These are quotes that are designed to drive one thought deep into the mind and heart of the believer concerning some aspect of prayer.
They can be used in the prayer meeting, in any correspondence, church communications such as bulletins and bulletin boards, letters, calendars, for personal encouragement, to warm the soul for personal prayer, SS classes, quote when praying before meals, prayer meetings in homes, church staff meetings, publications, devotional times and devotional material, daily planners etc.
| A church is never more like the New Testament church than when it is praying. |
| A congregation without a prayer meeting is essentially defective in its organization, and so must be limited in its efficiency. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| A dynamic praying church must be built from the inside out, employing all four levels of prayer: the secret closet, the family altar, small group praying and finally, the congregational setting. Developing your Secret Closet of Prayer, Richard Burr, p 19. |
| An ounce of believing prayer is worth a ton of edifying talk. John Cowan |
| A prayerless man is proud and independent, and any church that neglects corporate prayer is sadly no better. Only God's humble and needy children take the time to pray. Everyone else is just going through the motions and naively trusting in their own strength! David Smithers |
| As prayer meetings fail in a congregation, so will the ministrations of the pastor become unfruitful, the preaching of the word fail to convert sinners and promote holiness in the professors of religion. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| At other times what divine impressions of holiness have you felt in public worship in the congregation when this has been performed with holy skill and fervency and prayer you have received more solid edification than from the whole sermon? How dead have you been to all sinful temptations, and how much devoted to God? Do you not long to be able to pray in this way in your households and in your own room? A Guide to Prayer, Isaac Watts, 174 |
| By importunity something else is meant than passionate dictation and stormy pertinacity–imposing our egoist will on God, and treating Him as a mysterious but manageable power that we may coerce and exploit. The Soul of Prayer, P.T. Forsyth |
| Even though we may not take part audibly in the action, yet if we are there in a right spirit – there really to wait upon God, we marvelously help the tone of a meeting. CHM |
| Far less of the disbelief in prayer is due to a scientific view of nature's uniformity than to the slipshod kind of prayer that men hear from us in public worship; it is often but journalese sent heavenwards, or phrase-making to carry on. The Soul of Prayer, P.T. Forsyth |
| Five young college students were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the famed C. H. Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, “Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?” They were not particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn’t want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a stairway, a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, “This is our heating plant.”Surprised, the students saw 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking a blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above. Softly closing the door, the gentleman then introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon. |
| God has appointed prayer as his way of dispensing, and our way of obtaining all promised good. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| History confirms the truth that wherever evangelical and vital religion flourish, there lives the earnest gatherings for social prayer. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| If added power attends the united prayer of two or three, what mighty triumphs there will be when hundreds of thousands of consistent members of the Church are with one accord day by day making intercession for the extension of Christ's Kingdom. John R. Mott |
| If one Jacob can prevail over the angel, then what could several Jacobs accomplish? |
| If you want to see how popular the church is, attend Sunday morning worship. If you want to see how popular the pastor is, attend Sunday evening. if you want to see how popular God is, attend the prayer meeting. Everything by Prayer Armin Gesswein, Fred Hartley, page 123 |
| If we pray among a select society of Christians, we draw near to God with holy boldness, something like what we use in our duties of secret worship. We have reason to take more freedom among fellow saints and whose hearts have felt many of the same workings as our own. A Guide to Prayer, Isaac Watts, p 58 |
| I have often said it would be a thing very desirable and very likely to be followed with a great blessing, if there could be some contrivance, that there should be an agreement of all God’s people in America, that are well affected to this work, to keep a Day of Fasting and Prayer to God; wherein we should all unite on the same day…Some perhaps may think its being all on the same day, is a circumstance of no great consequence; but I can' t be of that mind…It seems to me, it would mightily encourage and animate God’s saints, in humbly and earnestly seeking God, for such blessings which concerns them all; and that it would be much for the rejoicing of all, to think, that at the same time, such multitudes of God’s dear children, far and near, were sending up their cries to the same common Father, for the same motives. Jonathan Edwards, 1742 |
| In the prayer meeting, as nowhere else, are Christian graces thus brought together with powerful reactionary and reflective force. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| Let methods be changed, therefore, if necessary, that prayer may be given its true place. Let there be days set apart for intercession; let the original purpose of the monthly concert of prayer for missions be given a larger place; let missionary prayer cycles be used by families and by individual Christians; let the best literature on prayer be circulated among the members of the Church; let special sermons on the Subject of intercession be preached. By these and by all other practical means a larger, deeper, wider spirit of prayer should be cultivated in the churches. John R. Mott |
| Nothing is more calculated to begat a spirit of prayer than to unite in social prayer with one who has the Spirit himself. Mighty Prevailing Prayer, Wesley Duewel |
| Oh Christians, go more to the prayermeetings… Brownlow North |
| Prayer is the proper work of the heart; yet in this present state, in secret as well as in social prayer, the language of the lips is an excellent aid in this part of worship. A Guide to Prayer, Isaac Wattts, p 68 |
| Prayer meetings are dead affairs when they are merely asking sessions; there is adventure, hope and life when they are believing sessions, and the faith is corporately, practically and deliberately affirmed. Norman Grubb |
| Prayer meetings were the arteries of the early church. Through them, life-sustaining power was derived. |
| Public praying is a pedagogical opportunity. A Call to Spiritual Reformation, D. A. Carson |
| The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if He be not there, one of die first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer! –Charles Haddon Spurgeon Everything by Prayer, Fred Hartley, page 120 |
| The disappearance of the 'prayer meeting' from the life of many churches is something which occasions widespread regret, even among many who would not normally attend. Indeed, the prayer meeting in which the laity participated freely is a legacy from the 1859 (Ulster) Revival…These prayer meetings were not in many cases in existence before the revival set in. The very establishment of them in the first instance, was an evidence that it was springtime again in the Church of Christ, and the restoration of them today would be for her reviving once more. John T. Carson |
| The New Testament prayer meeting reveals the master plan of Jesus. The last thing Jesus did on earth was to build that prayer meeting, and it is the only thing He left behind on planet Earth when He ascended to heaven. Everything by Prayer, Fred Hartley, page 13 |
| The power of the Church truly to bless rests on intercession–asking and receiving heavenly gifts to carry to men. Power Through Prayer, E. M. Bounds |
| The prayer meeting answers to this demand of the spiritual brotherhood, with more exclusiveness and direct fitness than any other ordinance of religious worship. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| There is a power in conferring and covenanting, on the part of kindred spirits, to come before God, and plead together some special promise. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| The prayer meeting is a divine ordinance, founded in man’s social nature. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| The prayer meeting is a special means of developing and cultivating Christian graces, and of promoting individual and social edification. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| The prayer meeting is the pulse of the church. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| The prayer meeting is the rallying point where the power of faith in the church concentrates, and takes hold on the arm that moves the world. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| The public prayer of the Church, as the company of grace, is the saved soul returning to God that gave it; it is the sinner coming to the Saviour, or the ransomed of the Lord returning to Zion; it is the sanctified with the sanctifier; it is not primarily the child talking to the Father–though that note may prevail in more private prayers. We are more than stray sheep reclaimed. We are those whose defiant iniquity has lain upon Christ for us all. The Soul of Prayer, P.T. Forsyth |
| The simple fact is, we are too vague and, as a consequence, too indifferent in our prayers and prayer meetings. We do not seem like people asking for what they want, and waiting for what they ask. This is what destroys our prayer meetings, rendering them pithless, pointless, powerless; turning them into teaching or talking meetings, rather than deep-toned, earnest prayer meetings. CHM |
| The spirit of prayer, and the love and practice of the prayer meeting, will so give organic strength to the church as to make her terrible as an army with banners. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church…grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil. Leonard Ravenhill |
| This much is sure in all churches, forgetting party labels; the smallest meeting numerically is the prayer meeting. If weak in prayer we are weak everywhere. Leonard Ravenhill |
| Using Acts 1:4 as his basis, Armin Gesswein often called the central all-church prayer meeting “Christ’s last command; our first responsibility.” Everything by Prayer, Fred Hartley, page 16 |
| We have far too little conception of the place that intercession, as distinguished from prayer for ourselves, ought to have in the Church and the Christian life. The Ministry of Intercession, Andrew Murray, p 5 |
| We must never get away I from the fact that when Jesus built His Church He built a prayer meeting. Armin Gesswein Everything by Prayer, Fred Hartley |
| What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use – men of prayer. |
| When Christ ascended into heaven all He left behind was a prayer meeting. The early Church didn’t have a prayer meeting; the early Church was the prayer meeting. In fact, in the early Church every Christian was a prayer-meeting Christian. Armin Gesswein Everything by Prayer, Fred Hartley, page 12 |
| When you join with others in prayer and you are not the speaker, let your heart be kept intent and watchful to the work, that you may pray so much the better when you are the mouth of others to God. A Guide to Prayer Isaac Watts, p 123 |
| Let us pray then, that when God has prepared our heart for worship, he would also teach our tongue to answer the thoughts and desires of the heart and to express them in words suitable and answering to all our inward spiritual feelings. A fitting variety of expression, and holy oratory prayer, is one of these good and perfect gifts that come from above, from God, the Father of lights and Knowledge. James 1:17 A Guide to Prayer Isaac Watts, p 75 |
| Focusing on the personal prayer life only would be equivalent to trying to fly a plane on one wing. John Franklin |
| Constance Garrett asserts, “our growth in grace and power depends largely upon our individual, personal prayer life. Yet public worship" is “nonetheless important and necessary." Quoted by John Franklin from Growth in Prayer, Constance Garrett, p 115 |
| On the other hand, George Buttrick answers a rhetorical question. “Can't a man pray without belonging to a church?" by declaring, “He cannot pray well or fully until he is a member of some fellowship of prayer." George Buttrick, Prayer, 283 |
| J. Edwin Orr makes no bones where he stands, ‘No great spiritual awakening has begun anywhere in the world apart from united prayer.’ J. Edwin Orr, Prayer, Its Deeper Dimensions p. 21. |
| Every converted sinner is a soul revived to prayer. Every saint restored from backsliding, is a soul returned to the life and power of prayer. Every congregation enjoying an outpouring of the Spirit, is a congregation revived and alive to the prayer meeting. The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston |
| Do our churches that have a prayer meeting have a weekly prayer meeting or a weakly prayer meeting. |
| Some churches suffer much from extempore prayer, but perhaps those suffer more that exclude it. It at least gives a public consecration to prayer private and personal, which prayer, from the nature of it, must be extempore and "occasional." The bane of extempore prayer is that it is confused with prayer unprepared; and the greatest preparation for prayer is to pray. The Soul of Prayer, P.T. Forsyth |
| What we cannot obtain by solitary prayer we may by social…because where our individual strength fails, there union and concord are effectual. Chrysostom 400 AD |
The Corporate Prayer
We cry out to you O God
Your children of Grace
We ask for your forgiveness
For our pride and lack of faith
We cry out for Your mercy
In this uncertain time
Hoping beyond all hope
For your justice divine
We pray for your protection
If even for the sake of a few
We want to humble ourselves
And look only to you
You who bring us hope
You who ease our fear
You who set the heavens
We cry out for you to draw near
Set your hedge of protection on us
Shield us with your love
Help us to see your wisdom
Send us high on the wings of the dove
Bring us closer to You
And ever closer still
We want You to bless us
According to Your will
By Romona Barrett
Wellspring: A Journal of Christian Poetry
http://www.prayermeetings.org/Quotes_on_Corporate_Prayer.html
