Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence.

If a man prays to Thee with a yearning heart, he can reach Thee, through Thy grace, by any path.

Prayer simply means a longing of the heart, it is the wish felt, - it may be expressed, or not expressed. It may take the form of human language or it may never be uttered at all; still it is a prayer, if God only hears it in the secret recess of the heart.

We need prayer to understand God's love for us. If we really mean to pray and want to pray we must be ready to do it now. These are only the first steps towards prayer but if we never make the first step with determination, we will not reach the last one: the presence of God

[Prayer] is the link between God's inexhaustible resources and people’s needs...God is the source of power, but we are the instrument He uses to link the two together.

We cannot really know God if we do not pray.

God hears no more than the heart speaks; and if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf.

Prayer is simply talking to God like a friend and should be the easiest thing we do each day.

My prayer life and my connection with God are on the highest level.

Prayer begins by talking to God, but it ends by listening to Him. In the face of Absolute Truth, silence is the soul's language.

Prayer to be fruitful must come from the heart and must be able to touch the heart of God.

The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray. Prayers do not die, prayers live before God, and God's heart is set on them.

How do we find the Lord? I believe we have to seek Him in simple things. I believe we have to seek Him in personal prayer. I believe we must seek Him in personal service. I believe we seek and find Jesus when we follow His example.

True prayer is the trading of the heart with God, and the heart never comes into spiritual commerce with the ports of heaven until God the Holy Ghost puts wind into the sails and speeds the ship into its haven.

Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the track. The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer.

The first purpose of prayer is to know God.

Our prayers must spring from the indigenous soil of our own personal confrontation with the Spirit of God in our lives.

The ultimate goal for me in prayer is to draw near to God...to fall in step with him...to discern his will so that my life might be lived accordingly...to discover what burdens are on his heart that I might take them into my own heart, then pray them back to him.

Contemplative prayer [oración mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.

All our prayers are addressed in the handwriting of the heart.

For me, prayer means launching out of the heart towards God; it means lifting up one's eyes, quite simply, to heaven, a cry of grateful love, from the crest of joy or the trough of despair; it's a vast, supernatural force which opens out my heart, and binds me close to Jesus.

Prayer is the breath of life to our soul; holiness is impossible without it

At the profoundest depths in life, men talk not about God but with Him.

Prayer is - a means of uniting us unto Himself.