Prayer is listening for God, hearing what God has to say, consenting to what God does say, asking of God power to obey. To neglect these things is to be powerless. . . . God, through the self-emptied, always pours out His fulness for the blessing of others; and prayer is the exercise finally of self-emptying that prepares the soul, that makes us channels through which the power of God may proceed to the accomplishment of His purposes in the world.

G. Campbell Morgan, The Gospel according to Mark (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1927), 49.