John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Put prayer really first by having a real season of prayer before anything else of importance in the day. You probably will have to rise earlier than you now rise to do it. You may have to leave off other matters of lesser importance. But "those that seek me early shall find me," says the Lord in Proverbs 8:17. - John R. Rice

Make a habit of praying through about every burden and problem that comes to you. Sometimes we cannot in one day get the full answer to a great prayer, but we can every day, I believe, get a sweet peace to know that God has heard us, and that we left the thing in the hands of our heavenly Father and He has smiled into our hearts and given us peace. - John R. Rice 

You may not, as you pray in one given season, see the salvation of the man for whom you pray; but you can pray until you have sweet assurance that God has undertaken and will do thing you desire. Or you can pray until God's Holy Spirit helps you see how you should modify your prayer to fit with the plan of God. - John R. Rice

Take time to pray about things as they come up. Years ago as a preacher I found it impossible to remember all the requests for prayer that would come to me in a day's time so as to pray for them when I slept or the next morning. So I formed a habit of stopping to pray about every case about which I was impressed that I ought to pray, at the time it was mentioned. And then I never promise to pray for any matter in the future except as God shall lay it on my heart and bring it to my mind. I have found a great peace in going to God with every burden the moment I feel the need for prayer about it. And one of the sweet and blessed results is a constant companionship and fellowship with God. - John R. Rice 

Let us learn the lesson that prayer is not in the form. And let us get out of our ruts, pray when we stand or pray when we sit. In times of great emergency or distress we ought surely be on our very faces on the floor before God, pleading and waiting on Him. But at other times we ought like David to awake in the night, communing with our own hearts upon our beds (Psalm 4:4), and again pray at evening, morning and at noon (Psalm 55:17). - John R. Rice

How wonderful was life in that Garden of Eden! There is nothing to grieve God, nothing to hurt man. The roses, I think, had no thorns. And it may be Adam and Eve slept on a bed of rose petals. If there were any mosquitos, they probably just joined in the symphony orchestra and didn't go about puncturing people with their tiny hypodermic needles. - John R. Rice

Did Cain take well the rebuke of God? No. He was angry. How many men today boast of their good deeds. They want a religion without a bloody sacrifice. They want men to be good and often claim that men are naturally good. But, alas, human experience and the Bible prove that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). - John R. Rice