John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Prayer is the normal way for a Christian to have things. I am shocked to find that most Christians - I wonder about you - could not in a year's time remember some definite answer to prayer, a prayer so definitely answered that he and others would know God had miraculously intervened. Oh, Christians ought to daily have prayers answered. "Ye have not, because ye ask not." Prayer is the way for a Christian to get things. - John R. Rice 

To deny the resurrection of Christ is to deny His deity. To deny the resurrection of Christ is to deny historic Christianity. To deny the resurrection of Christ is to deny the Bible. To deny the resurrection of Christ is to place one's self beside the infidels and scoffers. If Bob Ingersoll and Tom Paine were to join a church and put on clerical robes, yet believe and preach their infidelity, that would not make them Christians. So, infidels in the church today are not Christians. Those who deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ deny Christ and Christianity. - John R. Rice

James 5:14-15 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
That Scripture does not say it is always God's will to heal. That Scripture does not say that God will always give the faith to heal. Sometimes God does want a Christian to die and go on to Heaven. Sometimes he is to lie flat on his back and know God is with him and can comfort him in time of sorrow. Sometimes a Christian needs to get things right. Still we are plainly commanded, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed" (vs. 16). Christians usually ought to be healed when they are sick. And they ought to pray day by day about health. - John R. Rice

There are some people who cannot pay their bills. They ought to check up and quit spending money they do not have. Perhaps they ought to live a little cheaper. Nobody has a right to spend money he doesn't have. But if a Christian has bills he ought to pay, then he ought to pray about it and get God's help. - John R. Rice

Philippians 4:6-7 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
What does that say? Be anxious for nothing, or be careful for nothing. To be full of care is wrong. It is sin. These Christians who have to have tranquilizing pills, have to have Sominex pills to sleep; these Christians who worry and fret and get high blood pressure and ulcerated stomach - that is wrong. A Christian ought to learn to rest in the Lord and have peace. - John R. Rice

Worry is a "respectable" sin. Nearly everybody worries some. But you ought to admit it is a sin. What is it? It is unbelief. You don't really believe all these promises of God. You don't really think that God is going to take care of you as He said He would, and so you worry and fret. How are you going to cure it?
Take it to God in prayer! Take all your burden and stay there until you can thank Him and come away happy. You don't ever have to worry. You don't ever need to have tension that draws, drains, and kills. A Christian can have peace of mind all the time. Prayer is God's cure for worry. - John R. Rice

You say, "But Brother Rice, I read in a theology book where it said that prayer might mean praise and adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition, etc." You may have read that in a book, but that is not what the Bible calls prayer. Prayer is the petition part. You say, "Is thanksgiving wrong?" No. We read in Colossians 4:2, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." So prayer goes with thanksgiving. That means thanksgiving is not prayer. It accompanies prayer sometimes. Daniel said in Daniel, chapter 9, "I prayed. . .and made my confession" (vs. 4). What did you do Daniel? "I did two things. I prayed (I asked Him to deliver Israel from bondage), and I made my confession." Confession is good, but it is not prayer. Prayer in the Bible is asking. - John R. Rice