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Our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. But when praying, we come “underneath,” where we calmly and deliberately surrender control and become incompetent.

Richard J. Foster

Love, not anger, brought Jesus to the cross. Golgotha came as a result of God’s great desire to forgive, not his reluctance. Jesus knew that by his vicarious suffering he could actually absorb all the evil of humanity and so heal it, forgive it, redeem it.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Evil Humanity Jesus
reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Addiction Anything Rejects
Prayer involves transformed passions. In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after Him: to desire the things He desires, to love the things He loves, to will the things He wills.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Passion Prayer Real
And so I urge you: carry on an ongoing conversation with God about the daily stuff of life, a little like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. For now, do not worry about “proper” praying, just talk to God.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Ongoing Prayer Worry
We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

People Reality Sick
As worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. Holy obedience saves worship from becoming an opiate, an escape from the pressing needs of modern life.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Life Modern Needs Opiates
The person who does not seek the kingdom first does not seek it at all, regardless of how worthy the idolatry that he or she has substituted for it.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Doe Firsts Kingdoms
Prayer is simply saying “thank you, bless you, praise you.”
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Bless Praise Prayer
Conversion does not make us perfect, but it does catapult us into a total experience of discipleship that affects – and infects – every sphere of our living.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Doe Perfect Spheres
You will never have time for prayer; you must make time.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Making Prayer Time
It is an occupational hazard of devout folk to become stuffy bores. This should not be. Of all people, we should be the most free, alive, interesting.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Hazards Interesting People
We must understand the connection between inner solitude and inner silence; they are inseparable. All the masters of the interior life speak of the two in the same breath.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Silence Solitude Two
You see, we need instruction on how to possess money without being possessed by money. We need help to learn how to own things without treasuring them. We need the discipline that will allow us to live simply while managing great wealth and power.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Discipline Helping Needs
Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Attachment Insane Needs
The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Intelligent Numbers People
Our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in “muchness” and “manyness,” he will rest satisfied.
RICHARD J. FOSTER

Crowds Noise Three

Our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. But when praying, we come “underneath,” where we calmly and deliberately surrender control and become incompetent.

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Our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. But when praying, we come “underneath,” where we calmly and deliberately surrender control and become incompetent.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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