Prayer becomes powerful when we awaken to our need of the Lord. This is sometimes difficult to do in this materialistic, self-sufficient age. Many things help to drive our need of God from our minds: the busy
round of life; personal self-satisfaction induced by material possessions; the affluence of modern civilisation. These things induce a spirit of self-reliance, and prayer tends to become a secondary matter. Then, sometimes, God will shake us out of our lethargy or sleepiness by permitting a crisis to overtake us;
and then prayer becomes more powerful.

The men of faith, whose biographies are outlined in the Word, were men of prayer. God was a reality to them, and they constantly sought communion with Him, pouring out their requests in prayer. Observe how frequently Paul makes mention of prayer in his Epistles. Notice for whom and what he prays. "I make mention of you always in my prayers," he told the brethren (Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:16; 1 Thess. 1:2; Phil. 4). He prayed for the Ecclesia, for individual brethren, for the furtherance of the Gospel, for solutions to problems, for the help of God in all circumstances. Trace the number of prayers recorded in the Book of Nehemiah, and observe how that man of action was also a man of prayer. He prayed when he handed wine to the king; he prayed when he organised the defence of Jerusalem; he prayed when he sought the co-operation of his fellow-Israelites; he prayed in the midst of war; he prayed for guidance when he set out organising the developing nation of Judah. Christ recognised the need of prayer, and took time to converse with God. Frequently "very early in the morning" (Mark 1:35) he sought isolation to converse with God. As the crisis of his life gathered about him, he turned to the Lord, seeking His strength and help, crying "Abba, Father" (Mark 14:36). To him, prayer was no mechanical, hurried, recitation of words without real meaning or power, but a sacrifice of the lips, an agony of desire. Strong crying and tears accompanied his supplications (Heb. 5:7).

Our prayers will become more powerful if we discipline ourselves to express them, recognising them as part of a divine channel of grace. Grace is favour, and it is part of the condescending favour of God, to permit this great privilege of communing with Him. Discipline, in that context, means that we train the mind to commune with God. If we do not do this, it is possible for prayer to become merely an habitual repetition of words. We might "say our prayers" regularly, and feel at a loss if we forget to do so. But our prayers lack power because they are a mere "wandering of desire" devoid of sense of urgency. Let us really want something, let us be in dire need, let us be really moved by gratitude at some great blessing received, and suddenly our prayers will be charged with power. Actually, we are always in need of God, always should be conscious of blessings received from Him, if we only discipline our minds to seek these things out. We can discover the help of strength, the comfort of peace, or express the gratitude of faith in communion through prayer.

What would the experience of divine grace cause us to pray for? It causes us to ascribe praise unto God; to make recognition of our need of Him; to humbly present our petitions before Him: to plead His help in need; to express our faith in His ability to grant our requests; to place our cause in His hands recognising that He knows best what to grant or withhold, and so expressing the submission of ourselves to His will.

This, basically, is what the Lord's prayer sets forth. In prayer we first elevate God before our minds, praising Him for what He is as revealed in His word. We meditate the blessings we have received from Him - our daily bread, both natural and spiritual - and thank Him for His goodness. We carefully select the petitions we desire to place before Him, or those undertakings that we propose, and for which we seek His help or blessing. We review our weaknesses and sins, and frankly and specifically confess them before Him, as we would never dare do before our fellows, and plead for His forgiveness and help to conquer our weakness. We recognise His omniscience and omnipotence, and express our readiness to accept His will in whatever we present before Him.

But though the Lord will grant us of His grace, or favour, He will not do for us what we can do for ourselves. Prayer is not a magic wand to instantly wave aside all evil, and bestow upon us all good. It will not supply that which is lacking through our own failure to use the materials He has made available to our hand. We are told to pray for wisdom (James 1:5), but we will never attain unto wisdom if we neglect His word. But if we blend the study of the Word with prayer, we will receive the blessing. The farmer will never reap a harvest if he neglects to sow the seed - no matter how hard he may pray - but if he labours in the field, and seeks the blessing of God, he may receive rain and sunshine in their seasons to reap a bountiful harvest. We may pray to God that we may conquer some weakness, but if we do not channel our strength of will into that which God requires of us, we will fail.

Prayer is co-operating with God. It does not leave everything to Him, nor does it ignore His help. Nehemiah sets forth a great example. He records: "All of them conspired together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it. Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night because of them" (Neh. 4:8-9). Nehemiah met the crisis with prayer, vigilance and action. To him, prayer was not presumption. He did not make his prayer unto his God, and ignore the problem. He prayed, but he also set a watch against the enemy day and night. He probably recalled the words of Solomon: "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" (Ps. 127:1). Nevertheless, the watchman is there, and has an important duty to perform. Nehemiah's action provided God with something to work upon. He brought God personally into the problem, and sought to co-operate with Him as much as he could in overcoming it.

We, too, must co-operate with God to make prayer powerful.
As far as personal experiences are concerned, the disciplinary grace of God might require that we endure these in order that character might be formed and strengthened in us, and that we might be better equipped for the Kingdom of God. He has called us to be King-priests in the Age to come, and it is a Scriptural adage, that priests are selected of Him who can "have compassion on the ignorant and erring" recognising that they, themselves, are "compassed with infirmity" (Heb. 5:2). The humbling experiences of life, the patient endurance that we are called upon to manifest under trial, can develop that compassion in us. Christ had to endure much; the apostles were appointed to death; and made a spectacle unto the world (1 Cor. 4:9); men and women of faith "wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (Heb. 11:38). To their contemporaries, it seemed as though they were deserted of God, but we know that that was not the case. Nor is it so with us when our requests are not instantly granted, and we go through sometimes long, and terrifying circumstances, even through the gloomy valley of the shadow of death, before reaching the wide and sunlit pastures beyond. Of Christ it is written: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8). His very experiences, in that regard, helped to equip him for his present position of glory as high-priest. He is able to help us in our infirmities because "he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). Though he was often opposed and tormented, though he had to bear the "contradiction of sinners against himself," he was not abandoned of God, as we know.

Therefore, we must not despair if our requests are not instantly granted to us, even though we feel that they are legitimate ones to make. Perhaps there is some lesson we must learn in the things we are passing through. Three times Paul prayed that he might be relieved of a thorn in the flesh" that afflicted him, but it was not granted. The request, undoubtedly, was a most unselfish one. He desired relief that he might serve God better, and preach the word with greater effect.

But he was told of the Lord: "My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9). The "thorn in the flesh" remained, and what did the brethren of Paul see? They saw one physically weak but moved by the spiritual strength to rise above his affliction. In observing him, they recognise that the Gospel was powerful to save, and that there was strength available to surmount every difficulty and and problem. They saw that God can be with a person, providing him with strength to endure. And the example set them must have had a powerful impact upon them.

So God's "strength was made perfect in weakness."