Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God in prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.
– Hudson Taylor –
1832-1905
Intimacy
Friendship with God Demands Obedience – Clovis Chappell
Whenever you make up your mind to refuse to go where God wants you to go and to do what God wants you to do, you must make up your mind at the same time to renounce the friendship of God. You cannot walk with Him and at the same time be in rebellion against Him … it is mere mockery, to say “Lord, Lord” and then refuse to do the things that He commands you to do.
– Clovis G. Chappell –
Live Near to God – Robert Murray M’Cheyne
Live near to God, and all things will appear little to you in comparison with eternal realities.
– Robert Murray M’Cheyne –
Decay Begins With a Lack of Prayer – John Berridge
All decays begin in the [prayer] closet; no heart thrives without much secret converse with God, and nothing will make amends for the want of it.
– John Berridge –
Have an Appointment with the Lord – Corrie ten Boom
Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the
Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.
– Corrie ten Boom –
God Will Not Let Us Lose Our Longing – Thomas Watson
“They shall be filled.” God never bids us seek Him in vain. “He hath filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53). “He satisfieth the longing soul” (Psalm 107:9). God will not let us lose our longing.
– Thomas Watson –
1620-1686
Too Busy? – AB Christiansen
Too busy; O forgive, Dear Lord, that I should ever be, too much engrossed in earthly tasks, to spend an hour with thee.
– AB Christiansen –
A Test for True Prayer – EM Bounds
He only can truly pray who is all aglow for holiness, for God, and
for heaven.
– EM Bounds –
A Mighty Longing After God – AW Tozer
I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.
– AW Tozer –