Jeremiah 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”
The words of Scripture teach us that God loves a humble and contrite heart. “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). The problem, however, is that when men see this they simply try to do this themselves not knowing that true humility cannot come from the sinful flesh and cannot come from a work of self. This leads men to a false humility and a false sense of salvation and being loved by God. They can even delight in verses like this thinking that they have obtained it, but the greater the sense that a person has in thinking that s/he has obtained it, the greater the deception.
The text (Isa 66:2) however, though specifically not about prayer in this specific verse, does teach us what the Lord looks upon with favor. A heart that He looks upon with favor is a heart that is ready to pray. The very next verse (Isa 66:3) does speak of incense and that is a picture of prayer. “He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol.” Verse two is what He is pleased with and is contrasted with the religious actions that He is not pleased with that are without the kind of heart He is pleased with. The outward actions, even when they are the actions commanded by God, are only pleasing to Him when they are accompanied with the humble and contrite heart.
This is another passage of Scripture which shows us that necessity of true humility before one can pray and before one can seek the face of the Lord in prayer. A prayer without a humble and contrite heart is not a true prayer at all, but instead a prayer without a humble and contrite heart is like blessing an idol (Isa 66:3). People blast away at the Old Testament Jews and the Pharisees in the New Testament and yet do not see just how much they need to learn about ritual actions apart from the heart, especially when it comes to prayer. In the context of the main teachings of Jesus on prayer (The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6) He taught people on how one should not pray as well. True prayer can only come when one is praying to God rather than for how men will see them or honor them. True prayer is to God from the heart knowing that God knows the heart rather than with vain repetitions as if God can be swayed by many words or our devotion.
When we begin to understand that prayer is an issue of the heart and that the Scriptures teach us that kind of heart that God loves and looks upon with favor, this should teach us that instead of trying to utter words to God we should seek Him for hearts to pray. The difficulty with this, however, is that God does not just magically (so to speak) give us hearts like He loves. Instead of that He brings us circumstances and trials which He works through at the same time He works in our hearts to give us hearts that He loves. This is to say that a person must not just want to know things about prayer, but that person must become a person with a broken heart that prays. When we want to pray it is usually about something we want and we want it right now, but to become a person that knows prayer a person must become one with a heart that God loves. Only God can give that heart to a person and He will not give it except on the basis of grace and grace alone. His grace, however, works through trials.
Humility is absolutely necessary to true prayer and to seeking the true God in true prayer. God loves the humble and contrite heart, which teaches us that He loves the prayers of the humble and contrite heart. But we must never think that we can earn a humble and contrite heart or that we can work for one on our own, but instead we must seek this heart from God. He will bring trials and hard things that we must learn humility and contrition from in the midst of those trials. We have to submit to the hand of God and we have to bow before Him with emptiness of self which is something we cannot possibly work up. This is to say that we have to come before God as clay and ask Him to work a humble and contrite heart in us so that we can pray. This is also to say that during the trials He brings to us we must learn to seek grace alone in order to bow in humility before Him in the trials. Learning to pray to a Divine Potter as clay, then, is not easy and requires hard trials. Not many really want to pray.
God Loves... Himself 
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