October 14

"What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight." Luke 18:41

We must guard against belaboring God with words which are not real prayers. Satan delights, not only in depriving us of the time to pray, but also in making us waste the time we have in multiplying scattered, empty words. Many long, wearisome, routine prayers are merely time-wasting. If you do not even know what you want when you kneel to pray, how can you expect God to answer? You fall into the trap of thinking you have spent a useful time in prayer when in fact you have not prayed at all.

The Lord will ask you, as he asked blind Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?" Can you answer that question specifically and clearly? You should train yourself to do so. We are warned to watch in prayer. Do not drag out the time; do not offer God your many reasons; simply and in plain terms pour out your desire before him.