Prayer should not be regarded as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.
– E.M. BoundsIf I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me!
– Robert Murray McCheyneOh brother, pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not to pray; rather fast, and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper—and sleep too—than not to pray.
And we must not just talk about prayer; we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber.
He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life.
– William LawPrayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.
– John BunyonNo learning can make up for the failure to pray.
No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack.
There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.
– Brother LawrenceThe men who have done most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day.
If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day.
– E.M. BoundsTalking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.
– E.M. BoundsDon’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 BoomRegarding Persevering In Prayer
I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
[See the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18, a parable Jesus told his disciples to show them that they should always pray and not give up.]
John Baillie's Prayer. What Do You Think?
Holy God, to whose service I long ago dedicated my soul and life, I grieve and lament before thee that I am still so prone to sin and so little inclined to obedience;
So much attached to the pleasure of sense, so negligent of things spiritual:
So prompt to gratify my body, so slow to nourish my soul:
So greedy for present delight, so indifferent to lasting blessedness:
So fond of idleness, so indisposed for labor:
So soon to play, so late at prayer:
So brisk in the service of self, so slack in the service of others:
So eager to get, so reluctant to give:
So lofty in my profession, so low in my practice:
So full of good intentions, so backward to fulfill them:
So severe with my neighbors, so indulgent with myself:
So eager to find fault, so resentful at being found fault with:
So little able for great tasks, so discontented with small ones:
So weak in adversity, so swollen and self-satisfied in prosperity:
So helpless apart from thee, and yet so little willing to be bound to thee:
O merciful heart of God, grant me yet again thy forgiveness. Hear my sorrowful tale and in thy great mercy blot it out from the book of thy remembrance. Give me faith so to lay hold of thine own holiness and so to rejoice in the righteousness of Christ my Savior that resting on his merits rather than my own, I may more and more become conformed to his own likeness, my will becoming one with his in obedience to thine. All this I ask for his holy name’s sake. Amen
—From A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie
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For He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.
—Psalm 72:12-13
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… How gracious He will be when you cry for help! As soon as He hears, He will answer you.
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Isaiah 30:19

