By the power of prayer

By the power of prayer, man opens the door of the heart, in which God, the
ever-forgiving, the all-merciful, abides.

Bowl of Saki, November 4, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Hazrat Inayat Khan:

There are three kinds of people among those who offer prayer. One person in
praying feels he is fulfilling a certain duty, which he considers to be one
among the other duties of life. … The second kind of person who offers
prayers is the one who prays because he has been taught to do so, and yet
is uncertain as to whether there is any God and whether his prayers are
really heard. … Then there is a third person who has imagination which is
strengthened by faith. He not only prays to God, but he prays before God,
in the presence of God. Once imagination has helped a man to bring the
presence of God before him, God is awakened in his own heart.

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_7.htm

The word of Christ is that God is love; and if God is love, then we, every
one of us, can prove God in us by expressing God in our life. According to
the external customs of the different religions, one goes to church, one to
the mosque, one to the synagogue, and another to the temple. The inner
church however, is none of these, but in the heart of man, where God abides
and which is the habitation of Christ.

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_9.htm

In prayer one reaches that spirit of God which is all-powerful and which is
ever-forgiving, and it is by the power of prayer that man opens the doors
of the heart, in which God the Merciful abides.

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/archives/prayer.htm

What is real prayer? Praise to God. And the meaning of praise?
Appreciating; thus opening the heart more and more to the divine beauty one
sees in manifestation.

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_35.htm

If one asks why God should create beings in order that they should sing His
own praise, the answer is that God does not wish to receive praise. The
praise of God is a prescription for man, in order that by this prescription
man can come to that understanding which brings him nearer to God. In other
words, by praising God man completes the action in which lies the
fulfillment of the soul’s purpose in coming on earth.

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_7.htm