A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward.
Whether the prayer of Seneca was granted we do not know; but, as we do not again hear of Marcus, it is probable that he died before his father, and that the line of Seneca, like that of so many great men, became extinct in the second generation.
From faith, hope, and love, the virtues of religion referring to God, there arises a double act which bears on the spiritual communion exercised between God and us; the hearing of the word and prayer.
The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’
My religion would be a gentle faith that believed in the sacredness of leisure. Napping as a form of prayer.
I grew up in the Holiness Church, where prayer was an event.
I had wanted to be a regular character on a series for a while. ‘The Brady Bunch’ was an answer to a prayer.
The sanctity of prayer is needed to impregnate business. We need the spirit of Sunday carried over to Monday and continued until Saturday. But this cannot be done by prayerless men, but by men of prayer.
I believe in prayer. It’s the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.
The music that I have learned and want to give is like worshipping God. It’s absolutely like a prayer.
I think that the power of the Silent Minute lies in its inherent lack of external direction: what participants actually do during that minute – prayer, contemplation, focus – is up to them.
The scientific observer of Nature is a kind of mystic seeker in the act of prayer.
It is important to learn to understand in a historical text, a text from the past, the living Word of God, that is, to enter into prayer and thus read Sacred Scripture as a conversation with God.
Prayer for many is like a foreign land. When we go there, we go as tourists. Like most tourists, we feel uncomfortable and out of place. Like most tourists, we therefore move on before too long and go somewhere else.
I used to have a little silent prayer: ‘Dear God, let my ability to get work be the same as my celebrity.’ That would be a hard burden: to be a household name and not be able to get work.
It turns out that our ability to connect with other people is driven by our ability to connect deeply with ourselves. And that can be just a few minutes sitting on your porch feeling the breeze against your face. That can be a few moments spent in meditation or in prayer or remembering three things you’re grateful for.
Prayer is a specific divine appointment, an ordinance of Heaven, whereby God purposes to carry out His gracious designs on earth and to execute and make efficient the plan of salvation.
Open a Jewish daily prayer book used in any part of the world, and Zionism will leap out at you.
I feel the presence of a higher power. I believe that what you give is what you get. It’s universal law. I believe in the power of prayer and of words. I’ve learned that when you predict that negative things will happen, they do.
I spend a lot of time in prayer. God doesn’t always show up on my time, but he always shows up!
The Irish Catholic side was married to the life of an actor and I found out acting could be a form of prayer.
The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.
Every single morning, I have a person sitting right there next to me in prayer with a tape recorder – and a song comes up every day.
I like the monastic life… in the prayer and the praising… this has charged me with new energy, spiritual energy. This is very important for my ministry outside the monastery.
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
When you recognize the festive and the still moments as moments of prayer, then you gradually realize that to pray is to live.
Writing about prayer to a secular audience is tap-dancing on the radio. I want to say, ‘Gee whiz, isn’t this great,’ and have everyone’s head cocked like the RCA dog.
I knew in my heart that it was right to go on a mission, but it required a lot of fasting and prayer to make the decision.Now that I am returned, I realize even more that I made the right decision.
Your heart has to be prepared ahead of time through faith and prayer and grace and mercy and love and forgiveness so you can keep your heart open in hell, when hell happens.
When I was young, I really wanted to be a part of the end-of-year awards shows, but now that I’m actually there, it feels weird. I used to go to church and ended the year with a prayer, but now I spend it with people I’m not very familiar with at an award show, and I wonder if it’s something I should be doing.
‘Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain’ is a film seen through my eyes. I play a labourer.
Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth.
Arabic is very twisting, very beautiful. The call to prayer is quite haunting; it almost makes you a believer on the spot.
Prayer is so complicated.
Vilnius was once known as ‘The Jerusalem of Lithuania’ because of the number of prayer houses and scholars there; in the first half of the 20th century, it became a center of Yiddish-language scholarship.
Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered.
My prayer became ‘May I find peace… May I love this life no matter what.’ I was seeking an inner refuge, an experience of presence and wholeness that could carry me through whatever losses might come.
Being listened to and being heard is an experience that doesn’t happen terribly often. To listen compassionately or nonjudgmentally to another person – not to get too heavy about it – but I once heard somebody say that was a form of real prayer.
Begin each day with private reading of the Word and prayer.
I am walking proof of the power of prayer.
There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.
As we regularly spend time reading God’s Word and talking to Him in prayer, we put ourselves in position for Him to do things in our lives we could never do on our own.
I wanted to be a guitar player and musician so badly, and I prayed to get this the very few times I went to church, and I feel like I got my prayer answered.
I used to think there was something dirty about being paid for something which is a sacred thing to do. I can’t disconnect the act of writing music from the act of prayer. If anyone tries to stop me working, it feels like someone is trying to stop me from taking communion.
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.
When we say that prayer puts God to work, it is simply to say that man has it in his power by prayer to move God to work in His own way among men, in which way He would not work if prayer was not made.
We’re living in what I like to call the ‘Thank You Economy,’ because only the companies that can figure out how to mind their manners in a very old-fashioned way – and do it authentically – are going to have a prayer of competing.
How can we condemn those who are truly blinded by evil? We can’t. We shouldn’t. How do we bring about conversion of those living in blindness? By love. By truth in charity. By offering forgiveness. By offering mercy. With prayer.
Although all serious Christians recognize the importance that the Bible places on prayer, most fall short when it comes to doing it.
What most of all hinders heavenly consolation is that you are too slow in turning yourself to prayer.
Prayer must be broad in its scope – it must plead for others. Intercession for others is the hallmark of all true prayer. When prayer is confined to self and to the sphere of one’s personal needs, it dies by reason of its littleness, narrowness and selfishness.
Some comics have long routines to get them in the mood – I just prefer to sit down, write out the same jokes in a different order and then have a little prayer that I won’t be met by silence.
Prayer is good: but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is naught but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism.
Every Teen Challenge ministry is responsible for raising its own finances, but we assist these works with finances, prayer and counseling, especially overseas in areas such as Siberia, Africa, South America.
He knows the tax code as thoroughly as the pope knows the Lord’s Prayer.
Well look, I mean, I think that prayer and holy water, and things like that are all fine. They don’t do any good, but they don’t necessarily do any harm. It’s touching to be thought of in that way. It makes up for those who tell me that I’ve got my just desserts.
Work is a prayer, and I start off every morning dedicating it to our Creator.
Jesus himself talked about prayer and meditation. Anything that brings you closer to the Lord, what’s wrong with that?
The men to whom Jesus Christ committed the fortunes and destiny of His Church were men of prayer. To no other kind of men has God ever committed Himself in this world.
