James Chapter 5 vv.13. 
The dictionary defines righteous as  " morally right, just, virtuous, upright, law abiding  "   Can I put my hand on my heart and say that those attributes all belong to me?  The answer is, I fear "probably not".  So do my imperfections, my lack of virtue,  mean that, by definition, my prayers will fall on deaf ears?   And imperfections we all have for, as the Bible tells us, "if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us". 
It's the second part of that quotation from St. John's Gospel, of course, that gives us the encouragement to pray, namely, the knowledge that God is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanes us from all unrighteousness".  
Let's look first at one definition of prayer, that provided by Archbishop Temple, some 70 years ago
[ Read extract]
"Worship is the submission of our nature to God".  So first we need to come into God's presence with humility, conscious of those imperfections.  I don't have a Powerpoint presentation this morning, I'm afraid, just a few reproductions in colour ( my ribbon ran out, and b;lack and white of a painting. 
The Return of the Prodigal Son"  Rembrant's last great painting, the ultimate flowering of a seventeenth century genius.  
His turbulent and often unhappy life
Here the portrait of humanity submitting itself to God.  " Our father which art in Heaven hallowed by thy name". 
When we pray: have that picture in our mind 
Going back to Temple:  "the surrendering of our will to his purpose".   "Thy will be done, thy kingdom come". And from that we need ask God what purposes he has for us and to petition Him to lead us . We need to be God's ambassadors on earth
Only then should we ask for what we want.  Too often it seems to be the other way around, if I'm anything to go by. 



