“Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God” (Phillip Brooks).
“Never pray for more than you can put to use” (Scottish proverb). “Courage is fear that has said its prayers” (Karl Barth).
“Prayer is far more than uttering words. I can pray when I do not think I am praying. We can pray without any words at all. Prayer, in the last analysis, is the urge of the life towards God, and spiritual things; the setting of the mind upon things above, as Paul has it. Every detail of every day can be mastered by that urge” (G. Campbell Morgan).
“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but beseeching His willingness” (Nigel Patterson).
“Don’t pray to escape trouble. Don’t pray to be more comfortable. Pray to do the will of God in every situation” (Samuel Shoemaker).
“The last and highest result of prayer is not the securing of this or that gift, the avoiding of this or that danger. The last and highest result of prayer is the knowledge of God — the knowledge which is eternal life — and by that knowledge, the transformation of human character, and of the world” (George John Blewett).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One