Bite-Size Encouragements to Being a Person of Prayer

Jan 24th 20 Posted by Natalie Nichols in Fasting, Prayer

Do you want your life to count for God? Then become a person of prayer! As Billy Graham says, “Every man or woman whose life has ever counted for God has been a person of prayer.”

May the following quotes and scriptures encourage and motivate you to become a person of prayer.

Quotes About Prayer

“Every man or woman whose life has ever counted for God has been a person of prayer. A prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian. … Throughout both the Bible and the history of the church, those who made the greatest impact for God were those who prayed the most.”

— Billy Graham

“He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal.”

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“Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is.”

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“We cannot all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders, but we can all be pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer. I would sooner see you eloquent with God than with men.”

— C.H. Spurgeon

“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”

— William Cowper

“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. 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.”

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“Prayer is the acid test of devotion.”

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“There is no power like that of prevailing prayer, of Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief, Jesus in sweat of blood. Add to this list from the records of the church your personal observation and experience, and always there is the cost of passion unto blood. Such prayer prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.”

— Samuel Chadwick

“The potency of prayer has subdued the strength of fire; it has bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine that is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.”

— St. Chrysostom

“Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, ‘above all that we ask or think’. Each time, before you Intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, of how he delights to hear Christ, of your place in Christ; and expect great things.”

— Andrew Murray

“God will fill the hungry because He Himself has stirred up the hunger. As in the case of prayer, when God prepares the heart to pray, He prepares His ear to hear (Ps. 10: 17). So in the case of spiritual hunger, when God prepares the heart to hunger, He will prepare His hand to fill.”

— Thomas Watson

“One can believe intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying.”

— Catherine Marshall

“God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.”

— John Wesley

“Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.”

— Sidlow Baxter

“Don’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 Boom

“Prayer as a relationship is probably your best indicator about the health of your love relationship with God. If your prayer life has been slack, your love relationship has grown cold.”

— John Piper

“When we work, we work; but when we pray, God works.”

— Max Lucado

“Depend upon it, if you are bent on prayer, the devil will not leave you alone. He will molest you, tantalize you, block you, and will surely find some hindrances, big or little or both. And we sometimes fail because we are ignorant of his devices…I do not think he minds our praying about things if we leave it at that. What he minds, and opposes steadily, is the prayer that prays on until it is prayed through, assured of the answer.”

— Mary Warburton Booth

“No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it.”

— Guy H. King

“Pray often; for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.”

— John Bunyan

“You shall find this to be God’s usual course: not to give his children the taste of his delights till they begin to sweat in seeking after them.”

— Richard Baxter

“When we go to God by prayer, the devil knows we go to fetch strength against him, and therefore he opposeth us all he can.”

— Richard Sibbes

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work!”

— Oswald Chambers

“I’d rather be able to pray than be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught his disciples how to preach but only how to pray. Boy do we have this messed up in modern evangelism and ministry… God help us to learn from this profound truth!”

— D.L. Moody

“The evangelization of the world depends first of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for men — aye, deep down at the bottom of our spiritless life, is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer.”

— Andrew Murray

“When God has something very great to accomplish for His church, it is His will that there should precede it, the extraordinary prayers of His people; as is manifest by Ezek. 36, 37, together with the context. And it is revealed that when God is about to accomplish great things for His Church, He will begin by remarkably pouring out the spirit of grace and supplication (Zech. 12:10).… I should think the people of God in this land would be in the way of their duty to do three times as much fasting and prayer as they do.”

— Jonathan Edwards

“Satan fears prayer and offsets it at every angle. At every opportunity he stalls the impulse to take part in it, for he has felt the smart of men who pray in the Holy Ghost. Again and again hell has shuddered because of the onslaughts of men who have taken the kingdom of heaven by violence.”

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“A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God.”

— Leonard Ravehill

“God has his intercessors everywhere. They are to be found in unexpected places, in men and women who have learned the secret, and who by familiar intercourse with God are channels of blessing to men; but the majority of us are not praying.”

— G. Campbell Morgan

“If you set your heart to seek God, the devil will put on you a conspiracy of interruptions. He will do all he can to keep you from the prayer closet.”

— David Wilkerson

“I believe God has heard my prayers. He will make it manifest in His own good time that He has heard me. I have recorded my petitions that when God has answered them, His name will be glorified.”

— George Mueller

“Our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails.”

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“Non-praying is lawless, discord, anarchy. The whole force of Bible statement is to increase our faith in the doctrine that prayer effects God, secures favor from God, which can be secured in no other way, and which will not be bestowed if we do not pray.”

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“Our devotions are not measured by the clock, but time is of their essence. The ability to wait, and stay, and press, belongs essentially to our intercourse with God. Hurry, everywhere unseeming and damaging, is so to an alarming extent in the great business of communion with God…..

It is true that [in the] Bible, prayers in word and print are short, but the praying men of the Bible were with God through many a sweet and holy wrestling hour. They won by few words but long waiting. The prayers Moses records may be short, but Moses prayed to God with fastings and mighty cryings forty days and nights. …

Praying—true praying—costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market. We can habituate ourselves to our beggarly praying until it looks well to us: at least it keeps up a decent form and quiets conscience—the deadliest of opiates! We can slight our praying, and not realize the peril till the foundations are gone.

Hurried devotions make weak faith, feeble convictions, questionable piety. To be little with God is to be little for God. To cut short the praying makes the whole religious character short, scrimp, niggardly, and slovenly. It takes good time for the full flow of God into the spirit. Short devotions cut the pipe of God’s full flow. It takes time in the secret places to get the full revelation of God. Little time and hurry mar the picture.”

— E.M. Bounds

“The reason why we obtain no more in prayer, is, because we expect no more. God usually answers us according to our own hearts: narrow hearts and low expectations have usually as little as they look for or desire: large expectations are ordinarily answered with large returns. Expectation will put life into action: you will then pray with most enlarged hearts, when you are most full of hopes; the reward that is looked for in the evening will much encourage and quicken the labour of the day, fear not to expect too much from heaven. Be not straitened in your own heart, and you shall not be straitened in the God of compassion: open thy mouth wide, and he will fill it. God will never upbraid his beggars for looking for too great an alms; he hath enough to supply them, and he hath a heat to bestow it. God will never say to you, You are too bold, you ask too much; too much grace, too much holiness, why cannot less content you? God hath given you commission to ask what you will, not to the one half, but the whole of his kingdom; the kingdom you shall have, if no less will serve your turn.”

— Richard Alleine

“The great need of our world, our nation, and our churches is people who know how to prevail in prayer. Moments of pious wishes blandly expressed to God once or twice a day will bring little change on earth or among the people. Kind thoughts expressed to Him in five or six sentences, after reading a paragraph or two of mildly religious sentiments once a day from some devotional writing, will not bring the kingdom of God to earth or shake the gates of hell and repel the attacks of evil on our culture and our civilization.”

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“[God] wants you to become not only a prayer veteran but also a constant victor in situations where the answers bring great glory to God and great consternation and defeat to Satan.

He wants you to experience frequently His prayer-answering power, His intensely personal concern and love for you, and the tremendously varied means available to His wisdom. God is never perplexed or surprised, and never ultimately defeated. He desires you, through prayer, to share in bringing His will to pass on earth.

I invite you to join me in seeking God’s answers to the tremendous needs you and I face. What are the keys that will unlock heaven’s resources and release the prayer-answering power of God? What further steps can you and I take to bring God’s sovereign and irresistible power to bear? Let us sit at the feet of God. Let us listen for His word. Let us turn to the lives of some of the heroes of our faith to see how they were able to see God’s power released and God’s answers made known.”

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“The secret of prevailing prayer is simply to pray until the answer comes. The length of time is ultimately immaterial. It is God’s answer that counts. The length of time required may often seem perplexing and may prove a test of your faith.”

— Wesley Duewel

Scriptures About God Answering Prayer

Psalm 4:3

“Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.”

Psalm 6:9

“The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD will answer my prayer.”

Psalm 18:6

“In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; My cry came before him, into his ears.”

Psalm 27:8

“When You said, ‘Seek My face in prayer, require My presence as your greatest need,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I will seek.'”

Psalm 34:17

“The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them he delivers them from all their troubles.”

Psalm 102:17

“He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.”

Proverbs 15:29

“The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.”

Psalm 55:17

“Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear me.”

Psalm 91:15

“He will call upon me, and I will answer him.”

Isaiah 58:9

“Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”

Isaiah 65:24

“Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

Jeremiah 33:3

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Micah 7:7

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; My God will hear me.”

Matthew 21:22, AMPC

“And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and [really] believing, you will receive.”

Psalm 66:19-20, MSG

“He most surely did listen, he came on the double when he heard my prayer. Blessed be God: he didn’t turn a deaf ear, he stayed with me, loyal in his love.”

Mark 11:24

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Luke 11:9

“So I say to you; Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

John 14:13

“Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

John 15:7-8

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

1 Peter 3:12

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer….”

1 John 3:21-22

“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”

1 John 5: 14-15

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

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Tweetables

“Every man or woman whose life has ever counted for God has been a person of prayer.” — Billy Graham Tweet

“He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal.” — C.H. Spurgeon Tweet

“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.” — William Cowper Tweet

“Prayer is the acid test of devotion.” — Samuel Chadwick Tweet

“God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.” — John Wesley Tweet

“Don’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 Boom Tweet

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work!” — Oswald Chambers Tweet

“The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD will answer my prayer.” — Psalm 6:9 Tweet

“He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.” — Psalm 102:17 Tweet

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” — Jeremiah 33:3 Tweet

““For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer….” — 1 Peter 3:12 Tweet

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Questions:

How did these quotes and scriptures affect your commitment to prayer?
How did they affect your expectation in prayer?

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