Success and Failure in Prayer

'Πρὸς σὲ, Κύριε, κεκρὰξομαι, καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν μου δεηθήσομαι.'  Πολλάκις εἴρηται περὶ τοῦ κεκραγέναι πρὸς Κύριον, ὅτι μόνου τοῦ μεγάλα καὶ ἐπουράνια ἐπιθυμοῦντός ἐστι ὁ κράζειν. Εἰ δέ τις μικρὰ καὶ ἐπίγεια αἰτοίη τὸν Θεον, μικρᾷ καὶ ταπεινῇ κέχρηται τῇ φωνῇ, μὴ φθανούσῃ εἰς ὕψος, μηδὲ ἐρχομένῃ εἰς τὰς ἀκοὰς του Κυρίου.  Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας, Ὁμιλία Ἐις Τους Ψαλμούς, Ψαλμός ΚΘ’

'To you, Lord, I have cried out and to my God I pleaded.' It is often said concerning the act of crying out to the Lord that only with a great and heavenly passion can one be said to cry out, so if someone requests something trivial and worldly from God, the cry of such a voice is small and weak and it does not come to the heights, nor does it reach the hearing of the Lord. Saint Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on the Psalms, Psalm 29