Prayer without passion is like a dead rotting carcass

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George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592–...
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592–1628), by Peter Paul Rubens, 1625 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The greatest danger to persistent, effective prayer is the habit of performance without passion. Seventeenth-century Puritan pastor John Preston captures the essence of this danger in these words:

If it is performed in a formal or customary and overly manner, you would be as good to omit it altogether; for the Lord takes our prayers not by number but by weight. When it is an outward picture, a dead carcass of prayer, when there is no life, no fervency in it, God does not regard it. 

Do not be deceived in this, it is a very common deception. It may be a man’s conscience would be upon him, if he should omit it altogether. 

Therefore, when he does something, his heart is satisfied, and so he grows worse and worse. Therefore, consider that the very doing of the duty is not that which the Lord heeds, but He will have it so performed that the end may be obtained and that the thing for which you pray may be effected.

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