--Gary Fick
Philip Yancey: Prayer helps correct myopia, calling to mind a perspective I daily forget. I keep reversing roles, thinking of ways in which God should serve me, rather than vice versa. (p. 21)
Philip Yancey: When I shift direction, I realize that God already cares about my concerns more than I do. ... I begin with God, who bears primary responsibility for what happens on earth, and ask what part I can play in God's work on earth. (p. 23)
Philip Yancey: Prayer allows me to admit my failures, weaknesses, and limitations to One who responds to human vulnerability with infinite mercy. (p. 26)
Philip Yancey: ...prayer has become for me much more than a shopping list of requests to present to God. It has become a realignment of everything. I pray to restore the truth of the universe, to gain a glimpse of the world, and of me, through the eyes of God. (p. 29)
Frank Laubach: We had better not neglect prayer now! ... We must now find and follow some straight and narrow path never before trodden. If we do not find it, we shall perish. The way to peace is an untrodden path, but it is not unknown. It is the way Jesus gave us. (p. 12)
Philip Yancey: There is a God and I am not it. ... Prayer is a declaration of dependence upon God. (p. 35-37)
Philip Yancey: Prayer allows a place for me to bring my doubts and complaints--in sum, my ignorance--and subject them to the blinding light of a reality I cannot comprehend but can haltingly learn to trust. Prayer is personal, and my doubts take on a different cast as I get to know the Person to whom I bring them. (p. 40)
Philip Yancey: It occurred to me one day that though I often worry about whether or not I sense the presence of God, I give little thought to whether God senses the presence of me. (p. 42)
Philip Yancey: We humans represent the only species with whom God can hold a conversation. (p. 43)
Philip Yancey: I realize that my image of God, more than anything else, determines my degree of honesty in prayer. (p. 44).
Andrew R. Wheeler: ...one of the great challenges of prayer in general and of community prayer in particular is to maintain a consistent focus on God. We've all heard the statement "prayer changes things," but actually, God changes things. (p. 65)
Philip Yancey: Prayer is a subversive act performed in a world that constantly calls faith into question. (p. 51)
Frank Laubach: From now on, you must NEVER fail to pray whenever you think of it, if only for a second. (p. 67)
--Gary W. Fick