Billy Graham’s Prayer for the World, at the age of 95: 

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. 

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. 

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. 

We have killed our unborn and called it choice. 

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. 

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. 

We have abused power and called it politics. 

We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. 

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. 

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. 

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from sin and set us free. Amen!” 

The seven sins are:

  wealth without work,

  pleasure without conscience,

  knowledge without character,

  commerce without morality,

  science without humanity,

  worship without sacrifice,

  politics without principle. 

— Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

“In my deepest, darkest moments, what really got me through was a prayer. Sometimes my prayer was ‘Help me’. Sometimes a prayer was ‘Thank you’. What I’ve discovered is that intimate connection and communication with my creator will always get me through because I know my support, my help, is just a prayer away.” — Iyanla Vanzant 

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” — St. Augustine 

Prayer reminds me that I am not in control, but it keeps me close to the one that is.