For a condensed version of Jonathan Edwards’ call to prayer see http://www.sbaoc.org/blog/?page_id=762 or go to www.sbaoc.org and go to “BLOG” and then “a call to prayer.”
The following statement is the doctrine from a sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards:
“However hypocrites may continue for a season in the duty of prayer, yet it is their manner, after a while, in a great measure, to leave it off.”
James 5:16 – “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.”
Romans 12:12 – “rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer”
Ephesians 6:18 – “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,”
Colossians 4:2 – “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;”
Prayer may be thought to be an act by which souls repeat words to God. Prayer is thought to be repeating words following a list of things needed by self or others. It can be considered a method by which people obtain things from God. Imagine if our children came to us with a method or ritual to obtain things from us. However, what we need in order to truly pray are hearts that desire God Himself. We need to have hearts that love God and His glory so that our desires will be for Him and His glory. A heart that does not desire the glory of God out of love for God is not a heart that is truly praying. We need someone to teach us to pray, but that does not mean just to give us a method or the words to utter. What we need to be taught is for the heart to pray and to seek the Lord.
Luke 11:1 is very instructive in this: “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.'” What follows is what is popularly known as the “Lord’s Prayer.” Jesus taught the disciples an outline of words to say, but the words are no more than sounds in the air if the heart is not in them. First and foremost, then, we must learn from the teaching of the sovereign Lord that the heart must pray. We cannot just utter words and think we have prayed. Jesus must teach us to desire and long for the things we ask so that we may truly pray from the heart.
Before we can pray the Lord’s Prayer we must begin asking God to put in our hearts the desire for the things in that prayer. We must come to Him broken and simply ask Him to fill us. He does, after all, oppose the proud but gives grace to the humble. We must begin at the beginning and simply ask the Lord to teach our hearts how to long for Him and to desire what He desires in order that we may truly pray. If our hearts are not tender and broken before Him, then we are not asking from a heart that is ready to pray. Let us learn to sit before Him in silence asking Him to teach our hearts the true language of prayer. The true believer wants God above all and will learn through patience and perseverance to seek the Lord in prayer as his or her chief love. Prayer for reformation and revival may take our entire lives. But what else is worthy to live for?
Prayer is the soul’s breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father (Thomas Watson).
You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed (John Bunyan).
The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer [that] fetched the angel (Thomas Watson).
God Loves... Himself 
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