Emphasis Preaching Journal

There is a tendency among some to regard prayer as requiring specialized knowledge and skills. To those who place faith in traditional wording of prayer, for example, we may say that there is no more need to use "thee" and "thou" in our prayers than there is to use Roman numerals in our hymnbooks. Prayer embodies more trust than technique, more faith than formula. So Jesus urges us to keep on praying and not to lose heart. An old Olney hymn, in a homey manner, reflects one person's puzzlement over the results of prayer:
I asked the Lord that I might grow,