"It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very 'spiritual', that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages will follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself."
— C.S. Lewis
Source: The Screwtape Letters, Letter III (the demon Screwtape speaking)
Prayer, Plan
Views: 592
"A person's life will not exceed his prayer life."
— Leonard Ravenhill
Source: Why Has Rejuvenation Been Delayed?
Prayer, Life
Views: 506
"God does nothing but in answer to prayer."
— John Wesley
Source: A Plain Account of Christian Perfection
Prayer, coincidence
Views: 486
"The secret of the success of the Apostles lay not in what they did and said, but in the presence of Christ in them and with them. … Brethren, this is what we must be, if this mighty Empire is to be moved through us. But to be this the throne of grace must be our refuge — the secret place of the Most High must be our daily and hourly habitation. We must take time to become filled with His power; we must take time to be holy."
— Griffith John
Source: "The Holy Spirit in Connection with Mission Work", Shanghai Missionary Conference, 1877; in R. Wardlaw Thompson, Griffith John: The Story of Fifty Years in China (1906), pp. 326–327
Prayer, mission, action, hypocrisy
Views: 486
"O my heavenly Father, no sacrifice is too great to make to Thee. … I hold the rest of my life in trust for Thee. I abandon myself completely in Thy hands. If Lan Hsien recovers, Thy will be done. If she dies, Thy will be done."
— John C.H. Wu
Source: Beyond East and West (1951), pp. 259–260 (diary, January 1940)
Prayer, worry, time
Views: 481
"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for that day."
— Abraham Lincoln
Source: As recalled by Noah Brooks, Harper's Weekly (July 1865)