The following is a short excerpt taken from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Screwtape is advising his nephew, Wormwood, on how to distract a Christian from earnest prayer.
The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. When they meant to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start trying to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing. When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them be trying to feel forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling; and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment.
I was reading this the other day, and it just struck me over the head that this is exactly how I judge my prayers. For me, success or failure was dependent on whether I have produced the desired feelings. That’s not to say emotions have nothing to do with prayer, but this had become the way I evaluated the quality of my prayers. I had forgotten that the power and efficacy of prayer does not depend on the strength of my emotions, but on the people who are with me. I need to read Romans 8 again. The reason I have successful prayers before the Father is due solely on the fact that I have two great people with me: The Spirit and Jesus who both speak on my behalf.
