Online Christian Literature Index
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| We Were Better By Charles H. Spurgeon
N umbers of Christians can view the past with pleasure, but regard the present with dissatisfaction; they look back upon the days which they have passed in communing with the Lord as being the sweetest and the best they have ever known, but as to the present, it is clad in a sable garb of gloom and dreariness. Once they lived near to Jesus, but now they feel that they have wandered from Him, and they say, "O that I were as in months past!"
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By J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) I have a question to offer you. It is contained in three words, Do you pray?
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KEEP the altar of private prayer burning. This is the very life of all piety. The sanctuary and family altars borrow their fires here, therefore let this burn well. Secret devotion is the very essence, evidence, and barometer, of vital and experimental religion.
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I want to encourage all believers to get into the habit of rising early to meet with God.
(Quotes from Spurgeon & Muller)
(Encouraging quote from George Muller & verses to encourage you to persevere in prayer)
Success is certain when the Lord has promised it. Although you may have pleaded month after month without evidence of answer, it is not possible that the Lord should be deaf when his people are earnest in a matter which concerns his glory.
Blind Bartimaeus was persistent in his prayers. He did not give up after his first cry of mercy to the Lord Jesus. Though he was not heard the first time, yet he was persistent in his cry until the Lord heard him and answered his prayers.
The Prayer Life of Our Lord Jesus By Peter Sarkis
Prayer was of utmost importance to the Lord Jesus. Though He was fully God and fully Man while He was on earth, yet He always felt the need to pray. Christ was truly our greatest example in prayer. Now if prayer was of utmost importance to the Lord Jesus, how much more to us who are but mere sinful men saved by His grace?
Oh brethren the highest form of worship and speech is prayer. We need to see praying that is bold, that is strong. Praying that moves God is prayer that moves us. If we are not moved by our prayers how do we expect them to move God. Our Master here on earth had “strong crying and tears” should we not have praying that is anything less? Oh for a resurrection of fervent praying, praying that is “owned by God.” Loud crying! Lamenting with tears. Gethsemane prayer, agonizing prayer is needed in our lukewarm laid back Christianity today.
1. HAVE THE GLORY OF GOD IN MIND Ask yourself: “Is what I am praying for going to bring glory to God?” If it will not bring glory to God, God will not answer.
By R.A. Torrey
Excellent Book on Prayer
From George Muller's Narratives ...And instead of distrusting God, I looked upon this delay of the full answer to prayer, only as a trial of faith, and therefore resolved, that, instead of praying once a day with my dear wife about this matter, as we had been doing day by day for years, we should now meet daily three times, to bring this before God.
By Peter Sarkis
What is the most important Christian duty? The most important Christian duty, I believe, is having a daily quiet time with our Heavenly Father.
By Charles H. Spurgeon
O my soul, knock hard this morning, and ask large things of thy generous Lord.
By Philip Myers
Patience is one of the hardest virtues for us to understand. We pray to an omnipotent God. We know He is able to help us at any moment. So when we ask such a God to intervene in our circumstances why is there so often a delay?
Mr. Brooks, in this compilation, has endeavored to select those incidents and practical remarks from Mr. Muller's Narratives, that show in an unmistakable way, both to believers and unbelievers, the secret of believing prayer, the manifest hand of a living God, and His unfailing response, in His own time and way, to every petition which is according to His will.
Jesus literally "walked with God." As man, He was deeply conscious of the spiritual necessities of man; and as the God-man Mediator, He felt the need of looking up to the Strong One for strength, to the Wise One for wisdom, to the Loving One for sympathy--in a word, to His Father in Heaven for the constant replenishing of His daily need from the boundless resources of His own Infinite Being, for the great work His Father had given Him to do.
"On August 8th, 1882," Mr. Muller says, "we began our ninth Missionary Tour. The first place at which I preached was Weymouth, where I spoke in public four times. From Weymouth we went, by way of Calais and Brussels, to Dusseldorf on the Rhine, where I preached many times six years before. During this visit, I spoke there in public eight times. Regarding my stay at Dusseldorf, for the encouragement of the reader, I relate the following circumstance. During our first visit to that city, in the year 1876, a godly City Missionary came to me one day, greatly tried, because he had six sons, for whose conversion he had been praying many years, and yet they remained unconcerned about their souls, and he desired me to tell him what to do. My reply was, 'Continue to pray for yours sons, and expect an answer to your prayer, and you will have to praise God.'
Blessed Jesus! it is You who has unlocked to Your people the gates of prayer. Without You they must have been shut forever. It was Your atoning merit on earth that first opened them; it is Your intercessory work in heaven that keeps them open still. How unlimited the promise "Whatever you shall ask!" It is the pledge of all that the needy sinner requires all that an Omnipotent Savior can bestow! As the great Steward of the mysteries of grace, He seems to say to His faithful servants, "Take your bill, and under this, my superscription, write what you please." And then, when the blank is filled up, he further endorses each petition with the words, "I WILL do it!"
No sooner is the child born, than he breathes; no sooner is Paul converted, than, behold! he prays. O incomparable privilege! to be allowed to pour our petitions into the ear of God, cast our cares upon him, plead the performance of the promise, and cast the burden of our sorrows and necessities over on his sympathy and all-sufficiency! The prayer of faith has won more numerous and more noble victories than all the mighty conquerors since war was taught among the nations. Prayer is the furbishing of all the other pieces of the spiritual armor, and as it were the master of all the graces. Prayer is the key of heaven; Elijah prayed, and it was locked; again he prayed, and it was opened. Prayer is the terror of hell, which will put up with anything but prayer. Prayer is the ambassador of the renewed soul the trumpet of faith the support of the weak the employment of the expectant of glory and the daily exercise of the Christian.
“Every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened..” (Matt. 7:8) These are very positive promises, and yet they must be read intelligently, in the light of other scriptures which explain and qualify the words. It is not all asking that receives; for there is asking that is not true prayer. Some ask merely in word, with no real desire in their hearts. Some ask selfishly, that they may consume the divine gift on their lusts. Some ask rebelliously, without submission to the will of God. Some ask without faith, not expecting any answer. Some ask indolently [slothfully], not ready to do their own part. Some ask ignorantly for things which would not be blessings if they were granted. It is very clear that in these cases those who ask will not receive.
What place should prayer have in a Christian's life? Should we pray little or much? Should we confine our praying to certain days—Sundays, for example; or to certain hours or moments of our days—mornings, for example? Should we pray only about certain things, certain affairs, certain portions of our life? Are there things we have no permission to take to God in prayer? Should we pray only in certain places—in our accustomed room at home, or in places 'set apart for divine worship'? Is there any place, where we may not pray?
We speak of this Christian and that Christian as "a man of prayer," Jesus was emphatically so. The Spirit was "poured upon Him without measure," yet—He prayed! He was incarnate wisdom, "needing not that any should teach Him." He was infinite in His power, and boundless in His resources, yet—He prayed! How deeply sacred the prayerful memories that hover around the solitudes of Olivet and the shores of Tiberias! He seemed often to turn night into day to redeem moments for prayer, rather than lose the blessed privilege.
The habit of early rising is surely a friend to the soul. If it is the best time for study, it is also the best time for devotion. When prayer and praise are neglected in the morning, they are commonly neglected all day. If you let the world get the start of your soul in the morning, you will seldom overtake it all day.
Prayer in Busy Days
It is in prayer that God shows His face to His children, That they have visions of His beauty and glory, That the sweet things of His love come down as gifts into their hearts, And that they are transformed into His likeness. If you would be blessed, get many seasons of prayer into your busy, harassed, tempted, struggling life. It is in these quiet moments, that you really grow. Somewhere in every vexed, feverish day—get a little "silent time" for prayer. It will bring heaven down into your heart, and make you strong for service. (Taken from “In Green Pastures” by J.R. Miller)
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