Sometimes humor accomplishes what soberness cannot, as an old quote from D.L. Moody illustrates. “Some people’s prayers need to be cut off at both ends and set on fire in the middle.” After all, we have all had to endure prayers that were a little too long (or perhaps a lot too long) or that could have used a little more preparation (or perhaps a lot more preparation).
We ought to understand public prayer as a responsibility to take seriously and a privilege to steward faithfully. No preacher would show up on Sunday morning without having first prepared a sermon, but many pray-ers show up on Sunday morning without having given a thought to how they will lead others in speaking to the Lord. These tend to be the prayers that, to echo Moody, need to have a little trimmed from the beginning, a little more trimmed from the end, and a whole lot more heart and soul inserted into the middle.
Spurgeon explains well that the most important preparation is preparation of the heart, “which consists in the solemn consideration beforehand of the importance of prayer, meditation upon the needs of men’s souls, and a remembrance of the promises we are to plead; and thus coming before the Lord with a petition written upon the fleshly tables of the heart.” This is prayer that honors God and serves the church.
