Three Conditions of True Prayer

Rav Boruch taught that genuine prayer, a complete desire for spirituality, rests on three conditions. A person must believe that Hashem can help him. He must have no other counsel left, having already done everything in his power without finding a cure for his trouble. And he must feel that if Hashem does not help, death would be better than life. Prayer, he said, is work in the heart, and the more lost a person feels, the greater his prayer.