I think that's why it's recommended we fast during emergencies, so our entire focus is on prayer. It reminds me of a place we used to live, where the power was always going out in the freezing Winter. One time I couldn't get the generator to work, so we just huddled up for days, hoping the power would be restored.
It turned out that the power company didn't even realize our power was still out, because the wires were down just across the dead-end road from our property. While we were just huddled up, the only thing we could do was hope.
Maybe when we have an emergency, we can fast and get a sense, in our deprived state, of God? I do think that sometimes just meager efforts at prayer don't impress God?
2 Kings 13.18 Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
