My words fly up My thoughts remain below, Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
--William Shakespeare --
"Prayer is like life insurance-----Don't leave home without it."
"God does not send thunder when a still small voice can be heard."
If we never ask, it will never be given. If we never seek, we will never find. If we never knock, it will never be opened unto us.
"If your knees are knocking-----kneel on them."
"Life is fragile - handle with prayer."
Prayer is like food:
1. Eat 3 times a day 2. Plus snacks
"Sometimes we expect million dollar answers to ten-cent prayers."
"You are a child of God---call home often."
"Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees."
William Cowper
"A nation at prayer is a nation at peace."
Gordon B. Hinckley, Be Thou an Example, p. 32
"We are often not only too slow to get on our knees, but too quick to rise from them."
Neal A. Maxwell
"Works, not words, give eloquence to prayer."
Joseph Fielding McConkie, The Spirit of Revelation, p. 22
"Do not have your concert first and tune your instruments afterward. Begin the day with God."
J. Hudson Taylor
"We can make great strides in the direction of perfection in our personal behavior. We can be perfect in our prayers to our Father in Heaven. There are some things in which it is very difficult to be perfect, but I hope that everyone here, every man and woman and boy and girl, will get on his or her knees night and morning and thank the Lord for His blessings to them, thank the Lord for kindness, thank the Lord for every gift that he has, and pray for strength to do the right thing and remember before the Lord all who are in need and distress. We can be perfect in our prayers, my brothers and sisters."
President Gordon B. Hinckley (Feb. 15, 1998): (From Port Harcourt, Nigeria, regional conference, general session. Church News May 9, 1998)
PRAYER
"We don't have to be in a sacred place for spiritual things to happen. The Sacred Grove was just a stand of trees before Joseph Smith walked into it. It became sacred because of what happened there. Where is your Sacred Grove? It could even be in you car, if that's were you spend a lot of time thinking through problems and attuning your heart sensitively to the Spirit. Perhaps it's while you're out walking. Heavenly Father doesn't save up all his spiritual experiences just for sacrament meeting or the temple."
"Avoid prayers that appear to be a set of instructions to the Lord---do this, bless that, change this, help me with that. Rather, be a compliant student to the Ultimate Teacher. He wants you to succeed even more than you do yourself."
Richard G. Scott - BYU Dev., June 3, 1990
"If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies. We should remember the Most High day and night--always--not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help."
Howard W. Hunter (November 1977 Ensign) "Hallowed Be Thy Name" - p. 52
"The efficacy of our prayers depends on how we care for one another."
Marion G. Romney (November 1980 Ensign)
"The promise is made to everyone. There is no discrimination, no favored few. But the Lord has not promised to crash the door. He stands and knocks. If we do not listen, He will not sup with us nor give answer to our prayers. Do you know how to listen, grasp, interpret, understand? The Lord stands knocking. He never retreats. But He will never force himself upon us. If we ever move apart, it is we who move, and not the Lord. And should we ever fail to get an answer to our prayers, we must look into our lives for a reason. We have failed to do what we should or we have done something we should not have done. We have dulled our hearing or impaired our eyesight."
Spencer W. Kimball BYU Speeches, October 11, 1961, p.6
"Prayer does not consist of words, altogether. True, faithful, earnest prayer consists more in the feeling that rises from the heart and from the inward desire of our spirits to supplicate the Lord in humility and infaith, that we may receive His blessings. It matters not how simple the words may be, if our desires are genuine and we come before the Lord with a broken heart and a contrite spirit to ask Him for that which we need."
Joseph F. Smith "Conference Report", October 1899, p.69-71