Martin Luther Prayer Quotations

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer.

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.

When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.

Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.

Pray, and let God worry.

The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.

No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect, except those who have learned it by experience. Whenever I have prayed earnestly, I have been heard and have obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but He always comes.

If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.

As is the business of tailors to make clothes and cobblers to make shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.

Prayer is climbing up into the heart of God.

The less I pray, the harder it gets; the more I pray, the better it goes.

I cannot neglect prayer for a single day.

The believing man hath the Holy Ghost; and where the Holy Ghost dwelleth, He will not suffer a man to be idle, butstirreth him up to all exercises of piety and godliness, and of true religion, to the love of God, to the patient suffering of afflictions, to prayer, to thanksgiving, and the exercise of charity towards all men.

Prayer, study, and suffering make a pastor.

I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.

We cannot attain to the understanding of Scripture either by study or by the intellect. Your first duty is to begin by prayer. Entreat the Lord to grant you, of His great mercy, the true understanding of His Word. There is no other interpreter of the Word of God than the Author of this Word, as He Himself has said, "They shall be all taught of God" (John 6:45). Hope for nothing from your own labors, from your own understanding: trust solely in God, and in the influence of His Spirit. Believe this on the word of a man who has experience.

To pray well is the better half of study.

If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.

Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.

I am so busy now that if I did not spend three hours each day in prayer, I could not get through the day.

I've got so much work to do today, I'd better spend two hours in prayer instead of one.

This is the good and happy news, that Christ has paid for our sin, and through His suffering has redeemed us from eternal death. It is His kingdom and His ministry, to preach the Gospel to the poor; that is His purpose. For to the great and holy He cannot come. They do not wish to be counted sinners, and therefore do not need His Gospel.

In human affairs, we accomplish everything through prayer. What has been properly arranged, we keep in order, what has gone amiss we improve or change, what we cannot change and improve we bear, overcoming all trouble and sustaining all by prayer. Against such forces there is no help but prayer.

God wants us to pray, and he wants to hear our prayers-not because we are worthy, but because he is merciful.

All who call on God in true faith...will certainly be heard.

Prayer is a powerful thing; for God has bound and tied himself thereunto.

The church converteth the whole world by blood and prayer.

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business in the morning and the last in the evening. Guard yourself against such false and deceitful thoughts that keep whispering, "Wait a while. In an hour or so I will pray. I must first finish this or that." Thinking such thoughts we get away from prayer into other things that will hold us and involve us till the prayer of the day comes to naught.

Look to it that you do not try to do all of it, do not try to do too much, lest your spirit grow weary. Besides, a good prayer mustn't be too long. Do not draw it out. Prayer ought to be frequent and fervent.

God is ready to give more quickly, and to give more than you ask; yea, he offers his treasures if we only take them. It is truly a great shame and a severe chastisement for us Christians that God should still upbraid us for our slothfulness in prayer, and that we fail to let such a rich and excellent promise incite us to pray.

Brief let me be. The fewer words the better prayer.

God delights in our temptations and yet hates them. He delights in them when they drive us to prayer; he hates them when they drive us to despair.

None can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but those who have learned it by experience.

What shall we do with...the Jews?...I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings...are to be taken from them.

We ought not to criticize, explain, or judge the Scriptures by our mere reason, but diligently, with prayer, meditate thereon, and seek their meaning.

What are the things we should pray for? First, our personal troubles...The greatest trouble we can ever know is thinking that we have no trouble for we can become hard-hearted and insensible to what is inside of us.

I have to hurry all day to get time to pray.

When my heart is cold and I cannot pray as I should I scourge myself with the thought of the impiety and ingratitude of my enemies, the Pope and his accomplices and vermin, and Zwingli, so that my heart swells with the righteous indignation and hatred and I can say with warmth and vehemence: 'Holy be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done!' And the hotter I grow the more ardent do my prayers become.

Prayer is a very precious medicine, one that helps and never fails.

It is a tremendously hard thing to pray aright, yea, it is verily the science of all sciences.

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last of the evening.

Let every man recognize what he is, and be certain that we are all equally priests, that is, we have the same power in the word and in any sacrament whatever.

If I did not see that the Lord kept watch over the ship, I should long since have abandoned the helm. But I see Him! - through the storm, strengthening the tackling, handling the yards, spreading the sails - yes more, commanding the very winds! Should I not be a coward if I abandoned my post? Let Him govern, let Him carry us forward, let Him hasten or delay; we will fear nothing!

Christians fight best on their knees. Whatever good may be done is done and brought about by prayer.