QUOTES
If you seek the Lord your God and will find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul. - from Deuteronomy 4:29
Let us then with confidence draw near to God's throne of grace in prayer, that we may receive mercy and find grace. - from Hebrew 4:16
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” - Colossians 4:2
Prayer is a an acknowledgement that we can’t do it on our own, that we need help.
We need God. And the way we go to God is through prayer.
“The time of business does not differ with me from the time of prayer and the noise and clatter of my kitchen. While several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in a great tranquility as if I were on my knees.” - Brother Lawrence in “The Practice of the Presence of God"
"There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we can be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, and meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship, and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.” - Thomas Kelly in “A Testament of Devotion”
Ultimately what God is up to in prayer is to bring us into relationship with Him.
“The Spirit of God assures of of God’s love. The Spirit enables us to approach and cry to the great God as our loving father. I first came to grips with this by reading the sermons of D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a British preacher of the mid-twentieth century… [who said] ‘It is necessary for us to recognize that there is an intelligent mysticism in the life of faith…of living communion with the exalted and ever-present Redeemer…He communes with His people and his people commune with him in conscious reciprocal love…The life of true faith cannot be that of cold metallic assent. It must have the passion and warmth of love and communion because communion with God is the crown and apex of true religion.” - Tim Keller in “Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy With God”
God loves us and doesn’t just love us He likes us and enjoys spending time with us. He loves it when we come to Him just to be with Him. Not to ask for anything, not to solve any problem but just to spend time together.
Christian prayer isn’t just praying to some vague force out there, it’s not just an meditative emptying of the mind, it’s communication and interaction with a real person named God.
