What is it to pray an acceptable prayer rather than a prayer that does not reach God’s ear? God hears only the prayers of those who approach him through the atonement provided by Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between man and God and High Priest. For any to come without him is for them to expect to be received by God on their own merit, and this is certainly a vain hope. How can we be accepted when our sin has not been dealt with? How can we be at the wedding feast without a wedding garment?
Men come to God as if he should be pleased that they come at all, as if he was one like them who could be flattered by a little praise and appeased by a small gift. But the Lord will not shift from his eternal principles of holiness. Unless a way can be found for sinners to approach him without compromising his holiness, then it is impossible that he should receive any. God sees the thoughts which vain men and women have about themselves and how they imagine themselves to be sufficiently righteous to meet his standards, and he scorns such ignorance. They fail to see the great gulf that lies between them and God and think that this is a small problem which they can easily deal with, whereas in reality this was a problem which it required all the power and strength of the Son of God to remove. If they cry to God, it is with doubt that he can do anything to help them, and with most of their attention on the help that they expect to receive from man. God sees their pride, in which they think so highly of themselves. They do not appreciate that they deserve nothing from him and that all their righteousness is as filthy rags. They do not know themselves and the incessant evil that pours forth from their wicked hearts in wicked thoughts and wicked words and wicked deeds. The idea that God refuses to hear some who cry to him is offensive to them, and they soon lose patience with a God who does not immediately respond to their stated needs.
God will not listen to empty talk, that is, to empty prayer addressed to him less than sincerely. He is not impressed by human speech which sounds ever so genuine to the human ear, for he searches the heart beyond the mere words. But how can any be genuine enough to satisfy the Lord? Of course, they cannot, but their genuineness is to take refuge in humility and to plead no other merit than the merit of Christ provided for those who have no merit of their own. God sees many prayers that he will not answer. Only the Spirit of God can prepare our hearts to pray a prayer acceptable to the Lord.