Bishop Joseph Hall, an ardent seventeenth-century Anglican once imprisoned in the Tower of London for his faith, spent his final years on a farm in the countryside writing devotional classics. Here’s what he said about prayer:

“An arrow, if it be drawn up but a little way, goes not far; but if it be pulled up to the head, files swiftly and pierces deep. Prayer, if it be only dribbled forth from careless lips, falls at our feet. It is the strength of (discharge) and strong desire that sends it to heaven, and makes it pierce the clouds. It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; not the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they be; nor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the logic of our prayers, how argumentative they may be; nor the method of our prayers, how orderly they may be; nor even the divinity of our prayers, how good the doctrine may be – which God cares for, Fervency of spirit is that which availeth much.”

Source: David Jeremiah, Turning Point, p. 36