What Makes Prayer Effectual
THE effectiveness of prayer does not depend in any measure, upon its fluency, or its grammatical accuracy, or its rhetorical finish, or its length, or the volume or solemnity of voice with which it is uttered. A prayer may be perfect in all these qualities, and yet be utterly ineffective. Effectual prayer is that which is wrung out of the heart by a sense of need, and offered in a spirit of faith—a "belief that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." The man who has this sense of need, and this spirit of faith, may hesitate and stammer in his utterance; he may be faulty in the grammar and rhetoric which he employs; he may be as brief and informal in his prayer as Peter was when he found himself sinking beneath the sea of Galilee; he may not have voice enough to be heard by any human ear; but he will command the ear of God, and he will have assured to him the sympathy and help of God in that thing for which he prays. That which the psalmist says is eternally true: "Delight thyself in the Lord, and he will give thee the desires of thy heart."