I have collected over 4,000 quotes on prayer from preachers, theologians, and people following hard after God. Here is a small sample of how some of them defined prayer. Which one is the most encouraging and helpful to you?
- Prayer at its best is living with mind and heart utterly open to God. – Albert D. Belden
- Prayer at its best is the expression of the total life, for all things else being equal, our prayers are only as powerful as our lives – A.W. Tozer
- Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation and for me the most important part is listening to God’s replies. – Frank Laubach
- Prayer at its holiest moment is the entering into God [where] miracles seem tame … by comparison. – A.W. Tozer
- Prayer is a sacred and appointed means to obtain all the blessings that we want, whether they relate to this life or the life to come. – Isaac Watts
- Prayer is a silent surrendering of everything to God. – Soren Kierkegaard
- Prayer is a work to which we must commit ourselves if we are to make sense of our lives in light of eternity. – Terry Glaspey
- Prayer is about knowing God – not manipulating Him. – Tom Blackaby
- Prayer is acceptable in any situation. – Kevin Shorter
- Prayer is always in danger of degenerating into a glorified gold rush. How to get things from God occupies most [books]. – A.W. Tozer
- Prayer is an art which only the Spirit can teach us. He is the giver of all prayer. – C.H. Spurgeon
- Prayer is as vast and mighty as God, because He has committed Himself to answer it. All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer! – Etienne Piek
- Prayer is doubts destroyer, ruin’s remedy, the antidote to all anxieties. – C.H. Spurgeon
- Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God. – Edwin Keith
- Prayer is first and foremost an act of love. …[It] is born of a desire to be with Jesus. – Brennan Manning
- Prayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something. – Henri Nouwen
- Prayer is getting into perfect communion with God; I tell Him what I know He knows in order that I may get to know it as He does. – Oswald Chambers
- Prayer is God’s appointed means for appropriating the blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. – D.A. Carson
- Prayer is God’s plan to supply man’s great and continuous need with God’s great and continuous abundance. – E.M. Bounds
- Prayer is God’s ordained way to bring His miracle power to bear in human need. – Wesley Duewel
- Prayer is keeping company with God. – Clement of Alexandria
- Prayer is life passionately wanting, wishing, desiring God’s triumph. – George Campbell Morgan
- Prayer is more than something you do; it is something God does through you. – Ben Jennings
- Prayer is my chief work, and it is by means of it that I carry on the rest. – Thomas Hooker
- Prayer is my declaration of dependence on God. – John Maxwell
- Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience. The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures that is not accompanied by obedience. – A.W. Tozer
- Prayer is not a painful effort to gain from God help in the varying needs of life. Prayer is the desire to possess God Himself – Sundar Singh
- Prayer is not about getting what you want, it’s about getting what God wants for you. – Ed Young
- Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold of God’s willingness. – Phillip Brooks
- Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven. – Adam Clarke
- Prayer is not given us as a burden to be borne, or an irksome duty to fulfill, but to be a joy and power to which there is no limit. – The Kneeling Christian
- Prayer is not logical, it is a mysterious moral working of the Holy Spirit. – Oswald Chambers
- Prayer is not made so that God can find out what we need … God wants us to pray because prayer expresses our trust in God and is a means whereby our trust in him can increase. – Wayne Grudem
- Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God’s voice is its most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine. – Andrew Murray
- Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. – Oswald Chambers
- Prayer is not what is done by us, but rather what is done by the Holy Spirit in us. – Henri Nouwen
- Prayer is not you trying to win back God’s favor; it is you participating in the favor He has for you. – Kevin Shorter
- Prayer is our most formidable weapon, the thing which makes all else we do efficient. – E.M. Bounds
- Prayer is practicing the presence of God, not mastering the mechanics of how to come to God. – Mark Water
- Prayer is repeating the victor’s name (Jesus) into the ears of Satan and insisting on his retreat. – S.D. Gordon
- Prayer is simple, prayer is supernatural, and to anyone not related to our Lord Jesus Christ, prayer is apt to look stupid. – Oswald Chambers
- Prayer is such a great effort to most of us because we do not pray right. – O. Hallesby
- Prayer is the acid test of devotion. – Samuel Chadwick
- Prayer is the answer to every problem there is. – Oswald Chambers
- Prayer is the atmosphere of revelation, in the strict and central sense of that word. It is the climate in which God’s manifestation bursts open into inspiration. – P.T. Forsyth
- Prayer is the best response to hatred. – C.H. Spurgeon
- Prayer is the Christian’s first line of defense against demonic influence. Fervent, sincere prayer thwarts Satan’s activity like nothing else. – Neil Anderson
- Prayer is the conduit through which power from heaven is brought to earth. – O. Hallesby
- Prayer is the disciplined refusal to act before God acts. – Eugene Peterson
- Prayer is the evidence that I am spiritually concentrated on God. – Oswald Chambers
- Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. – Oswald Chambers
- Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honors God and brings him into active aid. – E.M. Bounds
- Prayer is the greatest use of my words. – Rick Warren
- Prayer is the key to revival, building bridges between what should be and what will be. – Kris Vallotton
- Prayer is the key to success. Not to pray is to fail. To pray aright is never to fail. – Amzi Clarence Dixon
- Prayer is the key, and faith both turns the key and opens the door, and claims the blessing. – The Kneeling Christian
- Prayer is the most sacred occupation a person could engage in. – A.W. Tozer
- Prayer is the only adequate way to multiply our efforts fast enough to reap the harvest God desires. – Wesley Duewel
- Prayer is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings. – Chrysostom
- Prayer is the secret of power. – Evan Roberts
- Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscle of Omnipotence. – C.H. Spurgeon
- Prayer is the supreme way to be workers together with God. – Wesley Duewel
- Prayer is the vital breath of the Christian; not the thing that makes him alive, but the evidence that he is alive. – Oswald Chambers
- Prayer is where the action is. – John Wesley
- Prayer is your way, often the only way, to water the harvest. By prayer you can bring the Holy Spirit’s blessing on any gospel effort anywhere in the world. – Wesley Duewel
- True prayer is an approach of the soul by the Spirit of God to the throne of God. – C.H. Spurgeon
- True prayer is God the Holy Spirit talking to God the Father in the name of God the Son, and the believer’s heart is the prayer-room. – Samuel M. Zemer
- True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length. – C.H. Spurgeon
- True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is a spiritual commerce with the Creator of heaven and earth. – C.H. Spurgeon
- True prayer is the trading of the heart with God. – C.H. Spurgeon
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The definition whose author appear once minister to me most and that is sundar singn. Why i love to pray and want to pray is simply to possess the giver of all gift. I dont want the gift but the giver, take the accets but give me the access. Sir, thanks for the quotes. May i comment that if i should read all the authors whose qoute are extracted, it will take me decade of year. I love you. God bless you sir.
Dear Abubakar,
Thank you for your response and for the quote that has been meaningful to you. Prayer is about falling more in love with the Giver. That’s a great reminder.
Blessings,
Kevin