The Meaning Of Prayer

“. . .not what I will, but what You will.” Mark 14:36 (NASB)
Prayer is not merely position of body or mind. Prayer is not merely asking for something in order that I may obtain it for myself. Prayer forevermore says when it asks for anything, “Not my will, but Thine be done,” which means, if the thing I ask for, however much I desire it, however good it seems to be to me, will hinder or postpone by a hair’s breath or a moment, the ultimate victory, it should be denied to me. Those who know the real secret of the prayer life have discovered the fact that God’s denial of our requests is over and over again the graciousness of overwhelming answer.
To pray is to desire forward, to seek forward and endeavor after. It is to have a new vision of God and of the ways of God, to be overwhelmingly convinced of the perfection of God, of the perfection of all He does and of the certainty of His ultimate victory, and then to respond to the profound and tremendous conviction by petition, by praise, and by endeavor; and so men “ought always to pray” and to “pray without ceasing.” – G. Campbell Morgan