A Familiar Conversation

Prayer is an earnest and familiar talking with God, to whom we declare all our miseries, whose support and help we implore and desire in our adversities, and whom we laud and praise for our benefits received. So that prayer contains the exposition of our sorrows, the desire of God's defence, and the praising of His magnificent name, as the Psalms of David clearly do teach.

--John Knox (c. 1513 – 24 November 1572, Scottish clergyman, theologian, and writer who was a leader of the Protestant Reformation)