selected passages
January 25, 2026
preached by Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Prayer – Christian prayer – by its very nature, is born out of an acknowledgment of need, out of an honest recognition of spiritual poverty.”

~ Paul Brendan Murray (1947-present), Irish Dominican priest, writer

“The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don’t have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to – our helplessness – is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can’t do life on our own.”

~ Paul E. Miller, contemporary American author

“There are those who insist that it is a very bad thing to question God. To them, ‘why?’ is a rude question. That depends, I believe, on whether it is an honest search, in faith, for His meaning, or whether it is the challenge of unbelief and rebellion.”

~ Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015), Christian missionary, author, speaker

“Prayer is the way we work our way out of the comfortable but cramped world of self, and into the spacious world of God.”

~ Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), American-born clergyman, writer

“One of the greatest attacks of the enemy is to make you busy, to make you hurried, to make you noisy, to make you distracted, to fill the people of God and the Church of God with so much noise and activity that there is no room for prayer. There is no room for being alone with God. There is no room for silence. There is no room for meditation.”

~ Paul Washer (1961-present), American missionary and author

“The man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God’s love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his own illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God.”

~ Thomas Merton (1915-1968), American Trappist monk and writer

Sermon Passage

Acts 2:42, Romans 12:9-12, Luke 6:27-28, Matthew 6:5-8, Psalm 115:1 (NIV)

Acts 2

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Romans 12

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Luke 6

²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Matthew 6

⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Psalms 115

¹ Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.