Notable Quotes July 30, 2012
In last week’s sermon, I quoted Paul Miller’s book APraying Life. Here are a few other choice samples:
“Prayer ismeant to be the conversation where your life and your God meet.”
“You don’texperience God; you get to know him. You submit to him. You enjoy him. He is,after all, a person.”
“Learning topray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart.”
“A needyheart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.”
“If you learnto pray, you learn to dream again.”
“When yourmind starts wandering in prayer, be like a little child. Don’t worry aboutbeing organized or staying on task. …Pray about what your mind is wanderingto. Maybe it is something that is important to you.”
“You don’tcreate intimacy. You make room for it. …Efficiency, multitasking, andbusyness all kill intimacy. In short, you can’t get to know God on thefly.”
“If you arenot praying, then you are quietly confident that time, money, and talent areall you need in life.”
“Prayermirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because ofJesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us aswe are because of Jesus and gives us the gift of help.”
“When youstop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problemsto bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worry to watching.”
“What do Ilose when I have a praying life? Control. Independence. What do I gain?Friendship with God. A quiet heart. …Essentially, I lose my kingdom and gethis. I move from being an independent player to a dependent lover.”
“Self-willand prayer are both ways of getting things done. At the center of self-will isme, carving a world in my image, but at the center of prayer is God, carving mein his Son’s image.”
“God takeseveryone he loves through a desert. It is his cure for our wandering hearts,restlessly searching for a new Eden.”
“We thinkspiritual things—if done right—should justflow. But if you have a disability, nothing flows, especially in the beginning.”