Worship and Prayer quotes

"these first requests of the Lord's Prayer is that it seems absolutly pointless, futile, and absurd to make them"

"a perfectly good being never makes the world, in virtue of what he himself does, or omits to do, worse than it would have been had he not done or omitted to do something"

"since he is immutable, the prayer itself can effect no change in the state of affairs and hence is pointless"

"acknowledges... his dependance on God"

"these conditions make the act of asking a safeguard against tyrannical and self-indulgent pride"

"either God is not perfectly good or the practice of petitionary prayer is pointless"

"God must work through the intermediary of prayer, rather than doing everything on his own initiative, for man's sake"

"it helps to promote and preserve a close relationship"

"it is only the provision made for believers which hangs directly on God being petitioned"

"The first order of business with the unbeliever is to bring her to faith- cultivation of that faith must come later"

"By learning which prayers are effective and which are not, the believer may in turn learn to become more righteous, and thus better conformed to the image of God"

"If God refrains from making provision except in response to prayer, it allows Him, in turn, to refrain from imposing His unwanted designs upon His creatures"

"On the one hand, a God who is perfectly good cannot make his benevolence to someone dependent on the intercession of others"

"wordhippers typically regard the object of worship as being morally superior to themselves"

"worship in the strict sense of the term is an attitude that one can take only towards agents"

"Since we would not have been had God created us, our creation cannot benefit us" 

"we are designed to worship God, and our true fulfilment and happiness is found only in such an activity"

"authentic worship should not be motivated by self-interest"

"in worship the believer is engaging in an activity which finds no real parallel in our relations with created things"

"Worship is obligatory- it is the proper response of respect by man to his creator"

acknowledgment "not just of God's benefits to us, but of [God's] supreme degree of intrinsic excellence"