Lord, hear my prayer!
In your righteousness listen to my plea;
    answer me in your faithfulness!
Don’t put me, your servant, on trial;
    no one is innocent in your sight. – Psalm 143:1-2 GNT

I cannot engage in prayer as part of my self-improvement exercises – it is not a practice that is good for me whether God hears or does not. Prayer is a real plea to a real God who does hear, answers and comes alongside me.

In fact, David roots his prayer on the character of God – His righteousness and faithfulness. He prays with confidence and he knows that God does not treat him as his sins deserve. The gift of salvation enables me to pray and I put my hope, when I pray, on Jesus.

The heartfelt prayer – hear my prayer – comes across as humble, believing and obedient. I cannot pray as I should unless I recognize my weakness, need and total dependence on God.

Even when I fail to realize my dependence on Him, and I experience trials that overwhelm me, when I breathe a heartfelt prayer, trusting in Him makes it all right.

The humilty of my prayer is the understanding that I am not completely innocent.

“Prayer is God’s appointed way for obtaining things and the great secret of all lack in our experience, in our life and in our work is neglect of prayer.” – R.A. Torrey