Prayer

by Joey Davis

Over the past few weeks, Bill Speight and James Whiteaker have been teaching a class in Room 308 on the subject of prayer. In all honesty, the class is leading us to more questions than answers. Martha Stewart would say, "and that's a good thing." In this case, it's been good for me. the question, "what is prayer," was raised and has been bantered for two weeks. The literal definition of the word, "a pouring out," seems incomplete. A pouring out of what?

So in the spirit of the class, this week I offer quotes on prayer by famous theologians and authors. Here goes. . .

. . . Pray, n. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. Ambrose Bierce, 1906



"A good prayer mustn't be too long. Do not draw it out. Prayer ought to be frequent and fervent."

--Martin Luther

''It will be a wonderful moment for some of us when we stand before God and find that the prayers we clamored for in early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and that God's silence has been the sign of the answer."

--Oswald Chambers

"Anything creative, anything powerful, anything biblical, insofar as we are participants in it, originates in prayer." --Eugene H. Peterson

"Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God. In that contact I find health for my body, illumination for my mind, and moral and spiritual reinforcement for my soul."

--E. Stanley Jones

"If I wished to humble anyone, I should question him about his prayers. I know nothing to compare with the topic for its sorrowful confessions."

--C.J Vaughn

"There is no such thing as private prayers, there is only prayer in private."

--Richard John Neuhaus

"You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed."

--John Bunyan

"Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other needs; prayer is the beginning of that communion."

--George McDonald

"Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, and the third thing necessary to minister. Pray, therefore, my dear brother, pray, pray, pray."

--Edward Payson

"When the angel of devotion has gone, the angel of prayer has lost its wings and it becomes a deformed and loveless thing."

--E.M. Bounds

. . . The most important quote? "Pray without ceasing:" Jehovah God through the Apostle Paul ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17)

• "Did You Think to Pray?" -May 10, 1998
• Our Prayers -Oct 12, 1997
• Let Us Pray! -Jul 20, 1997
• Sawyer Praying -Mar 10, 1996
• Why Do We Pray? -Jun 06, 1993