How Not To Pray

See the Ferris wheel whirling in its spin,
Rising and falling, turn and turn about;
No riders but prayers of absent men,
Papers waving in ev'ry circled route;
A favor from God each gone author seeks.
Personal input is so very slight,
Such a cycled plea of rank laziness reeks!
If God were perched just over the wheel's height,
The petition would never His ear reach;
A prayer scores when the seeker's heart is known;
He must in earnest his Savior beseech,
To get answered, his all to God be shown!
A paper prayer on a revolving wheel
Will fail, if to God a people appeal!

God tells us to be persistent in praying or asking Him to help us; He is more apt to give ear to a prayer that is repeated many times, the seeker refusing to quit asking. This does not mean, however, attaching a piece of paper to a perpetually revolving wheel.

"Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up." (Luke 18:1; the parable follows in Luke 18:2-8)

If a prayer is attached to a spinning wheel, it does not imply that it is being made to God on each turn of the wheel. In the Far East prayer wheels are common, but I would not advise a believer in Jesus Christ to use that method. When Jesus told us to be persistent, it means that God is more likely to give heed to an individual that literally or figuratively prostates himself in earnest beseechment and uses countless versions of word arrangement to lift his petition for the same object, even until he receives an answer; or, at least, until required to attend to other necessities.

In similar fashion devout Jews put paper petitions in crevices that exist in that portion of the temple wall which survives; this may have a better chance of success than the spinning wheel, but it is not likely to be answered because of the place in which it is put; except, possibly, in the extreme case of the seeker having exerted an heroic effort of sacrifice to reach the Wailing Wall, or input of some similar personal effort to have his prayer lifted to the Lord.

In attending to each prayer to Him, God considers the conditions of righteousness in the asker's heart; his motivation for asking; his willingness to put himself at risk if needed; the object of prayer (e.g., whether the individual benefitting from an affirmative answer is likely to contribute to the success of Christ's Kingdom), and a host of other factors too numerous to list, and not even known to human beings. We can safely rule out prayer wheels, though.