"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.