Prayer Quotes and Inspiration
This collection will encourage both the novice and those experienced with prayer. We begin with a peek inside the French home of the de Lamartine family:
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Prayer In The Lamartine Home
In the book, “The Mothers of Great Men and Women, and Some Wives of Great Men” by Laura C. Holloway, p. 449-50, Alphonse de Lamartine, French author, poet, and statesman (1790-1869) shares how his mother taught her children about prayer:
Natural Lessons on Prayer and Religion
“The only lessons of religion given us by my mother were limited to her being herself religious before us and along with us. The unceasing stream of love, of adoration, of gratitude, and prayer which gushed from her heart was her sole and natural preaching. Prayer–but rapid, lyric, winged prayer–was associated in our minds with the slightest actions of the day. This invocation was so naturally associated with them, that it was always a pleasure and a recreation for us, instead of being a wearisome obligation. Our life was in the hands of this kind of parent a perpetual sursum corda (which means “Let us lift up our hearts” in Latin).”
Elevated Thoughts
“She elevated her thoughts to God as naturally as the plant stretches upward to the air and the light. Our mother, to accomplish this, took a contrary course from that generally adopted. Instead of enjoining on us an annoying devotion, which would take children from their sports or their sleep, to force them to pray to God, frequently amid their repugnance and tears, she made these short invocations a sort of feast of the soul, to which she invited us with smiles. She did not mingle prayer with our tears, but with all the little happy events which occurred to us during the day.”
Morning Prayer
“Thus, when we awakened in the morning in our little beds, when the cheerful morning sun shone through our windows, when the birds enrolled their songs, perched in the rose-bushes or in their cages, when the footsteps of the servants had long echoed through the house and when we impatiently awaited her coming to rise, she mounted the stairs, she entered, her features radiant with kindness, with tenderness, with joy; she embraced us in our beds; she assisted us to dress; she listened to the joyous little chirping which children, whose imagination is refreshed by the night’s repose, carol on awakening, like a nest of swallow beneath the eaves at the approach of their mother.”
Our Heavenly Father
“Then she said to us: ‘To whom do we owe this happiness which we are about to enjoy together? It is to God; it is to our heavenly Father; without Him this lovely sun would not perhaps have risen; these trees would have lost their leaves; these gay and happy birds would have died of hunger and cold on the bare ground; and you, my poor children, would have had neither bed, nor house, nor garden, nor mother to shelter and nourish you, or to gladden your hearts during the season of life.”
An Example To Follow
“It is most just, therefore, to thank Him for all that He gives us on this day, and to pray to Him that He will give us many other such days.’ Then she kneeled down beside our bed, she joined our little hands together, frequently covering them with kisses as she did so, and repeated slowly and in an under-voice, the short morning prayer, which we repeated with her accent and in her words.”
The Four Parts of Prayer
In prayer we talk over our problem with God Himself until the perfect harmony between God and our heart is re-established.
Chaplain Harold L. Proppe
1. Our Father in Heaven
If you desire to pray but are unsure how, begin by addressing the One to whom you are praying. Our Father in Heaven, Heavenly Father, or God are all appropriate ways to begin a prayer.
2. We thank Thee…
Next, thank your Father in Heaven for your many blessings. Express heartfelt gratitude for the large and small blessings in your life.
3. We ask Thee…
Then, ask your Father in Heaven for the things you stand in need of. Pray over your food; plead for guidance regarding the big decisions in life. For instance, what career to pursue, or whom to marry.
4. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
Finally, end the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ.
As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.
Bible Dictionary
A Mother’s Loving Example
George Albert Smith remembered his mother teaching him to pray and trust that God would answer:
“When In think of the influence of my mother when I as a little [boy] I am moved to reverence and tears….I remember as though it were yesterday, she took me by the hand and we walked up a flight of stairs to the second story. There I knelt before her and held her hand as she taught me to pray. Thank God for those mothers who have in their hearts the spirit of the Gospel and a desire to bless. I could repeat that prayer now and it is a great many years since I learned it. It gave me an assurance that I had a Heavenly Father, and let me know that He heard and answered prayer.
When I was older we still lived in a two story frame house and when the wind blew hard it would rock as if it would topple over. Sometimes I would be too frightened to go to sleep. My bed was in a little room by itself, and many a night I have climbed out and got down on my knees and asked my Father in Heaven to take care of the house, preserve it that it would not break in pieces and I have got back into my little bed just as sure that I would be safeguarded from evil as if I held my Father’s hand.”
If we had the blessings without asking for them, we should think them common things; but prayer makes our mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are precious, but we do not realize their preciousness until we have sought for them earnestly.
Charles Spurgeon
Poetry: The Battle of Antietam
A poem written by a 17-year-old girl. I love the compassion found in the last lines, where prayers are being offered in behalf of the enemy:
The Battle of Antietam
In school I always learned
Of my ancestors, brave
Who fought and gave their lives
Our liberty to save
But would we do the same
For another in our way
The stranger far from home
The mistreated—the slave?
Sharpsburg was where I lived
A peaceful sleepy town
Where apple trees blossomed
A place of no renown
Until one fateful morn
There was a deafening shot
That awoke us with a start
Was that cannon? I thought.
My mother gave a gasp
She flew to the curtains
This was no friendly fire
Of that, she was certain.
Mother told us gently
Alice, Lizzie, and I
She would leave for a while
To learn more of the fight
One hour passed then two
Was my mother alright?
The chaos grew louder
More determined the fight
I was decided
My sisters shrank in fear
I had to find mother
For father was not here
Taking a deep slow breath
I darted out the door
Feeling a rush of courage
That I had not before
The streets were deserted
Except for two young men
Who pointed down the street
And bid me follow them
Then I heard a whistle
An explosion came next
That did not deter us
Onward we bravely pressed
As we mounted a hill
We grew closer to the fray
The cannon was like thunder
The smoke was thick and grey
There, a group of folks from town
Stood watching in alarm
There I found my mother
Who wrapped me in her arms
At home—how safe it felt!—
We tore into strips our sheets
Ready to do our part
When the fighting would cease
At last, the war sounds died
To the fields we dragged
Our baskets of supplies
Our bundles full of rags
The sky, a fiery red
The frightened haunted looks
This I never did read
In history story books
On the blood-stained fields
We knelt all together
My mother gave a prayer
I’ll remember forever
She prayed for the dying
For the families of the dead
For those who felt no hope
For hate to come to an end
And last of all she prayed
For those still in the fray
For charity for all
For the Rebels in gray
~ Amanda M.
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Prayer Quotes
“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” — Corrie Ten Boom
“To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees.” — Billy Graham
“Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.” — Corrie Ten Boom
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“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”— St. Augustine
“Work, work, from morning until late at night. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer.” — Martin Luther
“The Bible says to pray unceasingly. How do we do that? You make our life a prayer — that’s how. With every breath you breathe, it’s constant awareness of Him. It’s something that grows as you grow in your faith.” — Kathie Lee Gifford
When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do...When you spiritually stretch beyond anything you have ever done before, then His power will flow into you.
russell M. Nelson, “Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives”, May 2017
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