Prevailing Prayer (Updated, Annotated): A Thorough Study on the Subject of Prayer

by Dwight L. Moody

These two instruments of grace must be applied in the right proportion. If we read the Word and do not pray, we may become puffed up with knowledge, without the love that builds others up. If we pray without reading the Word, we will be ignorant of the mind and will of God, and become mystical and fanatical, and liable to be blown around by every wind of doctrine.

If our sermons and messages are going to reach the hearts and consciences of the people, we must spend a considerable amount of time in prayer to God, that there may be power with the words we deliver.

We read in Luke 11 that his disciples came to Jesus and said, Lord, teach us to pray. It is not recorded anywhere that he taught them how to preach. I have often said that I would rather know how to pray like Daniel than to preach like Gabriel.

My experience is that those who pray most in their closets generally make short prayers in public. Long prayers are too often not prayers at all, and they weary the people. How short the publican’s prayer was: God, reconcile me, a sinner (Luke 18:13).

Dr. Edward Payson wrote in his journal, which was later published as a memoir, “Since I began to beg God’s blessing on my studies, I have done more in one week than in the whole year before.