If this God be our God; or if our God be such a God, and could we but attain to that knowledge of the breath, and length, and depth, and height that is in him, as the apostle here prays, and desires we may, we should never be afraid of anything we shall meet with, or that shall assault us in this world.
– John Bunyan –
from All Loves Excelling, 39
There is no power like that of prevailing prayer – of Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief, Jesus in sweat of blood. Such prayer prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.
– Samuel Chadwick –
If you could only know what one feels on finding oneself … where the least ray of the Gospel has not penetrated! If those friends who blame … could see from afar what we see, and feel what we feel, they would be the first to wonder that those redeemed by Christ should be so backward in devotion and know so little of the spirit of self-sacrifice. They would be ashamed of the hesitations that hinder us. … We must remember that it was not by interceding for the world in glory that Jesus saved it. He gave Himself. Our prayers for the evangelization of the world are but a bitter irony so long as we only give of our superfluity, and draw back before the sacrifice of ourselves.
– François Colliard –
from On the Threshold of Central Africa
I want to devote my life to the prayer that can bring down God’s blessing.
– Andrew Murray –
The main reason why men dote upon the world, and damn their souls to get the world, is, because they are not acquainted with a greater glory. Men ate acorns, till they were acquainted with the use of wheat. Ah, were men more acquainted with what union and communion with God means, what it is to have ‘a new name, and a new stone, that none knows but he that hath it’ (Rev. 2:17); did they but taste more of heaven, and live more in heaven, and had more glorious hopes of going to heaven, ah, how easily would they have the moon under their feet.
– Thomas Brooks –
from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 1652
O then, for what should my soul more pray, than for a clearer and stronger faith? ‘I believe; Lord, help my unbelief!’ I have many thousand times groaned to thee under this burden of remaining darkness and unbelief; I have many thousand times thought of the evidences of Christianity, and of the necessity of a lively, powerful, active faith. I have cried to thee night and day, ‘Lord, increase my faith!’
– Richard Baxter –
from Dying Thoughts, 34
A great faith is like the anchor or cable of a ship that holds it steady in the midst of storms. A Christian who is steeled with this heroic faith is settled in the mysteries of religion. The Spirit of God has so firmly printed heavenly truths upon his heart that you may we well remove the sun out of the firmament as remove him from those holy principles he has absorbed. Behold here, a pillar in the temple of God (Rev. 3:12).
– Thomas Watson –
from The Lords Supper, 70
Real faith is manifested by prayer.
– George Müller –
from The Autobiography of George Muller
Watch where Jesus went. The one dominant note in His life was to do His Fathers will. His is not the way of wisdom or success, but the way of faithfulness.
– Oswald Chambers –