God can answer prayer, though He bestow not the very thing for which we pray. He can sometimes better answer the lawful desires and good end we have in prayer another way. If our end be our own good and happiness, God can perhaps better answer that end in bestowing something else than in the bestowment of the very thing which we ask. And if the main good we aim at in our prayers be attained, our prayer in answered.

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), Erweckungsprediger

Topics: Prayer & Silence

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) war ein puritanischer Theologe, Philosoph und Pastor, der im kolonialen Nordamerika vor allem in Massachusetts wirkte. Er gilt als Schlüsselfigur der ersten großen Erweckungsbewegung und Autor einflussreicher Predigten wie „Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God“, stand jedoch wegen strenger Abendmahlsregeln in Konflikten und verteidigte die Sklaverei. Heutigen Bibellesern begegnet er als tiefgründiger Ausleger der Souveränität Gottes und der Natur geistlicher Bekehrungserfahrungen.

All quotes by Jonathan Edwards (154)

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Oswald Chambers

Prayer does not change God, but the one who prays.

Søren Kierkegaard

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.

Corrie ten Boom

To pray is to draw breath from God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you can never do more than pray before you have prayed!

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Prayer does not equip us for greater works – prayer is the greater work.

Oswald Chambers

God has his ear at your heart.

Augustine of Hippo

Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming.

Eugene Peterson

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