The Christian is called upon to be the partner of God in the work of the conversion of men.
William BarclayPrayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us.
William BarclayGod tested Abraham. Temptation is not meant to make us fail; it is meant to confront us with a situation out of which we emerge stronger than we were. Temptation is not the penalty of manhood; it is the glory of manhood.
William BarclayWe are trying not so much to make God listen to us as to make ourselves listen to him; we are trying not to persuade God to do what we want, but to find out what he wants us to do. It so often happens that in prayer we are really saying, 'Thy will be changed,' when we ought to be saying, 'Thy will be done.' The first object of prayer is not so much to speak to God as to listen to him.
William Barclay