Frozen Prayers from Frozen Hearts

“Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings; they pierce not, they cut not, they fly not up to heaven. Cold prayers always freeze before they get to heaven.” – William F. Kumuyi

One of my spiritual mentors, Larry Lufburrow, taught me a lesson 35 years ago that I still remember today. “Don’t bother praying,” Larry told me, “Unless you are going to pray expectantly.”

In other words, Larry was saying that hollow prayers offered to God without any expectation of being answered will most probably fall on deaf ears. Or, as William Kumuyi put it, “freeze before they get to heaven.”

What God desires – and what really moves His heart – are prayers that are earnest, fervent, and offered with humility and a sense of expectation (see James 5:16). It is also vital that when we ask God for anything, we do so for the right reasons and in accordance with His will (see James 4:3 and I John 5:14).

Only if we meet the above criteria can we fully apply Jesus’s teachings in Matthew 7:7-8…

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President