Not only must we be watchful in guarding the time of prayer, but we also must be watchful while we pray, in order that we may pray and have things to pray about. Satan will harass us not only through all kinds of things and outward circumstances that force us to have no time to pray, but even after we actually kneel down to pray he will also use all kinds of deception to frustrate us from prayer. Our minds may be very clear and our thoughts uncluttered before we pray, but as soon as we kneel down to pray, our thoughts become confused. We begin to remember things that we do not need to remember, and we begin to think of things that we do not need to think about ahead of time. Many unnecessary thoughts suddenly come dashing in. Before we pray, none of these things come to us. But as soon as we pray, they come to distract us. Outwardly everything seems peaceful, and there does not seem to be anything to alarm us, but as soon as we kneel down to pray we begin to hear voices in our ear. Actually such strange sounds do not come from outside. These many sounds come in a strange and inexplicable way to disrupt our prayer. We may feel very strong before we pray, but as soon as we kneel down to pray we feel tired and unable to sustain ourselves even though there is no lack of sleep. The tiredness does not come when we do not pray, but as soon as we pray we feel tired and want to sleep. Sometimes even symptoms of a sickness which we did not have before may suddenly come upon us. We may want to discharge a burden through prayer, but when we kneel down to pray we cannot offer a single word. It seems as if we are choked and short of prayer. It is obvious that there are many things we should pray about, but as soon as we start praying, we become numb and cold and do not feel we have anything to pray about. Even when we pray, it is like speaking to the air, and we run out of things to say in two or three sentences. None of the above conditions were with us before we began to pray. Only after we kneel down to pray do they suddenly come upon us. If we do not realize that this is Satan’s deception to destroy our prayer, we will want to stop praying and stand up soon after we kneel down. Therefore, in order to pray, to pray thoroughly and release our burden through prayer, we have to be watchful in our prayer. We have to be watchful to withstand the situations that would stop us from praying. This requires us to fight the battle. Before we pray, we must pray that God will enable us to pray. While we pray, we have to ask God to keep us undistracted in prayer and deliver us from all the deception of the enemy that stops us from praying. We have to speak to all the distracting thoughts and voices as well as all the weakness and sickness and declare that all these inexplicable happenings are lies and deceptions of Satan and that we oppose them. We have to open our mouth and chase them away. We should not give them any ground; we should be watchful to withstand the wiles of Satan through prayer. Then not only will we be able to pray, we will be able to pray thoroughly.

In order to pray thoroughly and powerfully we cannot just hope vainly. We cannot glide comfortably into this prayer life, and we cannot follow our imagination to drift into this prayer life. We must learn, we must be broken, and we must fight before we can secure this kind of prayer.

During our prayer, we must also guard against the prayers that are not prayers. Satan will not only take away our time of prayer, but also strip us of the strength to pray. He will come in even while we pray to make us speak many unrelated, confused, unimportant, and vain words. He will cause us to ask in vain and to waste our time of prayer. He will try to occupy our time of prayer so that the effect of our prayer will amount to nothing. Many fleshly, old, long, mundane, heartless, and aimless prayers are time-consuming and wasteful prayers. It may seem that we are praying out of habit, but actually within these prayers there are suggestions, instigations, and deceptions of Satan. If we are not watchful, our prayer will become meaningless and fruitless. One brother mentioned a story he read in the biography of Evan Roberts. Once a few people were in his home praying for something. Halfway through one brother’s prayer, Mr. Roberts went over and covered that brother’s mouth, saying, “Brother, don’t go on. You are not praying.” The brother reading this story said within himself, “How could Mr. Roberts do this?” But later he realized that Mr. Roberts was right. Many words in our prayers are spoken by the flesh through the instigation of Satan. These prayers may be long, but many of them are impractical and useless. Brothers and sisters, this is a fact. Many times in our prayer, we seem to circle around the whole world. Time is wasted and strength is exhausted, yet nothing that is to the point is prayed about. We cannot expect God to answer this kind of prayer. This kind of prayer does not have any spiritual value. Hence, when we pray, we have to be watchful and not spend too much time or give too many reasons. Rather, we should speak what is in our heart to God in a sincere way. We must never fill up our prayer with many empty words.
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