That's because there's no other form of communication available to us that gives us believers direct connection to the Lord and Creator of the Universe through His Son Jesus Christ!
I'm also always looking for ways to deepen and enrich my prayer life. As I've mentioned before, I'm ashamed to admit it, but my commitment to prayer has sometimes dwindled to the point where you wouldn't know that I was a Christian because I was certainly never caught praying let alone heard offering my prayers to other brothers and sisters in need.
I'm grateful that God has pointed me in the direction of several great Puritan Reformers lately. Here are just a few choice quotes from some of them about prayer.
"Prayer is never unseasonable."
-- John Donne
"Prayer is the soul's breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father."
-- Thomas Watson
"Prayer that is faithless is fruitless."
-- Thomas Watson
"I wish I could pray like my dog looks at a piece of meat."
-- Martin Luther
"Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer."
-- John Bunyan
"Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue."
-- Adam Clarke
"Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven."
-- Thomas Brooks
"Words are but the body, the garment, the outside of prayer; sighs are nearer the heart work. A dumb beggar getteth an alms at Christ's gates, even by making signs, when his tongue cannot plead for him; and the rather, because he is dumb.... Tears have a tongue, and grammar, and language, that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayer for the breast, but weeping: the mother can read hunger in weeping."
-- Samuel Rutherford
"George M"uller prayed about everything and expected each prayer to be answered. One example was when one of the orphan house's boiler stopped working; M"uller needed to have it fixed. Now this was a problem, because the boiler was bricked up and the weather was worsening with each day. So he prayed for two things; firstly that the workers he had hired would have a mind to work throughout the night, and secondly that the weather would let up. On the Tuesday before the work was due to commence, a bitter north wind still blew but in the morning, before the workmen arrived, a southerly wind began to blow and it was so mild that no fires were needed to heat the buildings. That evening, the foreman of the contracted company attended the site to see how he might speed things along, and instructed the men to report back first thing in the morning to make an early resumption of work. The team leader stated that they would prefer to work through the night. The job was done in 30 hours."
-- Steer, Roger
George M"uller: Delighted in God, Christian Focus Publications,1997
pp. 124-126
"NOT TO PRAY IS A SIN MOST ODIOUS. O! why cease we then to call instantly to his mercy, having his commandment so to do? Above all our iniquities, we work manifest contempt and despising of him, when, by negligence, we delay to call for his gracious support. Whoso does call upon God obeys his will, and finds therein no small consolation, knowing nothing is more acceptable to his Majesty than humble obedience (Jeremiah 7:23)."
-- John Knox
"Heart-work is hard work indeed. To shuffle over religious duties with a loose and careless spirit, will cost no great difficulties; but to set yourself before the Lord, and to tie up your loose and vain thoughts to a constant and serious attendance upon him: this will cost you something. To attain ease and dexterity of language in prayer and to be able to put your meaning into appropriate and fitting expressions is easy; but to get your heart broken for sin while you are actually confessing it; melted with free grace even while you are blessing God for it; to be really ashamed and humbled through the awareness of God's infinite holiness, and to keep your heart in this state not only in, but after these duties, will surely cost you some groans and travailing pain of soul."
-- John Flavel
"Believer, closet prayer will be found to be but a lifeless, comfortless thing, if you do not enjoy communion with God in it. Therefore press after it, as for life."
-- Thomas Brooks
"To an effectual prayer there must concur the intention of the mind and the affections of the heart; else it is not praying but parroting."
-- John Trapp
"Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life."
-- Jonathan Edwards
"I have been benefited by praying for others; for by making an errand to God for them I have gotten something for myself."
-- Samuel Rutherford
"It is not the length of your prayer, but the strength of your prayer which wins with God; and the strength of prayer lies in your faith in the promise which you have pleaded before the Lord."
-- Charles Spurgeon
"Pray often; for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan."
-- John Bunyan
"You should, in Tertullian's phrase, with a holy conspiracy, besiege heaven."
-- Thomas Manton
"I often pray, Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be."
-- Robert Murray McCheyne
"God can pick sense out of a confused prayer."
-- Richard Sibbes
"To pray without labouring is to mock God."
-- Robert Haldane
"He who prays as he ought, will endeavor to live as he prays."
-- John Owen
Aren't those just spectacular?
For emphasis (as if you didn't get the point already! haha), I want to close with a story I once heard although I'm not sure who to attribute it to let alone cite as the source.
In any event, here it is...
"Five young college students were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the famed C.H. Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, 'Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?' They were not particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn't want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a stairway, a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, 'This is our heating plant.' Surprised, the students saw 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking a blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above. Softly closing the door, the gentleman then introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon."
