Are You Praying?

"Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench."
I Kings 18:38

The four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal had called out to their god for at least six hours.  They hollered and danced and cut themselves but after all that time and ruckus, we are told "there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.
After the prophets of Baal had finished, Elijah stood and said a very short prayer that takes up only two verses of the Bible, and at the end of his prayer, God heard and answered by consuming the sacrifice with fire from heaven.  Out of curiosity I timed myself reading the short prayer of Elijah, and it took me twenty one seconds.  Think about it, the pagan prophets prayed six hours and nothing happened, Elijah prayed twenty one seconds and the power of God reigned down.

There are some good lessons from this.  The first obvious lesson is you can pray all day to nothing and nothing will happen.  Second, the length of the prayer isn't as important as faith in the One you are praying to.  God hears our prayers and answers our prayers.  Are you praying?