R.A. Torrey has been quoted as saying that he did not believe that even one in a hundred of the prayers of Protestant believers were truly “unto God.” This is something that sounds absurd, but we also know it is possible to pray to self because the Pharisee prayed to himself (Luke 18:10-11). Regardless of what the lips and tongue form and express, the heart is the true “organ” of prayer. The quotes below come from Lewis Drummond’s The Awakening That Must Come. They point to a great lack we have in prayer.
Stop and think for a moment. Are we not often guilty of being far more concerned over what we are asking or how we are phrasing our requests than the great God we are addressing? Even more trite, do we not at times find ourselves just stringing a series of clichés together that sound good but say very little? I despair over some of the prayers I hear in our worship services. I do not want to appear unkind, but our public prayers are often little more than the “vain repetitions” our Lord warned us to avoid.
When we take the name of God on our lips, we must be vividly conscious to whom we speak. He is the mighty Creator; he is the powerful Sustainer; he is the gracious Redeemer; he is God Almighty, the sovereign Lord. Much of our contemporary sentimental songs and caricatures of God have clouded the nature of this Lord of might and power. He is not “the Man upstairs,” nor “someone up there who likes you,” as the church crooners whine out. He is the mighty God of consuming holiness.
Therefore, we must pause before we rush pell-mell unto God. We should linger long enough to question whether we are even worthy to stand in the presence of the One of whom the cherubim cry continually, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3). Perhaps we should wait until we are ready to steal away, head bowed, heartbroken, saying, “I am not worthy, I have no right to be here. Woe is me.”… Yet it is at this point of a contrite heart that the Lord Jesus can say to us, “Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive.”
Prayer must always be to our Father who is in heaven (and everywhere else). Our prayers must always be primarily for His name to be hallowed, for His kingdom to come, and for His pleasure/will to be done. If our concerns and loves are not primarily for those things, it is hard to see how we are praying as Jesus told us and as Jesus prayed. There can be no true prayer for the hallowing of His name apart from a heart that hallows His name and desires to hallow His name. It is hard to pray for His name to be hallowed if we have rushed into His presence (so to speak) and in our manner, attitude, and words we are not hallowing His name at all. In fact, it could be said that much of the “prayer” that takes place inside buildings owned by churches is marked by such irreverence for God and self-centeredness in the ones “praying” that it is not true prayer at all. God can only be approached with reverence.
In John 5:44 Jesus said; “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” It can be asked how people can truly pray when they seek honor from others rather than the honor and glory of God. While this is obvious, it may not be terribly hard to get some people to change their words. But what must happen is that hearts must be broken from self and a true desire for the glory of God must be instilled by God Himself. As the quotes above teach us, until we are broken with a sense of our unworthiness we are not ready to pray in Jesus’ name. But until we are ready to pray in Jesus’ name from the heart, we are not ready to really pray for revival. Until our hearts have been broken from the selfish things we might desire from revival and we are truly longing for the glory of God to be poured out in true revival (that the glory of His grace would be manifested and magnified) we are not praying for true revival. It is impossible to pray for true revival apart from hearts that are broken (being broken) from self and love His name and glory rather than our own. A great hindrance for revival is that God has turned us over to the desires of our own hearts. Our hearts seek Him (in externals) to do things for self rather than for His name’s sake. True revival will not come until He breaks our hearts (by grace) and gives them panting desires after His glory. “Father, glorify Your name” (Jn 12:28).
God Loves... Himself 
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