Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

It is not merely to tell God our wants, or to show him our state, that we
are to pray; (for he knows this state and these wants much better than
ourselves;) but to get a suitable feeling of the pressure of these wants, and
the necessity of having them supplied: and this we obtain by looking into
our own hearts and lives; for here, particularly, the eye affects the heart,
and, from the urgency of the necessity, we feel excited to pray earnestly
to God for his mercy; and our confessing them before him affects us still
more deeply; induces us to be more fervent; and shows us that none but
God can save and defend.
Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his
misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to
animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him
in mind that there is his Father, his country, and inheritance.
Prayer is the most secret intercourse of the soul with God, and, as it
were, the conversation of one heart with another.
Prayer is the language of dependance; he who prays not is
endeavouring to live independently of God; this was the first curse, and
continues to be the great curse of mankind.
Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. The eloquence of
prayer consists in the fervency of desire and the simplicity of faith. The
abundance of fine thoughts, studied and vehement motions, and the order
and politeness of the expressions, are things which compose mere human
harangue, not an humble and Christian prayer. Our trust and confidence
should proceed from that which God is able to do in us, and not from
what we say to him.
Unmeaning words, useless repetitions, and complimentary phrases in
prayer, are, in general, the result of heathenism, hypocrisy, or ignorance.
A fluency in prayer is not essential to praying: a man may pray most
powerfully, in the estimation of God, who is not able to utter even one