We think of prayer as a preparation for work, or a calm after having done work, whereas prayer is the essential work. It is the supreme activity of everything that is noblest in our personality.
– Oswald Chambers –
Prayer
Give Time to God – AW Tozer
The man who would truly know God must give time to Him.
– AW Tozer –
The Faithful Prays Twice – Martin Luther
Here is a saying ascribed to St. Jerome that everything a believer does is prayer and a proverb, “He who works faithfully prays twice.” This can be said because a believer fears and honors God in his work and remembers the commandment not to wrong anyone, or to try to steal, defraud, or cheat. Such thoughts and such faith undoubtedly transform his work into prayer and a sacrifice of praise.
– Martin Luther –
from A Simple Way to Pray
Hidden Prayer – Seth Joshua
All prayer is hidden. It is behind a closed door. The best spade diggers go down into deep ditches out of sight. There are numbers of surface workers, but few who in self-obliteration toil alone with God.
– Seth Joshua –
Every Time We Pray … – Oswald Chambers
Every time we pray our horizon is altered, our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes but every time, and the amazing thing is that we don’t pray more.
– Oswald Chambers –
Prayer Without the Heart – Thomas Brooks
The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, Tophillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, a prayer without the heart, or without the intention of the affection, is like a body without a soul.
– Thomas Brooks –
from The Secret Key To Heaven, 1665
Don’t Let Your Mind Wander Too Far – Brother Lawrence
One way to recollect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times. You should keep it strictly in the presence of God; and being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wanderings.
– Brother Lawrence –
from The Practice of the Presence of God
You Pray as You Live – Andrew Murray
Men pray as they live, because it is the life that prays. The life that, with wholehearted devotion gives up everything for God and to God can claim everything from God.
– Andrew Murray –
from The Ministry of Intercession
How to Have Inward Peace – Ashbel Green
Remember that secret prayer, reading the word of God, watchfulness, and self-examination are the great means of preserving comfort in religion, and of growing in grace. In proportion as you are exact and faithful in these, such usually will be your inward peace, and the safety of your state. Unite them all together, and never cease to practice them while you live.
– Ashbel Green –
1762 –1848