May prayer be an essential and deep connection to God for us, and a time of utmost intimacy and reflection. May we not find ourselves praying for the sake of repetitious habit or flippancy. I, myself, have experienced the power of prayer in developing spiritually, emotionally, mentally; I have experienced the joy of prayers answered and the testimony it creates when God delivers you.

“But will the reader be surprised when the writer declares it is his deepening conviction that, probably, the Lord’s own people sin more in their efforts to pray than in connection with any other thing they engage in? What hypocrisy there is, where there should be reality! What presumptuous demandings, where there should be submissiveness! What formality, where there should be brokenness of heart. How little we really feel the sins we confess, and what little sense of deep need for the mercies we seek. And even where God grants a measure of deliverance from these awful sins, how much coldness of heart, how much unbelief, how much self-will and self-pleasing have we to wail. Those who have no conscience upon these things are strangers to the spirit of holiness.”

Excerpt From
The Scriptures and Prayer
Arthur W. Pink
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=1228867699
This material may be protected by copyright.

“We are profited from the Scriptures when we are made to feel that we know not how to pray. “We know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom 8:26). How very few professing Christians really believe this. The idea most generally entertained is that people know well enough what they should pray for, only they are careless and wicked, and so fail to pray for what they are fully assured is their duty. But such a conception is at direct variance with this inspired declaration in Romans 8:26. It is to be observed that that flesh-humbling affirmation is made not simply of men in general, but of the saints of God in particular, among which the apostle hesitated not to include himself: “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.” If this be the condition of the regenerate, how much more so of the unregenerate! Yet it is one thing to read and mentally assent to what this verse says, but it is quite another to have an experimental realization of it, for the heart to be made to feel that what God requires from us He must Himself work in and through us.
I often say my prayers,
but do I ever pray?
Or do the wishes of my heart
dictate the words I say?
I might as well kneel down
and worship gods of stone,
As offer to the living God
a prayer of words alone.”

Excerpt From
The Scriptures and Prayer
Arthur W. Pink
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-scriptures-and-prayer/id1228867699
This material may be protected by copyright.

This post was edited by WizardKiller on May 1 2023 11:00pm

“We are profited from the Scriptures when we are brought to complete submission unto God. As stated above, one of the divine designs in appointing prayer as an ordinance was that we might be humbled. This is outwardly denoted when we bow the knee before the Lord. Prayer is an acknowledgment of our helplessness, and a looking to Him from whom all our help comes. It is an owning of His sufficiency to supply our every need. It is a making known our “requests” (Phi 4:6) unto God; but requests are very different from demands. “The throne of grace is not set up that we may come and there vent our passions before God” (W. Gurnall, Puritan, 1617-1679). We are to spread our case before God, but leave it to His superior wisdom to prescribe how it shall be dealt with. There must be no dictating, nor can we “claim” anything from God, for we are beggars dependent upon His mere mercy. In all our praying we must add, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Mat 26:39).”

Excerpt From
The Scriptures and Prayer
Arthur W. Pink
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-scriptures-and-prayer/id1228867699
This material may be protected by copyright.

“We are profited from the Scriptures when the Spirit teaches us the right end in praying. God has appointed the ordinance of prayer with at least a threefold design. First, that the great triune God might be honored, for prayer is an act of worship, a paying homage: to the Father as the Giver, in the Son’s name, by whom alone we may approach Him, by the moving and directing power of the Holy Spirit. Second, to humble our hearts, for prayer is ordained to bring us into the place of dependence, to develop within us a sense of our helplessness, by owning that without the Lord we can do nothing, and that we are beggars upon His charity for everything we are and have. But how feebly is this realized (if at all) by any of us until the Spirit takes us in hand, removes pride from us, and gives God His true place in our hearts and thoughts. Third, as a means or way of obtaining for ourselves the good things for which we ask.
It is greatly to be feared that one of the principal reasons why so many of our prayers remain unanswered is because we have a wrong, an unworthy, end in view. Our Saviour said, “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Mat 7:7); but James affirms of some, “Ye ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (Jam 4:3). To pray for anything, and not expressly unto the end which God has designed, is to “ask amiss,” and therefore to no purpose. Whatever confidence we may have in our own wisdom and integrity, if we are left to ourselves our aims will never be suited to the will of God. Unless the Spirit restrains the flesh within us, our own natural and distempered affections intermix themselves in our supplications, and thus are rendered vain. “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1Co 10:31), yet none but the Spirit can enable us to subordinate all our desires unto God’s glory.”

Excerpt From
The Scriptures and Prayer
Arthur W. Pink
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-scriptures-and-prayer/id1228867699
This material may be protected by copyright.

Thanks for sharing what you're studying! Always good to have more resources!

I love that part "We are to spread our case before God, but leave it to His superior wisdom to prescribe how it shall be dealt with."

I was always told the mantra of "Give it to God", which summarizes that concept. We aren't in control and it's best to get out of our own way and let the Grace of God flow through us.

Problems tend to arise when we try to use our own plan over our faith. It's a daily struggle to overcome ourselves sometimes.

I believe that we should always pray, every deep breath we take is a prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 says:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”

Interesting what Arthur Pink has to say about it! I would just add that there is not a right or wrong way to pray.

I always struggled with overthinking things, but that verse really helped me simplify things.

Thanks again for sharing!

Thank you for your reply and thoughts on this subject! I really appreciate knowing others get something out of this.
These paragraphs are from AW Pink's short book 'The Scriptures and Prayer' - which can be downloaded for free for iPhone users at this link: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-scriptures-and-prayer/id1228867699
Throughout the book, the points he makes on prayer, backed by scripture, are that there is a wrong way to pray: superficially, selfishly, without sincerity or feeling, etc. Prayer does not need to be complex, but it does need to be deep. Prayer needs to be very frequent but not repetitious for the sake of mere repetition and merely "saying" prayers alone.
Of all things we should deeply and obsessively think about, God is beyond worthy - so do not worry about overthinking such things.
God bless you!

When you put it that way I can definitely agree that there is some "wrong" prayer. Catholicism doing "X amount of Y prayer" to atone for sins doesn't make a lick of sense.

I was watching a movie recently and this family sat down to eat dinner but beforehand said the most contrived and shallow prayer - obviously out of what was considered a required ritual and not out of a sense of thanks.

Thanks for your words, God Bless!

“A PRAYER THAT THE WILL OF GOD BE DONE
Grant me Your grace, O most merciful Jesus, that it may be with me, and work with me, and remain with me to the very end. Grant that I may always desire and will that which is most acceptable and pleasing to You. Let Your will be mine. Let my will always follow Yours and agree perfectly with it. Let my will be one with Yours in willing and in not willing, and let me be unable to will or not will anything but what You will or do not will. Grant that I may die to all things in this world, and for Your sake love to be despised and unknown in this life. Give me above all desires the desire to rest in You, and in You let my heart have peace. You are true peace of heart. You alone are its rest. Without You all things are difficult and troubled. In this peace, the selfsame that is in You, the Most High, the everlasting Good, I will sleep and take my rest. Amen.”

Excerpt From
The Imitation of Christ
Thomas à Kempis
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-imitation-of-christ/id495892701
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