Prayer is not only a Christian duty but also a privilege. His devoted prayer life is a sign of his awareness and understanding of the necessity to depend on God for all things. Abraham Booth continually speaks to the fellow-Christians about their prayer life as follows:

c. To those who have little or no regard to prayer

That there are millions of such in the world is a lamentable fact, and probably some of you may be of that character. Suffer me to address you then with a few questions; and, as in the presence of God, let conscience answer. Do not some of you live habitually without secret prayer, without devoutly feeling and solemnly acknowledging your entire dependence on Providence for life and health, for food and raiment? Do none of you rise in a morning, receive the necessary supplies by day, and go to rest at night, without bending the knee before Him in Whom you live, and move, and have your being? You are fed, you are clothed, you enjoy health and plenty while multitudes are emaciated with disease and pinched with want of necessary food and of necessary clothing. But what ungrateful and rebellious returns do you prayerless creatures make for that divine liberality which is the source of all your supplies! You have sinned. You have offended the Most High. You are in His hands to deal with you just as He pleases. Nor can anyone tell how He will dispose of you; and yet you have never thought it worth your while to read His Word with diligence, to study His gospel with prayer, or even to cry for mercy. You have heard, it may be, or might have heard, a thousand times, the doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ in a public ministry; but you have never seriously made it your business to understand its gracious meaning nor prayed for enlightening influence. You are under a divine sentence of temporal death, of which you cannot doubt. You are uncertain whether you shall survive another day and are in imminent danger of eternal ruin; yet, far from being awake to your final interests, far from spending your time as walking on the brink of the grave, you sleep on in sins, dreaming of long life and of many happy days in this world of wickedness, of disappointment, and of misery. Being under the curse of divine law, you are every moment exposed to everlasting perdition. 

If death overtake you in that condition, it will be to you no other than the arrest of eternal justice, summoning you to appear at the bar of God; and then your damnation will be inevitable. Yet you live without habitual seriousness, without real devotion, and without solemn prayer! But were you assured by infallible information that God had absolutely forbidden you to pray, or that He had determined never to regard your prayers, though ever so ardent, or ever so frequent, how dreadful would your situation be, considered even by yourselves! Dark despair would probably envelope your minds. A trembling horror would seize your animal frames, and your feelings would be an awful anticipation of hell. Little do you think, while in a prayerless and impenitent state, that, were God to leave you in it, you would certainly go on to treasure up “wrath against the day of wrath” and must inevitably “drink of the wrath of the Almighty” (Romans 2:5; Job 21:20). May the Spirit of grace effectually excite you to “seek…the LORD while he may be found,” to “call…upon him while he is near,” and “to flee from the wrath to come” (Isaiah 55:6; Matthew 3:7)! For, should you persevere in a thoughtless, impious, prayerless condition, your final sentence from Jesus the supreme Judge will certainly be: “Depart…ye cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41)! And all holy creatures, perfectly approving the irreversible sentence, will unanimously say, “Amen.”

• Mark 11:17b, “… My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? …”
• If the church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has.

Robert J. Morgan says in his message, My All in All, as follows:

The Lord wants us to pray for all nations, and for kings and for all in authority (1 Timothy 2:2). We can exercise knee-based influence over leaders whom we may never meet. Here's an example: Prince Edward VII of England was well known for his drinking and immorality. When his mother, Queen Victoria, died in 1901, Edward assumed the throne at age fifty-nine and reigned for nine years. In 1910, a prayer warrior named Joe Evans was vacationing in the New York mountains, away from newspapers and interruptions. One morning he felt a burden to intercede for Edward, and the burden became so intense he anguished in prayer for the king's conversion. The following day came the news, "Edward is dead.” Years later, Joe shared dinner with Dr. J. Gregory Mantle of England. Dr. Mantle said, “Joe, did you know that Edward VII was saved on his deathbed?” He went on to explain: “The king was in France when he was taken ill. He was brought to England and there was hope that he might recover. However, there came a turn for the worse. At that time, His Majesty called one of his lords-in-waiting and ordered him to go to Paternoster Row and secure for him a copy of a tract that his mother, Queen Victoria, had given to him when he was a lad. It was entitled “The Sinner's Friend.” After much searching, the lord-in-waiting found the tract, brought it to His Majesty, and upon reading it, King Edward VII made earnest repentance and received the Lord Jesus as his Savior.”

I’ll finish the series of articles based on Abraham Booth with a quote from Charles Spurgeon’s message, “Be Immersed in Prayer” based on Psalm 109:4b, “… But I give myself unto prayer”:

Lying tongues were busy against the reputation of David, but he did not defend himself; he moved the case into a higher court, and pleaded before the great King himself. Prayer is the safest method of replying to words of hatred. The Psalmist prayed in no cold-hearted manner, he gave himself to the exercise - threw his whole soul and heart into it - straining every sinew and muscle, as Jacob did when wrestling with the angel. Thus, and thus only, shall any of us speed at the throne of grace. As a shadow has no power because there is no substance in it, even so that supplication, in which a man’s proper self is not thoroughly present in agonizing earnestness and vehement desire, is utterly ineffectual, for it lacks that which would give it force. “Fervent prayer,” says an old divine, “like a cannon planted at the gates of heaven, makes them fly open.” The common fault with the most of us is our readiness to yield to distractions. Our thoughts go roving hither and thither, and we make little progress towards our desired end. Like quicksilver our mind will not hold together, but rolls off this way and that. How great an evil this is! It injures us, and what is worse, it insults our God. What should we think of a petitioner, if, while having an audience with a prince, he should be playing with a feather or catching a fly? Continuance and perseverance are intended in the expression of our text. David did not cry once, and then relapse into silence; his holy clamor was continued till it brought down the blessing. Prayer must not be our chance work, but our daily business, our habit and vocation. As artists give themselves to their models, and poets to their classical pursuits, so must we addict ourselves to prayer. We must be immersed in prayer as in our element, and so pray without ceasing. Lord, teach us so to pray that we may be more and more prevalent in supplication.

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