The Hidden Life of Prayer Quotes

“A sincere Christian will pray, wait, strengthen his heart with the promises, and never leave praying and looking up till God gives him a gracious answer.”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“Now, if it was part of the sacred discipline of the Incarnate Son that he should observe frequent seasons of retirement, how much more is it incumbent on us, broken as we are and disabled by manifold sin, to be diligent in the exercise of private prayer!”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“Once more, one who lives in the spirit of prayer will spend much time in retired and intimate communion with God. It is by such a deliberate engagement of prayer that the fresh springs of devotion which flow through the day are fed. For, although intercourse with God is the life-energy of the renewed nature, our souls ‘cleave to the dust’, and devotion tends to grow formal – it becomes emptied of its spiritual content, and exhausts itself in outward acts. The Master reminds us of this grace peril, and informs us that the true defence against insincerity in our approach to God lies in the diligent exercise of private prayer.”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“The covenant which Sir Thomas Browne made with himself is well known, but one may venture to refer to it once more: ‘To pray in all places where quietness inviteth; in any house, highway, or street; and to know no street in this city that may not witness that I have not forgotten God and my Saviour in it; and that no parish or town where I have been may not say the like. To”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“Those who pray well, work well. Those who pray most, achieve the grandest results.10 To use the striking phrase of Tauler, ‘In God nothing is hindered.”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“My heart smites me still for being unlike Epaphras, who “laboured fervently in prayers”.’ ‘One terrible failure confronted me everywhere, viz.: “Ye have asked nothing in my name.” “[w]ant of prayer in right measure and manner;” “Had some almost overwhelming sense of sins of omission in the days past. If I had only prayed more;” “Oh, that I had prayed a hundred-fold more.”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“Prayer is the most sublime energy of which the spirit of man is capable [1]. It is in one aspect glory and blessedness; in another, it is toil and travail, battle and agony. Uplifted hands grow tremulous long before the field is won; straining sinews and panting breath proclaim the exhaustion of the "heavenly footman." The weight that falls upon an aching heart fills the brow with anguish, even when the midnight air is chill. Prayer”
― David Macintyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer [Annotated]

“But we Christians may ask our Father for all that we need. Only, let our desires be restrained, and our prayers unselfish. The personal petitions contained in the Lord’s Prayer are very modest – daily bread, forgiveness and deliverance from sin’s power. Yet these comprise all things that pertain to life and godliness.”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“As we present ourselves before the Lord in prayer, we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit – we yield to the inward impulse, and the divine energy commands our being. Our plans, if we have formed them at the dictation of nature, are laid aside, and the purpose of God in relation to our lives is accepted. As we are Spirit-born, let us be Spirit-controlled: ‘If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“1   ‘In prayer we tempt God if we ask for that which we labour not for; our faithful endeavours must second our devotion … If we pray for grace and neglect the spring from whence it comes, how can we speed?”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer

“The equipment for the inner life of prayer is simple, if not always easily secured. It consists particularly of a quiet place, a quiet hour and a quiet heart.”
― David M. McIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer