Prayer quotes can be powerful. The Bible is written in a way that inspires and encourages Christians to live a more purpose driven life.
In the 1960s, my family attended a prayer meeting every Wednesday night. We would pile in the car and drive to someone’s home.
After a few minutes of scripture reading, sharing burdens, concerns, health problems, and just about everything else, all the people in the room would get on their knees and pray together, taking a turn when moved by the spirit to do so.
Because I was a child at the time, I was allowed to move around a bit but still understood that it was a quiet time. While this particular habit has perhaps lost its importance for some churches, I know that many prayer groups exist and are definitely reaping the blessings of the practice.
Unfortunately, praying is hard. It’s hard because of the discipline involved, the required concentration, the necessary or perceived vocabulary needed.
I’m writing this article because I understand prayer and want to offer you a bit of encouragement.
Why Prayer Is Important
Often, we find ourselves at a loss for words, especially when we attempt to meet our Creator Savior in prayer. That’s why in this brief article, I have collected historical and relevant prayer quotes that encourage and offer inspiration.
The author of Hebrews states that by “coming to God” we show that we believe He is there, He hears us, and He will reward us for diligently seeking him.
…for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Hebrew 11:6b
“Prayer” is another way to say “talking to God”. Communicating with Him can be through the spoken or written word, meditation, reading, and even singing (read my article on bedtime prayers for kids)
Prayer can be done with a group for Jesus said “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am with them” – Matthew 18.
We all develop relationships by spending time with and talking to each other. God wants us to seek Him out, read his words in the Bible and bring our innermost thoughts and concerns to Him in prayer.
Lacking Motivation? – Stay Motivated For Prayer
A few quotes from noted prayer warriors of the faith may bring you inspiration
60 Prayer Quotes To Encourage
1. Tertullian
“We are a body knit together … by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God with united force, we may wrestle with him in our supplications.
This violence God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers, and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation.”
>> learn the PRAY acronym for prayer
2. Hippolytus
“The faithful, as soon as they wake and are risen, before they betake themselves to their work shall pray to God, and so let them hurry to their work.”
3. John Owen
“He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.”
4. Andrew Bonar
“We have not been men of prayer. The spirit of prayer has slumbered among us. The closet has been too little frequented and delighted in. We have allowed business, study or active labor to interfere with our closet-hours. And the feverish atmosphere in which both the church and the nation are enveloped has found its way into our prayer closets.”
5. Charles Spurgeon
“Prayer will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying.”
6. George Mueller
“Only a life of prayer and meditation will render a vessel ready for the Master’s use.”
7. E. M. Bounds
“True prayer MUST be a flame.”
8. Oswald Chambers
“It is not the thing on which we spend most time that molds us, but the thing that exerts the greatest power. Five minutes with God and His word is worth more than all the rest of the day.”
9. Samuel Chadwick
“Satan dreads nothing but prayer… He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”
10. Billy Sunday
“If you are strangers to prayer, you are strangers to power.”
11. James O. Fraser
“Praying without faith is like trying to cut with a blunt knife – much labor expended to little purpose.”
12. Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones
“Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. … Ultimately, therefore, a man discovers the real condition of his spiritual life when he examines himself in prayer, when he is alone with God. It is not only the highest activity of the human soul, it is the ultimate test of our true spiritual condition. You will find the most outstanding characteristic of all the most saintly people the world has ever known has been that they have not only spent much time in private prayer, but have also delighted in it.”
(Studies in the Sermon on the Mount II, p. 47)
13. Corrie Ten Boom
“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?”
14. Raymond Beasley
“Friend, you will never stumble as long as you are on your knees!”
15. Soren Kierkegaard (d.1855)
“Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.”
16. Anonymous
“Our prayers have no expiration date. You never know when, where, or how God will answer.”
17. Mother Teresa (d. 1997)
..“God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.”
18. Anonymous
“The things you take for granted someone else is praying for.”
>> ready my Prayers for Adult Children
19. Anonymous
“Don’t think of the things you didn’t get after praying. Think of the countless blessings God gave you without asking.”
A few prayer quotes from Billy Graham;
20. Graham
“In the morning, prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under His protection and safeguard.”
21. Graham
“If [Jesus] felt that He had to pray, how much more do we need to pray!”
22. Graham
“True prayer is a way of life, not just for use in cases of emergency. Make it a habit, and when the need arises you will be in practice.”
23. Graham
“Prayer is more than a wish; it is the voice of faith directed to God.”
24. Graham
“Have you ever said, ‘Well, all we can do now is pray’? … When we come to the end of ourselves, we come to the beginning of God.”
25. Graham
“We are to pray in times of adversity, lest we become faithless and unbelieving. We are to pray in times of prosperity, lest we become boastful and proud. We are to pray in times of danger, lest we become fearful and doubting. We are to pray in times of security, lest we become self-sufficient.”
26. Graham
“Heaven is full of answers to prayer for which no one ever bothered to ask.”
27. Graham
“This should be the motto of every follower of Jesus Christ. No matter how dark and hopeless a situation might seem, never stop praying. ”
28. Graham
“No matter how dark and hopeless a situation might seem, never stop praying.”
29. Graham
“Whether prayer changes our situation or not, one thing is certain: Prayer will change us!”
(https://billygrahamlibrary.org/)
30. CS Lewis
“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”
31. CS Lewis
“For most of us the prayer in Gethsemane is the only model. Removing mountains can wait.”
32. CS Lewis
“We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us.”
33. CS Lewis
“For prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted.”
34. CS Lewis
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
35. CS Lewis
“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”
36. CS Lewis
“You can’t know, you can only believe—or not.”
37. Elisabeth Elliot
“Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit’s prayer.”
38. Max Lucado
“The power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.”
39. Martin Luther
“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”
40. Charles Spurgeon
“If you believe in prayer at all, expect God to hear you. If you do not expect, you will not have. God will not hear you unless you believe He will hear you; but if you believe He will, He will be as good as your faith.”
41. Joyce Meyer
“Prayer is simply talking to God like a friend and should be the easiest thing we do each day.”
42.Abraham Lincoln
“I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side.”
43. Abraham Lincoln
“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”
44. Corrie tenBoom
“Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.”
45. Mother Teresa
“God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.”
46. Mother Teresa
“God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.”
And the Bible has an abundant number of “calls’ to prayer! Here are a few.
47. 1 John 5:14
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
48. 1 John 5:15
And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
49. 2 Chronicles 6:21
Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.
50. John 17:15
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
51. Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
52. Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
53. Psalm 51 – Pray for your broken heart
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
54. Psalm 71 – Prayer of Trust
In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me. Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress (learn how to become a Prayer Warrior).
55. Psalm 57 – Prayer of Distress
Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,
for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the disaster has passed.
I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me.He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.
56. Psalm 36 – Prayer of Loving Kindness
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
57. Jeremiah 12 – Prayer of Perplexity
O Lord, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you to decide. Now let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil men so happy? You plant them.
They take root and their business grows. Their profits multiply, and they are rich. They say, “Thank God!” But in their hearts they give no credit to you.
58.
59. Hebrews 4:16
So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need.
59. James 1:5-6
If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him; he will not resent it.
But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind;
60. Revelation 22:20
He who has said all these things declares: “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
Conclusion
So pray. It’s easier said than done, I know. But here is an old hymn that says it all.
Sweet hour of prayer
Sweet hour of prayer
That calls me from a world of care
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known
In seasons of distress and grief
My soul has often found relief
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare
By Thy return, sweet hour of prayer
Sweet hour of prayer
Sweet hour of prayer
The joys I feel, the bliss I share
Of those whose anxious spirits burn
With strong desires for Thy return
With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows His face
And gladly take my station there
And wait for Thee, sweet hour of prayer
– Walford 1850
