I. There are too many people in the world who pray to God to help them when they are in difficulties, or in danger, or in fear of death and of hell, but never pray at any other time or for any other thing. They pray to be helped out of what is disagreeable, but they never pray to be made good. The only men who can have any hope of their prayers being heard are those who, like the Psalmist, are trying to do something for Christ, and their neighbours, and the human race; who are, in a word, trying to be good. Those who have already prayed earnestly and often the first prayer "Teach me, O Lord, Thy statutes; and I shall keep them to the end" they have not a right, but a hope, through Christ's most precious and undeserved promises, that their prayers will be heard, and that Christ will save them from destruction, because they are at least likely to become worth saving, because they are likely to be of use in Christ's world and to do some little work in Christ's kingdom.
II. To all such, who long for light that by the light they may see to live the life, God answers, through His only-begotten Son, the Word, who endureth for ever in heaven, "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." If you wish to have reasonable hope when you have to pray, "Lord, save me," pray first, and pray continually, "Teach me, O Lord, Thy statutes; and I shall keep them to the end."
C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons,p. 130.
References: Psalms 119:37. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xviii., No. 1072; Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 20.