughout my life, until this very moment, whatever virtue I have accomplished, including any benefit that may come from this book, I dedicate to the welfare of all beings.May the roots of suffering diminish. May warfare, violence, neglect, indifference, and addiction also decrease.May the wisdom and compassion of all beings increase, now and in the future.May we clearly see all the barriers we erect between ourselves and others to be as insubstantial as our dreams.May we appreciate the great perfection of all phenomena.May we continue to open our hearts and minds, in order to work ceaselessly for the benefit of all beings.May we go to the places that scare us.May we lead the life of a warrior.
— Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
Tangaloor, fire-brightFlame-foot, farthest walkerYour hunter speaksIn need he walksIn need, but never in fear.
— Tad Williams, Tailchaser's Song
Sometimes not getting what you want is God's greatest blessing.
— Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
It's a sweet thing to sit quietly in the early-morning darkness and talk to God for a while. It's amazing what you gain from the conversation.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway
I realized at that moment - observing his form move further away without once turning back - that I’d already begun to rebuild the imaginary wall between us. I was shielding my heart with stone cold feelings again, the only way I knew to protect it. I still planned to try my hand at prayer. If God would grant me this one request, if I could keep my only friend, I would give anything in return, even the treasured books trapped beneath my arm. I’d tasted enough of a dismal life to know that a real, true friend was of greater worth than the collection of every imagined fairytale in the world.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Dandelions: The Disappearance of Annabelle Fancher
If we do not feel like praying, then we should pray until we do feel like praying.
— Ezra Taft Benson
I hear another man cry, “Oh, sir my want of strength lies mainly in this, that I cannot repent sufficiently!” A curious idea men have of what repentance is! Many fancy that so many tears are to be shed, and so many groans are to be heaved, and so much despair is to be endured. Whence comes this unreasonable notion? Unbelief and despair are sins, and therefore I do not see how they can be constituent elements of acceptable repentance; yet there are many who regard them as necessary parts of true Christian experience. They are in great error. Still, I know what they mean, for in the days of my darkness I used to feel in the same way. I desired to repent, but I thought that I could not do it, and yet all the while I was repenting. Odd as it may sound, I felt that I could not feel. I used to get into a corner and weep, because I could not weep; and I fell into bitter sorrow because I could not sorrow for sin. What a jumble it all is when in our unbelieving state we begin to judge our own condition! It is like a blind man looking at his own eyes. My heart was melted within me for fear, because I thought that my heart was as hard as an adamant stone. My heart was broken to think that it would not break. Now I can see that I was exhibiting the very thing which I thought I did not possess; but then I knew not where I was. Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance. We can no more repent perfectly than we can live perfectly. However pure our tears, there will always be some dirt in them: there will be something to be repented of even in our best repentance. But listen! To repent is to change your mind about sin, and Christ, and all the great things of God. There is sorrow implied in this; but the main point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this turning, you have the essence of true repentance, even though no alarm and no despair should ever have cast their shadow upon your mind.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, All of Grace
I feel the life slipping out of me. When the pain comes, I cry out, but there is no prayer in it, only fear. I kneel and recite my office and the Rosary but the words are empty - dry gourds rattling in the silence. The dark is terrible and I feel so alone. I see no signs but the symbols of contradiction. I try to dispose myself to faith, hope and charity, but my will is a blown reed in the winds of despair.
— Morris West, The Devil's Advocate
If prayer fails I am in a greater darkness yet, not knowing whether I have presumed too much or believed too little.
— Morris West, The Devil's Advocate
Lack of spiritual desire should grieve us and lead us to lament its absence, to seek earnestly for its bestowal, so that our praying, henceforth, should be an expression of the soul's sincere desire.
— E.M.Bounds
Let us not take what we eat for granted
—  let us view our meals as an opportunity to give our Lord praise.
Prayer is inward communication with yourself
—  action is outward conversation with God.
Since God exists outside of time, He also has all of the time He needs to personally act in each of our lives. There is never a rush to the next meeting or the next message.
— Dillon Burroughs, Hunger No More: A 1-Year Devotional Journey Through the Psalms
We do not pray in order to provoke God into action. If this is our view of prayer, then we are no different to the prophets of Baal who felt they had to manipulate their aloof, disinterested and fickle gods. Instead we pray because we have a God who has already shown himself to be always active in this world in the person of His Son Jesus, and because we have a confidence that He will continue to work for our good and His glory.
— James Krieg
The knowledge of our union with Christ...gives us confidence in prayer. It was when Jesus had begun to expound the closeness of this union that he also began to introduce the disciples to the true heart of prayer. If Christ abides in us and we abide in him, as his word dwells in us, and we pray in his name, that God hears us (Jn 15:4-7). But all of these expressions are simply extensions of the one fundamental idea: If I am united to Christ, then all that is his is mine. So long as my heart, will and mind are one with Christ's in his word, I can approach God with the humble confidence that my prayers will be heard and answered.
— Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Christian Life: A Doctrinal Introduction
When I look back, I realize I was praying for something God had already given me.
— Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
Prayers should be for preventing war, not fighting it.
— @hg47, Daughter Moon
The joy which answers to prayer give, cannot be described; and the impetus which they afford to the spiritual life is exceedingly great.
— Answers To Prayer
Sometimes, you have to shot block a friend's prayer because she's asking God to bless an obviously bad dating relationship.
— jonathon acuff
Pray FOR positive outcomes, never ON perceived dilemmas
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
In moments of prayer, people tend to pose as a critic and point out perceived flaws in God's art.
— Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
Prayer is not about a list
—  prayer is about a lifestyle.
We dare not forget the power of prayer.
— Dillon Burroughs, Activist Faith: From Him and For Him
O Lord, I have been talking to the people;Thought's wheels have round me whirled a fiery zoneAnd the recoil of my word's airy rippleMy heart unheedful has puffed up and blown.Therefore I cast myself before thee prone:Lay cool hands on my burning brain and press From my weak heart the swelling emptiness.
— George MacDonald, The Diary of an Old Soul & the White Page Poems
What's to rationalize? You mean you shouldn't pray if you haven't got your s--t together? This is another fairly common misconception of faith, which is that people who go to church, or people who pray, or people who talk about their religion must be, somehow more pious or ethically rigorous or have more morally cleansed lifestyle. The high correlation is supposed to be between faith and your search, the depth of your search, your willingness to try, your willingness to admit error, your hope and belief in the ultimate meaning and value of that search.' - Timothy Shriver
— J. Randy Taraborrelli, After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family--1968 to the Present
When we pray for God to illumine our path, we are saying, ‘Dear God, please show me the way. What thoughts do I need to think, to be able to navigate my life at this point? What perceptions do I need; what insights will guide me? Who do I need to forgive? What parts of my personality do I need to look at; what changes do I need to make? Please come upon me and heal my life. Amen.
— Marianne Williamson, Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness And Making Miracles
Prayer lets God do what he does best. Take a pebble & kill a Goliath. Take the common, make it spectacular! Pray & see what He can do.
— Max Lucado
When you pray, all heaven prays with you. That's a mighty army.
— Kristen Heitzmann, The Still of Night
Bargaining with God is pointless. He already has a thousand followers that will do what you bargained to do for free.
— Shannon L. Alder
Mental prayer is, as I see it, simply a friendly intercourse and frequent solitary conversation with Him who, as we know, loves us.
— Teresa of Ávila, The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself
You cannot always depend on prayers to be answered the way you want them answered but you can always depend on God. God, the loving Father often denies us those things which in the end would prove harmful to us. Every boy wants a revolver at age four, and no father yet has ever granted that request. Why should we think God is less wise? Someday we will thank God not only for what He gave us, but also for that which He refused.
— Fulton J. Sheen, Fulton Sheen's Wartime Prayer Book
No soul ever fell away from God without giving up prayer. Prayer is that which establishes contact with Divine Power and opens the invisible resources of heaven. However dark the way, when we pray, temptation can never master us. The first step downward in the average soul is the giving up of the practice of prayer, the breaking of the circuit with divinity, and the proclamation of one’s owns self sufficiency.
— Fulton J. Sheen, Characters of the Passion: Lessons on Faith and Trust
We have an allergic reaction to dependency, but this is the state of the heart most necessary for a praying life. A need heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.
— Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
We don't know how bad we are until we try to be good. Nothing exposes our selfishness and spiritual pwerlessness like prayer.
— Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
The person who waits upon moods in impoverished. If the painter only wanted to paint when in the mood for it, he would not get very far. In religion, as in art and science, along with the times of high excitement, there are times of sober work and practice. We must practice our communion with God, otherwise we will not find the right tone, the right word, the right language, when God surprises us with his presence.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditating on the Word
You will remember how, as a schoolboy, I had destroyed my religious life by a vicious subjectivism which made 'realizations' the aim of prayer; turning away from God to seek states of mind, and trying to produce those states of mind by 'maistry'.
— C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
The kingdom comes when Jesus becomes king of your life. But it has to be your life.
— Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
Prayer is a way, a road we build for love to walk into our lives.
— Summer Kinard, Can't Buy Me Love
…I interviewed ordinary people about prayer. Typically, the results went like this: Is Prayer important to you? Oh, yes. How often to you pray? Every day. Approximately how long? Five minutes – well, maybe seven. Do you sense the presence of God when you pray? Occasionally, not often. Many of those I talked to experienced prayer more as a burden than as a pleasure. They regarded it as important, even paramount, and felt guilty about their failure, blaming themselves. Does this sound familiar? (pp. 14/Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?)
— Philip Yancey, Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
In order to pray like a child, you might need to unlearn the nonpersonal, nonreal praying that you've been taught.
— Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
Continual prayer is a lifestyle."~R. Alan Woods [2013]
— R. Alan Woods, The Journey Is the Destination: A Book of Quotes With Commentaries
Prayer is a jouney, a path that is created only by walking it. It creates and reveals oneself in the process.
— Edward Farrell, Prayer Is a Hunger
...Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest"(Matthew 11:28, NASB). The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with you wandering mind. Come messy.
— Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
My prayer life IS my life.
— Melvin D. Blackaby
When we infuse our actions with a focus on God and on the many blessings we receive in even the most mundane moments of our lives, we create sacred rituals that bring a sense of holiness, a sense of wholeness, to what we do and who we are. Like the Eucharistic feast that nourishes our heart and soul, every meal we eat with mindfulness[,] each bite we take with gratitude, has the power to transform us inside and out, for all time.
— Mary DeTurris Poust, Cravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image, and God
When we link our eating and our prayer and begin to see food as part of a much bigger picture, rather than the focal point of our entire lives, we reshape the way we think, the way we act, and the way we interact.
— Mary DeTurris Poust, Cravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image, and God
Even if you can’t be totally mindful at every meal, if you can say a blessing, silently if necessary, or offer up a prayer for someone, something beyond yourself and your food, the prayer helps to transform eating into something that affects not only our hunger at that moment but the greater world.
— Mary DeTurris Poust, Cravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image, and God
Taken slowly, or mindfully, even eating an orange or a bowl of soup, or a small piece of dark chocolate for that matter, can take on the flavor or prayer.
— Mary DeTurris Poust, Cravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image, and God
Not only did Jesus purposefully enter the wilderness on a regular basis but historically, God seems to prefer meeting with man in these desert regions.
— Amy Layne Litzelman
True love waits...
— Pau
The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the phone and ordering groceries - we place our order and hang up.
— Gordon B. Hinckley
from Love Under a Dark Sky: "In the universe vastWe share a simple feastAmong creatures equally earthbound.Let us raise our hearts in gratitude,Our eyes in expectationOf a greater supper yetIn heavenly realms.
— Shellie Foltz, Love Under a Dark Sky
My belief is that when you're telling the truth, you're close to God. If you say to God, "I am exhausted and depressed beyond words, and I don't like You at all right now, and I recoil from most people who believe in You," that might be the most honest thing you've ever said. If you told me you had said to God, "It is all hopeless, and I don't have a clue if You exist, but I could use a hand," it would almost bring tears to my eyes, tears of pride in you, for the courage it takes to get real-really real. It would make me want to sit next to you at the dinner table.So prayer is our sometimes real selves trying to communicate with the Real, with Truth, with the Light. It is us reaching out to be heard, hoping to be found by a light and warmth in the world, instead of darkness and cold. Even mushrooms respond to light - I suppose they blink their mushroomy eyes, like the rest of us.Light reveals us to ourselves, which is not always so great if you find yourself in a big disgusting mess, possibly of your own creation. But like sunflowers we turn toward light. Light warms, and in most cases it draws us to itself. And in this light, we can see beyond our modest receptors, to what is way beyond us, and deep inside.
— Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers
Grace works that way. It's a kind word from a gentle person with an impossible prayer. It's a force sometimes transmitted best hand to hand in a dark place.
— Bob Goff, Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
The power of prayer is still the greatest ever known in this endless eternal universe.-The Watcher in The Avengers #14
— Stan Lee, Essential Avengers, Vol. 1
Or you might shout at the top of your lungs or whisper into your sleeve, "I hate you, God." That is a prayer too, because it is real, it is truth, and maybe it is the first sincere thought you've had in months.
— Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers
It was not apathy or passiveness. For him, prayer was a display of the strongest possible activity.
— Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
— Oswald Chambers
- I believe in unlimited discovery and achievement.- I believe that dreams can become reality.- I believe in true love.- I believe in kindness and intelligence.- I trust life, regardless.
— Elysse Poetis, The Mind of a Poetess
He did not hope that God heard his prayers
—  he knew it.