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A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World QUOTES

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World QUOTES

1 " God takes everyone he loves through a desert. It is his cure for our wandering hearts, restlessly searching for a new Eden...
The best gift of the desert is God's presence... The protective love of the Shepherd gives me courage to face the interior journey. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

2 " If you wait, your heavenly Father will pick you up, carry you out into the night, and make your life sparkle. He wants to dazzle you with the wonder of his love. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

3 " Self-will and prayer are both ways of getting things done. At the center of self-will is me, carving a world in my image, but at the center of prayer is God, carving me in his Son's image. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

4 " Everything you do is connected to who you are as a person and, in turn, creates the person you are becoming. Everything you do affects those you love. All of life is covenant.
Imbedded in the idea of prayer is a richly textured view of the world where all of life is organized around invisible bonds or covenants that knit us together. Instead of a fixed world, we live in our Father's world, a world built for divine relationships between people where, because of the Good News, tragedies become comedies and hope is born. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

5 " God is a person, and his universe reflects his personhood. The closer something is to the character of God, the more it reflects him and the less it can be measured. Things such as integrity, beauty, hope, and love are all in the same category as prayer. You can tell their presence and even describe them, but you can't define them, simply because they are too close to God's image. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

6 " Prayer is asking God to incarnate, to get dirty in your life. Yes, the eternal God scrubs floors. For sure we know he washes feet. So take Jesus at his word. Ask him. Tell him what you want. Get dirty. Write out your prayer requests; don't mindlessly drift through life on the American narcotic of busyness. If you try to seize the day, the day will eventually break you. Seize the corner of his garment and don't let go until he blesses you. He will reshape the day. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

7 " When confronted with suffering that won't go away or with even a minor problem, we instinctively focus on what is missing,...not on the Master's hand. Often when you think everything has gone wrong, it's just that you're in the middle of a story. If you watch the stories God is weaving in your life, you... will begin to see the patterns. You'll become a poet, sensitive to your Father's voice. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

8 " As we wait and pray, God weaves his story and creates a wonder. Instead of drifting between comedy (denial) and tragedy (reality), we have a relationship with the living God, who is intimately involved with the details of our worlds. We are learning to watch for the story to unfold, to wait for the wonder. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

9 " Prayer is a moment of incarnation - God with us. God involved in the details of my life. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

10 " Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

11 " We have an allergic reaction to dependency, but this is the state of the heart most necessary for a praying life. A need heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

12 " We don't know how bad we are until we try to be good. Nothing exposes our selfishness and spiritual pwerlessness like prayer. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

13 " The kingdom comes when Jesus becomes king of your life. But it has to be your life. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

14 " In order to pray like a child, you might need to unlearn the nonpersonal, nonreal praying that you've been taught. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

15 " God also cheers when we come to him with our wobbling, unsteady prayers. Jesus does not say, “Come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

16 " little children never get frozen by their selfishness. Like the disciples, they come just as they are, totally self-absorbed. They seldom get it right. As parents or friends, we know all that. In fact, we are delighted (most of the time!) to find out what is on their little hearts. We don’t scold them for being self-absorbed or fearful. That is just who they are. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

17 " Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NASB). The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy. What does it feel like to be weary? You have trouble concentrating. The problems of the day are like claws in your brain. You feel pummeled by life. What does heavy-laden feel like? Same thing. You have so many problems you don’t even know where to start. You can’t do life on your own anymore. Jesus wants you to come to him... "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

18 " Even on especially hard days, I began to notice him everywhere, setting a table before me in the presence of my enemies, pursuing me with his love. Both the child and the cynic walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The cynic focuses on the darkness; the child focuses on the Shepherd. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

19 " We know that to become a Christian we shouldn’t try to fix ourselves up, but when it comes to praying we completely forget that. We’ll sing the old gospel hymn, “Just as I Am,” but when it comes to praying, we don’t come just as we are. We try, like adults, to fix ourselves up. Private, personal prayer is one of the last great bastions of legalism. In order to pray like a child, you might need to unlearn the nonpersonal, nonreal praying that you’ve been taught. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

20 " To be cynical is to be distant. While offering a false intimacy of being "in the know," cynicism actually destroys intimacy. It leads to a creeping bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit...
A praying life is just the opposite. It engaged evil. It doesn't take no for an answer. The psalmist was in God's face, hoping, dreaming, asking. Prayer is feisty. Cynicism, on the other hand, merely critiques. It is passive, cocooning itself from the passions of the great cosmic battle we are engaged in. It is without hope. "

― Paul E. Miller , A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World