Get Down!

"To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees." ~ Billy Graham

Don't Give Up...

When we give up on our story before God has finished writing it, we miss out on what our story has to give us. Sadder still, we miss out on what our story can become. ~ Laurie Short

The Best...

"Always remember that your present situation is not your final destination. The best is yet to come." ~ Unknown

Opening Hearts to God

 "The essence of prayer does not consist in asking God for something but in opening our hearts to God, in speaking with Him, and living with Him in perpetual communion. Prayer is continual abandonment to God. Prayer does not mean asking God for all kinds of things we want; it is rather the desire for God Himself, the only Giver of Life, Prayer is not asking, but union with God. Prayer is not a painful effort to gain from God help in the varying needs of our lives. Prayer is the desire to possess God Himself, the Source of all life. The true spirit of prayer does not consist in asking for blessings, but in receiving Him who is the giver of all blessings, and in living a life of fellowship with Him." ~ Sadhu Sundar Singh

A Living Reminder

"One way to express this it to say that in order to be a living reminder of the Lord, we must walk in his presence as Abraham did. To walk in the presence of the Lord means to move forward in life in such a way that all our desires, thoughts, and actions are constantly guided by him. When we walk in the Lord's presence, everything we see, hear, touch, or taste reminds us of him. This is what is meant by a prayerful life. It is not a life in which we say many prayers, but a life in which nothing, absolutely nothing, is done, said or understood independently of him who is the origin and purpose of our existence." ~ Henri J. Nouwen

Time for Reflection and Celebration

"This is a time for reflection as well as celebration. As you look back on the past year and all that has taken place in your life, Remember each experience for the good that has come of it and for the knowledge you have gained. Remember the efforts you have made and the goals you have reached. Remember the love you have shared and the happiness you have brought. Remember the laughter, the joy, the hard work, and the tears. And as you reflect on the past year, also be thinking of the new one to come. Because most importantly, this is a time of new beginnings and the celebration of life." ~ Taylor Addison

Closet Communion

 “Closet communion needs time for the revelation of God’s presence. It is vain to say, ‘I have too much work to do to find time.’ You must find time or forfeit blessing. God knows how to save for you the time you sacredly keep for communion with Him.” A. T. Pierson

Pray Through

 “Depend upon it, if you are bent on prayer, the devil will not leave you alone. He will molest you, tantalize you, block you, and will surely find some hindrances, big or little or both. And we sometimes fail because we are ignorant of his devices…I do not think he minds our praying about things if we leave it at that. What he minds, and opposes steadily, is the prayer that prays on until it is prayed through, assured of the answer.” Mary Warburton Booth

God With Us

Wherever you are and whatever you facing at this moment, Christmas is God’s way of saying, “I love you too much not to be there.” ~ M. Brown

Prayer Life

"It is in the field of prayer that life's critical battles are lost or won. We must conquer all our circumstances there. We must first of all bring them there. We must survey them there. We must master them there. In prayer we bring our spiritual enemies into the Presence of God and we fight them there. Have you tried that? Or have you been satisfied to meet and fight your foes in the open spaces of the world?" ~ J. H. Jowett

He Is Here

"God is here. This truth should fill our lives, and every Christmas should be for us a new and special meeting with God, when we allow His light and grace to enter deep into our soul." ~ Josemaria Escriva

Don't Lose Heart

When the struggles of our life are confronted by the anticipation of the coming King, the result is an overwhelming sense of peace. The eternal hope of Jesus Christ is greater than the temporary struggle of life's circumstances. It is in this space that a significant truth emerges. We can overcome in Christ Jesus because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world." ~ John Comstock

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)

Beware In Your Prayers

 "Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things 'above all that we ask or think.'" ~ Andrew Murray

Pray, Pray, Pray

"Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then my dear brother; pray, pray, pray." ~ Edward Payson

Earn, Save, Give

“Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” ~ John Wesley

Expect Great Things

 "Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!" ~ Andrew Murray 

Lift Others...

We rise by lifting others. ~ Robert Ingersoll

Intercession

 "Intercession is truly universal work for the Christian. No place is closed to intercessory prayer. No continent - no nation - no organization - no city - no office. There is no power on earth that can keep intercession out." ~ Richard Halverson

Greatest Obstacle to Prayer

 "It seems, then, that the greatest obstacle to prayer is the simple matter of beginning, the simple exertion of will, the starting, the acting, the doing. How easy it is, and yet-between us and the possibility of prayer there seems to a great gulf fixed; an abyss of our own making that separates us from God." ~ Emilie Griffin

Problem or Mystery?

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived. ~ Gabriel Marcel

Light and Darkness

"If the Christian does not allow prayer to drive sin out of his life, sin will drive prayer out of his life. Like light and darkness, the two cannot dwell together." ~ M.E. Andross

Wish for...

If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye, which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating as possibility? ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Most Important Activity

“There is no other activity in life so important as that of prayer. Every other activity depends upon prayer for its best efficiency.” ~ M.E. Andross

Weakness Leaning...

 "Prayer is weakness leaning on omnipotence." ~ W. S. Bowd

Christian Steward

"The faithful Christian steward acknowledges that God owns all he has, and it is his responsibility to manage and dispose of his possessions in a way that is acceptable to the Lord." ~ Billy Graham

Running from God

 He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day. ~ John Bunyan

Unity in Essentials

“Unity in essentials; liberty in non-essentials; charity in all things.” ~ Phineas F. Bresee

Work & Prayer

 “I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working.” James Hudson Taylor

Shut the World Out

"Shut the world out, withdraw from all worldly thoughts and occupations, and shut yourself in alone with God, to pray to Him in secret. Let this be your chief object in prayer, to realize the presence of your heavenly Father." ~ Andrew Murray

Give the Gospel

We are debtors to every man to give him the gospel in the same measure in which we have received it. ~ Phineas F. Bresee

Prayer Is...

"Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part." ~ Andrew Murray 

Worship Rises

“Worship rises high above all forms. If it attempts to find utterance through them, it will set them on fire, and glow and burn in their consuming flame, and rise as incense to God; if it waits to hear His infinite will and eternal love, it spreads its pinions to fly to His bosom, there to breathe out its unutterable devotion.” ~ Phineas F. Bresee

Seeking God

"If a man sets out on a journey to search for the tip of his own nose, his first step betrays his total blindness as to what he seeks. God is everywhere and is therefore never in a particular place that is other than where we happen to be at each moment. Therefore we do not need to leave the point where we are and seek God’s presence somewhere else." ~ James Finley

With Eagerness and Hope

"God our deliverer, whose approaching birth still shakes the foundations of our world, may we so wait for your coming with eagerness and hope that we embrace without terror the labor pangs of the new age." ~ Janet Morley

Source of Power

 "Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power." ~ Hudson Taylor

Sounds of Advent

"May the sounds of Advent stir a longing in your people, O God. Come again to set us free from the dullness of routine and the poverty of our imaginations. Break the patterns which bind us to small commitments and to the stale answers we have given to questions of no importance. Let the Advent trumpet blow, let the walls of our defenses crumble, and make a place in our lives for the freshness of your love, well-lived in the Spirit, and still given to all who know their need and dare receive it. Amen." ~ Howard Thurman

In Prayer We Discover...

"In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you deepen what you already have, and you realize that you are already there. We already have everything, but we don’t know it and we don’t experience it. Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess." ~ Thomas Merton

Man on His Knees

“…the man on his knees has a leverage underneath the mountain which can cast it into the sea, if necessary, and can force all earth and heaven to recognize the power there is in 'His name.'” ~ M.E. Andross

For the Poor

"Let the poor be fed and clothed; let us pour out our substances for this purpose; but let us keep heaven open, that they may receive the unspeakable gift of His love, in the transforming power of the Holy Ghost." ~ Phineas F. Bresee

Money Is...

“Money is another pair of hands to heal and feed and bless the desperate families of the earth…A man’s money is an extension of himself.” ~ Bruce Larson

Suffer with Dignity

"It is possible to suffer with dignity and without. Most of us in the West don’t understand the art of suffering and experience a thousand fears instead. We cease to be alive, being full of fear, bitterness, hatred and despair…. We have to accept death as part of life, even the most horrible of deaths. And don’t we live an entire life each one of our days, and does it really matter if we live a few days more or less? I am in Poland every day, on the battlefields, if that’s what one can call them. I often see visions of poisonous green smoke; I am with the hungry, with the ill-treated and the dying, every day, but I am also with the jasmine and with that piece of sky beyond my window; there is room for everything in a single life." ~ Etty Hillesum

Awesome in Majesty

"The ancient Israelite's saw God not only as someone other, distant and all-powerful, but as someone very much involved in the world. God was transcendent, awesome in majesty, yet God also told people how to live, was a part of their lives and was with them in the roar of battle and in the ‘still, small voice.’ God was clearly both immanent and transcendent." ~ Avery Brooke

God's Secret

In this humanistic age we suppose we are the initiator and God is the responder. But the Living Christ within us is the initiator and we are the responders. God the Lover, the accuser, the revealer of light and darkness presses within us. “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” And all our apparent initiative is already a response, a testimonial to God’s secret presence and working within us. ~ Thomas Kelly

Trust, Hope, Faith

"We have places of fear inside of us, but we have other places as well—places with names like trust and hope and faith. We can choose to lead from one of those places, to stand on ground that is not riddled with the fault lines of fear, to move toward others from a place of promise instead of anxiety. As we stand in one of those places, fear may remain close at hand and our spirits may still tremble. But now we stand on ground that will support us, ground from which we can lead others toward a more trustworthy, more hopeful, more faithful way of being in the world." ~ Parker Palmer

The Best Apologetic

"Generosity is now the best apologetic we as the church have to a watching and needy world." ~ Brad Leeper

Don't Let Prayer Become Secondary

When prayer has become secondary, or incidental, it has lost its power. Those who are conspicuously men of prayer are those who use prayer as they use food, or air, or light, or money." ~ M.E. Andross

Believe HIM

"I have never seen God work as blatantly as I have since He challenged me to believe Him instead of just believing in Him." ~ Beth Moore