Prayerless Praying

     "Prayerless praying lacks the essential element of true praying; it is not based on desire, and it is devoid of earnestness and faith. Desire burdens the chariot of prayer, and faith drives its wheels. Prayerless praying has no burden, because it has no sense of need; no ardency, because it has none of the vision, strength, or glow of faith.
     Prayerless praying stakes nothing on the issue, for it has nothing to stake. It comes with empty hands, indeed, but they are listless hands, as well as empty. They have never learned the lesson of empty hands clinging to the Cross; this lesson, to them, has no form of comeliness.
     Prayerless praying has no heart in its praying. The lack of heart deprives praying of its reality, and makes it an empty and unfit vessel. Heart, soul, life must be in our praying...
     Prayerless praying is insincere. It has no honesty at heart. We name in words what we do not want in heart. Our prayers give formal untterance to the things for which our hearts are not only not hungry, but for which they really have no taste.
     Prayerless praying, it prays for humility, but nurtures pride; prays for self-denial, while indulging the flesh. Nothing exceeds true praying in its gracious results; but it is better not to pray at all than to pray prayerless prayers, for they are but sinning, and the worst of sinning is to sin on our knees.
     The prayer habit is a good habit, but prayer done only by force of habit is a very bad habit."

(taken from Purpose in Prayer by: E.M. Bounds)

"Reformation in Secret Prayer" by: Robert Murray McCheyne

"I ought not to omit any of the parts of prayer - confession, adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and intercession. Proceeding from low views of God and His law, slight views of my heart, and the sin of my past life, there is a fearful tendency to omit confession. This must be resisted. There is a constant tendency to omit  adoration when I forget to whom I am speaking, when I rush heedlessly into the presence of Jehovah without thought of His awe-inspiring name and character. When I have little eyesight for His glory, and little admiration of His wonders, my heart has a native tendency to omit giving thanks, and yet it is specially commanded. Often when the heart is dead to the salvation of others, I omit intercession, and yet it especially is the spirit of the great Advocate who has the name of Israel on His heart.
I ought to pray before seeing anyone. Often when I sleep long or meet with others early, and then have family prayer and breakfast and forenoon callers, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system; it is unscriptural. Christ rose before day and went into a solitary place. David said, "Early will I seek thee" (Ps.63:1), and, "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning" (Ps. 5:3). Mary Magdalene came to the sepulchre while it was yet dark.
Family prayer loses much of the power and sweetness of prayer; and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me if I have forgotten my time alone with God in the early morning. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. (See Matt. 25:1-13) I feel it is far better to begin with God, to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another. "When I awake, I am still with thee"
(Ps. 139:18). If I have slept too long, or if I am going on an early journey, or if my time is in any way shortened, it is best to dress hurriedly and have a few minuted alone with God than to give up all for lost. But, in general, it is best to have at least one hour alone with God before engaging in anything elase. I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. When I awak in the night, I ought to rise and pray as John Welch and David did."

-Taken from E.M. Bounds on Prayer

Be not afraid to pray; to pray is right;
  Pray if thou canst with hop, but ever pray,
Though hope be weak or sick with long delay;
  Pray in the darkness if there be no light;
And if for any wish thou dare not pray
  Then pray to God to cast that wish away.