Prayer Definitions and Quotes About Prayer

[Dennis Owen Shepherd]

"Prayer is a way to bring God into the lives of others so that He will do for them what they cannot do for themselves."

--Adapted from Praying God’s Heart (Prayers that Make a Difference) by Alvin VanderGriend. ), in Connection! (Devotions for Every Day Life) on www.harvestprayer.com

 

 

 

                            [I believe this is how we should view Prayer.]:

“There is, to be sure, a good bit of anxiety among us. But that's not the same as urgency. Anxiety wears us down. Urgency calls us forward. Maybe instead of just dismissing lines like, ‘The end of all things is near,’ we ought to let them linger in our hearts and minds to provoke a sense of urgency in us.”

--FROM: “Urgency” Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson in Stillspeaking Devotional on [e-mail]    (August 27, 2010).

 

 

ON PRAYER

“…if we are to fully cooperate and follow the prayer-teachings of our Lord, He needs our minds plus our imaginations..”

--Rosalind Rinker FROM the Preface for the book, Communicating Love Through Prayer, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House), 1966

[Angela Geddis]

   Watchman Nee said, "Our prayers lay the track down which Gods power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails."

[Cynthia Bezek]

...“Many people have found prayer impossible because they thought they should only pray for wonderful but remote needs they actually had little or no interest in or even knowledge of. Prayer simply dies from efforts to pray about ‘good things’ that honestly do not matter to us. The way to get to meaningful prayer for those good things is to start by praying for what we are truly interested in. The circle of our interests will inevitably grow in the largeness of God’s love.” --Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy

[Dennis Owen Shepherd]

PRAYER is the needle work which makes a circle of friendship and Love - Christ, the Center - such an intricate tapestry affording a prominent location in the Gallery of the Extraordinary.
--Dennis O. Shepherd, 6 July 1993

[Dennis Owen Shepherd]

“Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble: prayer is a life attitude.” —Walter A. Mueller

[Dennis Owen Shepherd]

“Praying isn’t a separate part of your spiritual life -- it’s your very life.”
----Rosalind Rinker, Communicating Love Through Prayer, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House), 1966, pg 91

[Dennis Owen Shepherd]

“Jesus was familiar with a receptive approach to prayer. He spoke Aramaic and the word for prayer in that language is shela (pronounced shalu) and meaning ‘to open oneself’ or ‘to listen to.’ ….Being lovingly attentive to God was just as much ‘prayer’ as pouring out His heart through the words of a psalm. Thomas Merton described contemplation as ‘spiritual wonder,’ ‘spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life,’ and ‘gratitude for life.’ He refers to it as ‘a gift of awareness,’ ‘awakening to what is real,’ and being ‘touched by God.’”
--FROM: “Shela” Adapted from Giving Ourselves to Prayer: An Acts 6:4 Primer for Ministry (Chapter 33, Contemplative Prayer by Reg Johnson), in Connection! (Devotions for Every Day Life) on www.harvestprayer.com (27 Aug 2010).

[Pam Johnson]

"Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer." Sept. 16 "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers, Edited by James Reimann

I have this selection marked to remind me that prayer is so much more than asking. It is the door to an intimate relationship with my Lord.

[Dennis Owen Shepherd]

"The time factor in prayer is very important. In the exercise of prayer God is not tied to our clocks. Neither is He at the other end of the phone to receive and answer our two-minute calls. It takes time to know the mind of God, to shut out the material things of earth and to be wholly abandoned."
---Hugh C. C. McCullough


“Prayer is a dialogue between two people who love each other, because prayer is the language of the heart.”
--Rosalind Rinker, "Communicating Love Through Prayer", (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House), 1966, pg 16