Quotes by Theologians - Page 6

The church exists for the sake of those outside it.
William Temple
Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback set it up on one side and it tumbles over on the other.
Martin Luther
Reason is God's gift but so are the passions. Reason is as guilty as passion.
Cardinal Newman
Nothing which is at all times and in every way agreeable to us can have objective reality. It is of the very nature of the real that it should have sharp corners and rough edges that it should be resistant should be itself. Dream-furniture is the only kind on which you never stub your toes or bang your knee.
C.S. Lewis
Facts as facts do not always create a spirit of reality because reality is a spirit.
G.K. Chesterton
If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power but for the passionate sense of the potential for the eye which ever young and ardent sees the possible ... what wine is so sparkling so fragrant so intoxicating as possibility!
Søren Kierkegaard
Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.
Jean Vanier
Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.
G.K. Chesterton
Depression is rage spread thin.
Paul Tillich
Psychoanalysis is confession without absolution.
G.K. Chesterton
New roads new ruts.
G.K. Chesterton
Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger.
Saint Basil
It isn't that they can't see the solution it's that they can't see the problem.
G.K. Chesterton
I would have every minister of the gospel address his audience with the zeal of a friend with the generous energy of a father and with the exuberant affection of a mother.
François Fénelon
Some plague the people with too long sermons for the faculty of listening is a tender thing and soon becomes weary and satiated.
Martin Luther
Passion and prejudice govern the world only under the name of reason.
John Wesley
Prayer is a condition of mind an attitude of heart which God recognizes as prayer whether it manifests itself in quiet thinking in sighing or in audible words.
O. Hallesby
Prayer is an all-efficient panoply a treasure undiminished a mine which is never exhausted a sky unobscured by clouds a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root the fountain the mother of a thousand blessings.
Saint John Chrysostom
We are never more like Christ than in prayers of intercession.
Austin Phelps
Prayer is the acid test of devotion.
Samuel Chadwick
Prayer is a rising up and a drawing near to God in mind and in heart and in spirit.
Alexander Whyte
Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him whether the heart is full or empty.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Prayer should be the means by which I at all times receive all that I need and for this reason be my daily refuge my daily consolation my daily joy my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.
Saint John Chrysostom
God alone fully understands what each one of us needs we make mistakes continually and pray for things which would be harmful to us if we received them. Afterwards we see our mistakes and realize that God is good and wise in not giving us these things even though we plead ever so earnestly for them.
O. Hallesby
Teach me O God not to torture myself not to make a martyr out of myself through stifling reflection but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.
Søren Kierkegaard
Prayer brings a good spirit in our homes. For God hears prayer. Heaven itself would come down to our homes. And even though we who constitute the home all have our imperfections and our failings our home would through God's answer to prayer become a little paradise.
O. Hallesby
The shower of answers to your prayers will continue to your dying hour. Nor will it cease then. When you pass out from beneath the shower your dear ones will step into it. Every prayer and every sigh which you have uttered for them and their future welfare will in God's time descend upon them as a gentle rain of answers to prayer.
O. Hallesby
If we will make use of prayer to call down upon ourselves and others those things which will glorify the name of God then we shall see the strongest and boldest promises of the Bible about prayer fulfilled. Then we shall see such answers to prayer as we had never thought were possible.
O. Hallesby
If we pray for anything according to the will of God we already have what we pray for the moment we ask it. We do not know exactly when it will arrive but we have learned to know God through the Spirit of God and have learned to leave this in His hands and to live just as happily whether the answer arrives immediately or later.
O. Hallesby
It is God's will not only to hear our prayer but to give us the best and the richest answer which He the almighty and omniscient God can devise. He will send us the answer when it will benefit us and His cause the most.
O. Hallesby
If God does not give you something you ask for wait on Him. He will speak with you tenderly and sympathetically about the matter until you yourself understand that He cannot grant your prayer.
O. Hallesby
The potency of prayer hath subdued the strength of fire it hath bridled the rage of lions hushed anarchy to rest extinguished wars appeased the elements expelled demons burst the chains of death expanded the gates of heaven assuaged diseases repelled frauds rescued cities from destruction stayed the sun in its course and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt.
Saint John Chrysostom
Be sure to remember that nothing in your daily life is so insignificant and so inconsequential that the Lord will not help you by answering your prayer.
O. Hallesby
As white snow flakes fall quietly and thickly on a winter day answers to prayer will settle down upon you at every step you take even to your dying day. The story of your life will be the story of prayer and answers to prayer.
O. Hallesby
In Gethsemane the holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him. It did not. After that the idea that prayer is recommended to us as a sort of infallible gimmick may be dismissed.
C.S. Lewis
God's chief gift to those who seek him is Himself.
E. B. Pusey
Those who trade with heaven by prayer grow rich by quick returns.
William S. Plumer
When I pray coincidences happen and when I don't they don't.
William Temple
The answer of our prayers is secured by the fact that in rejecting them God would in a certain sense deny His own nature.
John Calvin
You can do more than pray after you have prayed but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.
A.J. Gordon
Some people think that prayer just means asking for things and if they fail to receive exactly what they asked for they think the whole thing is a fraud.
Gerald Vann
Real prayer seeks an audience and an answer.
William S. Plumer
There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him.
William Law
He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.
Bernard of Clairvaux
Our prayer life will become restful when it really dawns upon us that we have done all we are supposed to do when we have spoken to Him about it. From the moment we have left it with Him it is His responsi-bility.
O. Hallesby
We need to learn to know Him so well that we feel safe when we have left our difficulties with Him. To know Jesus in that way is a prerequisite of all true prayer.
O. Hallesby
Do what you can and pray for what you cannot yet do.
Saint Augustine
A humble and contrite heart knows that it can merit nothing before God and that all that is necessary is to be reconciled to one's helplessness and let our holy and almighty God care for us just as an infant surrenders himself to his mother's care.
O. Hallesby
I would have no desire other than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray pray thyself in me.
Francois de Fenelon
Do not forget that prayer is ordained for the purpose of glorifying the name of God. Therefore whether you pray for big things or for little things say to God "If it will glorify Thy name then grant my prayer and help me."
O. Hallesby
It is only when we pray for something according to the will of God that we have the promise of being heard and answered.
O. Hallesby
It is quite useless knocking at the door of heaven for earthly comfort. It's not the sort of comfort they supply there.
C.S. Lewis
Pray a little each day in a childlike way for the Spirit of prayer. If you feel that you know as yet very little concerning the deep things of prayer and what prayer really is then pray for the Spirit of prayer. There is nothing He would rather do than unveil to you the grace of prayer.
O. Hallesby
When we in prayer seek only the glorification of the name of God then we are in complete harmony with the spirit of prayer. Then our hearts are at rest both while we pray and after we have prayed. Then we can wait for the Lord.
O. Hallesby
Bear up the hands that hang down by faith and prayer support the tottering knees. Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein and mercy will come down.
John Wesley
If we are to pray aright perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important but what God wants us to pray. The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer not the poverty of our heart.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God's promises are to be our pleas in prayer.
Matthew Henry
To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going down on one's knees and thanking him.
Søren Kierkegaard
Jesus is moved to happiness every time He sees that you appreciate what He has done for you. Grip His pierced hand and say to Him "I thank Thee Savior because Thou hast died for me." Thank Him likewise for all the other blessings He has showered upon you from day to day. It brings joy to Jesus.
O. Hallesby
When we succeed in truly thanking God we feel good at heart. The reason is that we have been created to give glory to God now and for-evermore. And every time we do so we feel that we are in harmony with His plans and purposes for our lives. Then we are truly in our element. That is why it is so blessed.
O. Hallesby