I Thessalonians 5:17

Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: . . . and thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.

And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: . . . and when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.

Is it hypocritical to pray when we don’t feel like it? Perhaps there is no more subtle hindrance to prayer than that of our moods. Nearly everybody has to meet that difficulty at times. Even God’s prophets were not wholly free from it. Habakkuk felt as if he were facing a blank wall for a long time.

What shall we do when moods like this come to us? Wait until we do feel like praying? It is easy to persuade ourselves that it is hypocrisy to pray when we do not feel like it, but we don’t argue that way about other things in life. If you were in a room that had been tightly closed for some time you would, sooner or later, begin to feel very miserable—so miserable, perhaps, that you would not want to make the effort to open the windows, especially if they were difficult to open. But your weakness and listlessness would be proof that you were beginning to need fresh air very desperately—that you would soon be ill without it.

I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.—Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.—The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Verily, verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.—Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.—This is the will of God, even your sanctification.

Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

A continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord : where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.—In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.

We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is.

Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life. Beware of anything that stops ejaculatory prayer. "Pray without ceasing," keep the childlike habit of ejaculatory prayer in your heart to God all the time.