"A Prayer for Sincerity

O God, save us from offering unto Thee any prayer which we are not prepared that Thou shouldest answer.  Save us from praying to know Thy will unless we are prepared to do it.  Save us from praying to see Thy face unless we are prepared that the vision should burn all the self out of us and make us let go our hateful little sins.  Save us from asking for world vision, till we are ready to face world responsibilities.  Save us from asking that we may follow Christ, without counting His lonely way, His utter sacrifice, His broken heart.

Take us very quietly each one and shut us in with Thyself.  It may be Thou art going to ask a harder thing; that we should see all the need of the world and long to serve it in far-off lands, and yet stay here just where we are.  Only show us Thy will, and make us want to do it more than anything else in the world, and in that doing, find life.  We ask it for the honour of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen."

From Leslie Weatherhead's A Private House of Prayer

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.  Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.  The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.  Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.  They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

- 1 Timothy 1:3-7