Effective Prayer Quotes

Effective prayer is the fruit of a relationship with God, not a technique for acquiring blessings. ~ D. A. Carson

Good poetry is like effective prayer, it feeds the human spirit, it nourishes, it puts us in touch with forces far greater than ourselves ~ Lorna Goodison

The best praying man is the man who is most believingly familiar with the promises of God. After all, prayer is nothing but taking God's promises to him, and saying to him, "Do as thou hast said." Prayer is the promise utilized. A prayer which is not based on a promise has no true foundation. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The Lord gave the wonderful promise of the free use of His Name with the Father in conjunction with doing His works. The disciple who lives only for Jesus' work and Kingdom, for His will and honor, will be given the power to appropriate the promise. Anyone grasping the promise only when he wants something very special for himself will be disappointed, because he is making Jesus the servant of his own comfort. But whoever wants to pray the effective prayer of faith because he needs it for the work of the Master will learn it, because he has made himself the servant of his Lord's interests. ~ Andrew Murray

Last week, our picture window
Produced a half-word,
Heavy and hollow,
Hit by a brown bird.
We stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake
And pant and labor over every intake.
I said a sort of prayer for some rare grace,
Then thought i ought to take her to a higher place.
Said, dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you,
And though you die, bird, you will have a fine view. ~ Joanna Newsom

If you talked or laughed in church, told lies, had impure thoughts or conversations, you were bad; if you obeyed your parents or guardians, went to confession and communion regularly, said prayers for the dead, you were good. ~ Mary McCarthy

Mind-boggling, isn't it? Centuries before the question of why mathematics was so effective in explaining nature was even asked, Galileo thought he already knew the answer! To him, mathematics was simply the language of the universe. To understand the universe, he argued, one must speak this language. God is indeed a mathematician. ~ Mario Livio

On that cloudy afternoon in March, Judge Carter had convicted more than Martin Luther King, Jr., Case No. 7399; he had convicted every Negro in Montgomery. It is no wonder that the movement couldn't be stopped. It was too large to be stopped. Its links were too well bound together in a powerfully effective chain. There is amazing power in unity. Where there is true unity, every effort to disunite only serves to strengthen the unity. What the opposition failed to see was that our mutual sufferings had wrapped us all in a single garment of destiny. What happened to one happened to all. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is the only effective counter to death. ~ Maureen Duffy

It fits to glorify God - it not only fits reality, because God is infinitely and supremely praiseworthy, but it fits us as nothing else does. All the beauty we have looked for in art or faces or places - and all the love we have looked for in the arms of other people - is only fully present in God himself. And so in every action by which we treat him as glorious as he is, whether through prayer, singing, trusting, obeying, or hoping, we are at once giving God his due and fulfilling our own design. ~ Timothy Keller

Deep inquiry leads to contemplation, or prayer. Through dedicated contemplation we can attune to consciousness, the light which constitutes all phenomena. This light is our intrinsic nature. Our being is always shining. Our real nature is openness, listening, release, surrender without producing or will. Prayer or contemplation is welcoming free from projection and expectation. It is without demand and formulation. It invites the object to unfold in you and reveals your openness to you. Live with this opening, this vastness. Attune yourself to it. It is love. Ardent contemplation brings you to living meditation so ultimately they are one. ~ Jean Klein

The availability of cheap effective lighting alone, following Thomas Edison's invention of the incandescent bulb in 1879, greatly extended the range of waking human consciousness, effectively adding more hours onto the day - for work, for entertainment, for study, for discovery, for consumption. Subsequently, one development led to another, and to yet another, fueled by a corporate economy in developed nations, and then later by the arms race, and then the space race, as human ambition literally outgrew the planet. It seemed that there was no limit on what humanity could achieve. But there was a flaw at the heart of that expansive optimism - namely, that humanity cannot exist as a thing apart from nature; it has no destiny but annihilation apart from the land that gave it birth. ~ Clark Strand

Prayer is our most formidable weapon, the thing which makes all else we do efficient. ~ Edward McKendree Bounds

Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the running to spread the truth among such persons. ~ Bertolt Brecht

Don't tell me that you have a Reformed Church in the tradition of Calvin until you have the preaching of the Word every day of the week, devote Wednesday's to prayer and have the church gather together for prayer. ~ Sinclair B. Ferguson

Grace is not a little prayer you say before you eat. It is a way of life. Eph 2:8,9 ~ John Paul Warren

I know it's not thematically in tune with my new job and all, but I find it effective. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day," I say. "But set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. Tao of Pratchett. I live by it. ~ Jim Butcher

Two questions help us see why we are unlikely to get what we want by using punishment ... The first question is: What do I want this person to do that's different from what he or she is currently doing? If we ask only this first question, punishment may seem effective because the threat or exercise of punitive force may well influence the person's behavior. However, with the second question, it becomes evident that punishment isn't likely to work: What do I want this person's reasons to be for doing what I'm asking? ~ Marshall B. Rosenberg

If you don't pray often, you won't gain a love for praying. Prayer is work, and therefore it is not very appealing to our natural sensibilities. But the simple rule for prayer is this: Begin praying and your taste for prayer will increase. The more you pray, the more you will acquire the desire for prayer, the energy for prayer, and the sense of purpose in prayer. ~ Leslie Ludy

It is hard to believe that many of those now exercising authority in the Church appears to have as their dearest ambition the obliteration of the most Sacred Prayer [1962 Latin Mass] from the face of the earth - and would it be too outrageous to suggest that where they do manage to obliterate the Sacred Prayer, the sacrifice which it enshrines may vanish too? ~ Michael Treharne Davies

We have to pray as the ancients prayed. We are women now, not children, and are expected to pray with maturity. The words most often used to describe urgent, prayerful labor are wrestle, plead, cry, and hunger...In some sense, prayer may be the hardest work we will ever be engaged in, and perhaps it should be. ~ Patricia T. Holland

Given the central role of effective, firmwide risk management in maintaining strong financial institutions, it is clear that supervisors must redouble their efforts to help organizations improve their risk-management practices ... We are also considering the need for additional or revised supervisory guidance regarding various aspects of risk management, including further emphasis on the need for an enterprise-wide perspective when assessing risk. ~ Ben Bernanke

It was a tender and heart-dissolving prayer, full of sorrow, yet so imbued with celestial hopes, that the music of a heavenly harp, swept by the fingers of the dead, seemed faintly to be heard among the saddest accents of the minister. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

The spiritual path is more of an unlearning than a learning. ~ Donna Goddard

The only planning I do is about a minute before I play. I desperately try to think of something that will be effective, but I never sit down and work it out note for note. ~ Eric Clapton

True love and prayer are learned in the hour when love becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone. ~ Jack Kornfield

The most effective leaders are not motivated by a desire to control events or to be in the spotlight. They are motivated by the desire to advance ideas and new ways of looking at the world, or to improve the situation of a group of people. These motivations belong to introverts and extroverts alike. You can achieve these same goals - you can be inspiring and motivational - without compromising your quiet ways. ~ Susan Cain

The real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me.
To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing
that demands real effort. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

Monster is a compassionate picture without any obvious agenda. And it's effective precisely because it's not a polemic. ~ Stephanie Zacharek

Also, isolation leads to chronically lowered levels of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin. It is one of the bizarre ironies of major depression that being depressed causes people to withdraw from the most powerful antidepressant known - rich and varied social contact. However therein lies a rich lesson also - in some cases one of the quickest and most effective ways to reverse depression is to socialize. ~ James Lee

The joy which answers to prayer give, cannot be described; and the impetus which they afford to the spiritual life is exceedingly great. ~ George Muller

Prayer from the heart can achieve what nothing else can in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

May I remember the goodness of the Lord at all times. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The efficacy and potency of prayer is all we need to dethrone kingdoms and enthrone destinies. ~ Ikechukwu Izuakor

Serious matters, especially those involving God, should never be decided upon without invoking God. ~ E.A. Bucchianeri

You will never be able to have perfect interior peace and recollection unless you are detached even from the desire of peace and recollection. You will never be able to pray perfectly until you are detached from the pleasures of prayer. ~ Thomas Merton

Enthusiasm makes life more vibrant, more alive, more fulfilling. Enthusiasm makes you more effective, more fun to be around, more persuasive, more open to the best possibilities, and more energetic. Enthusiasm makes the difference between an outstanding career and a mediocre one. It adds great quantities of positive energy to everything it touches.

Enthusiasm can win over even the most ardent skeptic. When you truly believe in what you are doing, it shows. And it pays. The winners in life are those who are excited about where they're going. Sincere and persistent enthusiasm can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. ~ The Monthly Motivator

Both group effort and individual testimony flow from conviction as to the role of people on earth. In stewardship of the common heritage, a few simple beliefs recur: that all are indeed members of the same human family, that all share in responsibility for the others, that each is capable of responding directly to divine guidance. To seek to translate these into practical action with regard to soil or petroleum or the fish of the sea is not necessarily to do what is directly effective in changing society. ~ Gilbert F. White

We think of prayer as a preparation for work, or a calm after having done work, whereas prayer is the essential work. ~ Oswald Chambers

I think the educational value is what comes first. I've always thought that the most effective tools we have for disseminating information, i.e. education, is television and film. ~ Morgan Freeman

I think some combined pressure could go a long way, could establish the fact that this legislation did pass and we mean business by it. We mean to have it enforced, we mean to have it become effective. ~ Major Owens

God loves his creatures, and he loves each one the more, the more it shares his own goodness, which is the first and primary object of his love. Therefore he wants the desires of his rational creatures to be fulfilled because they share most perfectly of all creatures the goodness of god.
And his will is an accomplisher of things because he is the cause of things by his will. So it belongs to the divine goodness to fulfill the desires of rational creatures which are put to him in prayer. ~ Thomas Aquinas

There is nothing to be valued more highly than to have people praying for us; God links up His power in answer to their prayers. ~ Oswald Chambers

That there is one God, who made all things. "That he governs the world by his providence. "That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving. "But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man. "That the soul is immortal. "And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter. ~ Benjamin Franklin

May the God richly bless humankind. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita