One Daily Hour of Prayer

ONE dAiLy HOuR Of PRayER

“My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct my prayer to You, and will look up.”

-Psalm 5:3

OnE dAily HOuR Of pRAyER : pRaying in JOy

“Prayer should not be regarded as a duty which must be performed,

but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.”

-E.M. Bounds (1835-1913) Methodist Minister

______________________________

“Prayer is not given us as a burden to be borne or an irksome duty to fulfill, but to be a joy and power to which there is no limit.”

“All that true prayer seeks is God Himself, for with Him we get all we need.”

-An Unknown Christian; Author: “The Kneeling Christian”

______________________________

A Daily Time of Praying for an Entire Hour

We are talking here, not about one of the “Hours of Prayer” in the sense of “times” of prayer, but about a daily time of personal prayer.

Praying for an entire hour — sitting at Christ’s feet — being in His presence.

OnE dAily HOuR Of PRayER : pRaying in hOlinESS & humility

“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.”

“It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.”

-St. John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.) _________________________________

“Prayer and a holy life are one. They mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone. The absence of the one is the absence of the other.”

“Prayer is humbling work. It abases intellect and pride, crucifies vainglory and signs our spiritual bankruptcy, and all these are hard for flesh and blood to bear.”

-E.M. Bounds (1835-1913) Methodist Minister

OnE dAily HOuR Of pRayER : pRaying fOr A dEdicAtEd timE

“Ní dhéanfaidh smaoineamh an treabhadh duit.”

“You’ll never plough a field turning it over in your mind.”

-Old Gaelic Saying

cOuld yOu pRay OnE HOuR ?

“And He arrived and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, why are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.'”

-Mark 14:37-38

We encourage Every Christian to set aside an Hour A Day for Prayer

…or however much you feel led to do!

It could be divided into two half-hour parts. Or you could start with a half hour a day, or twenty minutes a day, or even 15 minutes a day.

Any of these amounts of time might be what you are most comfortable with. You could always increase over time. Perhaps there are certain days of the week when you have more time for prayer.

I (Lay Monk Preston) became a Christian when I was not quite twenty years old.

Reading E.M. Bounds’ books over and over (my favorite is Power Through Prayer), and considering the Scripture from the Gospel of Mark (Above) about “watching and praying one hour,” I began a Daily Hour of Prayer before a year had passed.

It didn’t matter if I had to be at work at 5:30, or how late I had stayed up the nigh before, or if I was camping with relatives, or whatever I was doing or needed to do.

In the first seven years, I missed only three of my Daily Prayer Hours. I believe that this hour a day “anchors” my day.

Pray to learn what God would have you personally to do.

We pray this prayer, based on Acts 9:6, every day:

“Lord, what would you have me do today?”

Right Ministry (Orthodiakonia) is What God Would Have Us Do Today — Summarized by: Mark 16:15, Proverbs 3:5-6, and Acts 9:6

“Every one of us needs a half an hour of prayer each day, except when we are busy — then we need an hour.”

-St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Bishop of Geneva _________________________

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

-Martin Luther (1483-1546) Protestant

Reformer

“Who can measure the influence of an hour a day spent alone with God?”

“

In these days there is no time to pray; but without time, and a lot of it, we shall never learn to pray.”

“Hurry is the death of prayer”

-Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932)

English Wesleyan Methodist Minister

(Author: “The Path of Prayer”) ___________________________

“The richness of God’s Word ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.”

“A day without morning and evening prayers and personal intercessions is actually a day without meaning or importance.”

“It is only because He became like us that we can become like Him.”

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Pastor, Theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key Founding Member of the Confessing Church (Evangelical Christians, who opposed Hitler, and were persecuted and imprisoned by the Nazis).

His writings on Christianity’s role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book, “The Cost of Discipleship,” has been described as a modern classic.

Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazis, including vocal opposition to Hitler’s euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.

Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo, and imprisoned at Tegel Prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to the Flossenburg Prison.

After being accused of association with the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was quickly tried, along with other accused plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office), and then hanged on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing.”

(Excerpted from) Wikipedia: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Trusting God completely in prayer, believing that He is able to do all things, does not remove the need to pray for His strength to accomplish what He has prepared us to do!”

-Edith Schaeffer (1918-2010) Missionary in Switzerland

“All you need to do to learn to pray is to pray.”

-Wesley L. Duewel (1916-2016)

Missionary in India

pRaying in AnguiSh

“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.'”

-Billy Graham ____________________________

“We cannot pray and remain the same.”

-Ruth Bell Graham

“This morning about nine I withdrew to the woods for prayer. I was in such anguish that when I arose from my knees I felt extremely weak and overcome.

…I cared not how or where I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls for Christ.”

-David Brainerd Missionary to Native American Tribes in Colonial Era America; Died from Tuberculosis at Age 29

“Prayer and helplessness are inseparable.

Only he who is helpless can truly pray. Your helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas.”

____________________

“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 responsibility.”

___________________

“There come times when I have nothing more to tell God.

If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said. At such times it is wonderful to say to God, ‘May I be in Thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence.'”

____________________

“As white snowflakes 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.”

-Ole Hallesby

"i wOuld liKE tO dEdicAtE An HOuR (oR EVEn hAlf An HouR) tO pRayER EvERy dAy, but i dOn't hAvE the timE! i hAvE tOO much tO dO nOw!"

“One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.”

-John Piper

(Author: “Desiring God” and “Don’t Waste Your Life”)

“It is not a matter of time so much as a matter of heart; if you have the heart to pray you will find the time.”

-Charles Spurgeon

“The Prince of Preachers” (1834-1892)

賀川豊彦 tOyOhiKO KagAwa

Toyohiko Kagawa learned English from two American Southern Presbyterian Church Missionary teachers, and converted to Christianity in his youth. He was disowned by his extended family.

In 1921 Kagawa organized the Friends of Jesus. This Franciscan-like band of young people strove for spiritual discipline, compassion for the poor, and an evangelical life of witness.

evangelizing the poor, his vocation to help the poor led him to live among them.

He also advocated for Women’s Suffrage, Modern Farming Methods, a peaceful foreign policy (in pre-WWII Japan!), and labor reform — for which he was arrested and imprisoned in 1922, and again in 1924.

One Daily Hour of Prayer (But who has the Time? )

“From three to four each morning — that is my hour.

Then I am free from interruption and from the fear of interruption. Each morning I wake at three and live an hour with God. It gives me strength for everything.

Without it I would be utterly helpless. I could not be true to my friends, or do my work, or preach the Gospel which God has given me for His poor.”

-Toyohiko Kagawa — Evangelist, Author of over 150 Books, Social Reformer. After Japan’s surrender, he was an advisor to the transitional Japanese government.

Kagawa was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 and 1948, and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1955. After his death, he was awarded the second-highest honor of Japan, induction in the Order of the Sacred Treasure.

___________________________________________________

“If I have had any success in life, I attribute it to the habit of giving the first two hours of each day to Bible study and prayer.”

-Lord Earl Cairns (1818-1885), Lord Chancellor of England (He Began Life as a Commoner)

___________________________________________________

“Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) required all of the Bishops he oversaw to commit to praying an hour a day for the rest of their lives.

Archbishop Sheen personally observed what he called his “Holy Hour” for over 60 years. A teaching tape by him regarding this was used in the Seminar of the Change the World School of Prayer, Founded by Dick Eastman.

I had already been praying an hour a day for several years, when I attended this inspiring all-day Seminar. It was held in a local Church and taught by Dick Eastman himself.

His was a prayer encouragement ministry for Christians to set aside an hour a day in prayer. There was also an emphasis on praying the Psalms.

Years later, I again was blessed to be able to attend his class with Lay Monk Linda. By this time Dick Eastman had become President of the Every Home for Christ ministry, (formerly: Christian Literature Crusade).

I consider my Daily Hour of Prayer to be “A Sabbath Island of Time.” For an Hour each day I have absolutely no responsibilities, except to worship God.”

-Lay Monk S.G. Preston

___________________________________________________

“The greatest element in life is not what occupies most of its time, else sleep would stand high in the scale. Nor is it what engrosses most of its thought, else money would be very high.

The two or three hours of worship and preaching weekly has perhaps been the greatest single influence on English life.

Half an hour of prayer, morning or evening, every day, may be a greater element in shaping our course, than all our conduct and all our thought.”

-P.T. Forsyth (Scottish Congregationalist; 1848-1921)

___________________________________________________

“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”

-Mark 1:35

“Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his words.

But Martha was encumbered with much serving, and came to Him, and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her that she should help me.’

And Jesus said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are filled with care and troubled about many things;

and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

-Luke 10:38-42