Bill Hybels
American author, speaker, and the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois.
If you're a parent, you know how incredibly good it feels when one of your children spontaneously thanks you for something. God is our Father, and he, too, is moved when we express our thanksgiving.
God is committed to developing a people who will reflect his character in this world, and his character always expresses concern and compassion for the afflicted.
The key is to practice praying - and to practice praying regularly, privately, sincerely and specifically.
If your life is rushing in many directions at once, you are incapable of the kind of deep, unhurried prayer that is vital to the Christian walk.
I sometimes wonder if my requests are legitimate. So I'm honest with God. I say, "Lord, I don't know if I have the right to ask for this. I don't know how I should pray about it. But I hand it over to your now, and if you'll tell me how to pray, I'll pray your way."
Before bringing a request to the Lord, it's a good idea to ask: If God granted this request, would it bring glory to him? Would it advance his kingdom? Would it help people? Would it help me to grow spiritually?
God isn't interested in stock phrases. Talk to him. Talk to the Father sincerely.
God-honoring prayers are not simply shopping lists. They are more than cries for help, strength, mercy and miracles. Authentic prayer should include worship, submission, requests, and confessions.
When I pray, I'm not just telling God my problems, but rather I'm turning over my biggest concerns to him. It's only when I've put them in his capable hands that I can go about my day in his strength and freedom.
A lot of spiritual gains come through pain, hurt, struggle, confusion and disappointment.
Don't let your prayers turn into a wish list for Santa Claus. Worship God and praise him when you come to him in prayer.
Are you expecting God to fill your needs? Are you asking him to do so - regularly, earnestly and persistently?
If the disciples were capable of making wrong requests - requests that were self-serving, patently materialistic, shortsighted or immature - I feel sure that we are too. Fortunately God loves us too much to say yes to inappropriate requests.
Perfect peace comes only through relating with the Peacemaker himself.
Prayerless people cut themselves off from God's peace and from his prevailing power, and a common result is that they feel overwhelmed, overrun, beaten down, pushed around, and defeated by a world operating with a take-no-prisoners approach.
God doesn't want us to pile up impressive phrases. He doesn't want us to use words without thinking about their meaning. He wants us to talk to him as to a friend or father - authentically, reverently, personally, earnestly.
Never forget that if you are God's child through Jesus Christ, you are praying to a Father who couldn't love you more than he already does.
God is righteous and just, holy and tender, responsive and sympathetic. He is willing--anxious even--to hear from you. Moreover, he is willing to act on your behalf.
If you're tolerating sin in your life, my friend, don't waste your breath praying unless it's a prayer of confession.
Don't ask God to bless junk food and miraculously transform it so that it has nutritional value. That's not how God works.