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It just occurred to me now that I do not necessarily feel peace out of all the requests I raise up in prayer. God in His infinite wisdom & His perfect ways has showed me in the past days that I gotta examine myself a bit more when I cry out to Him. See, it's not like He would cut everything off if we say something off to Him - While we have breath, we have hope & a chance to keep knowing Him, to get to know Him more & more. No, He wouldn't cut ties with us, though I've learned through countless failures in the past that it just takes a mispronounced word to ruin a relationship with someone else. That's probably one reason why the writer of Psalm 116 exclaimed that he LOVED God, because He ALWAYS listens to prayer.
No, God never left him, nor did He leave me, even during times that selfishness & personal agenda come before praising His glory when I pray. Instead, He pointed it out through revelation, & I am left with more peace after I pray.
I understand that a good majority of us who believe pray with a petition attached. It's nothing bad, in my opinion - In fact, I would like to think that when I was younger, all my prayers were more of wishlists. There was more 'Give us this day our daily bread' than anything else.
It grieves me to think that I only realized now that as we keep talking to God, we should actually find ourselves praising God (Hallowed be thy name) & recognizing His absolute authority over everything (Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven). See, we may all start off with so many requests, but as He listens & acts & ANSWERS through all sorts of magnificent things happening all around us, we'd find ourselves thanking more.
'That's how it started all right. But God never answered ANYTHING!'
That depends on what you asked, really...
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.. "
- James 4:3, 7
We do not pray to God for ourselves. We pray to God because we know that as He listens, He would be praised, because He loves us, & all things are possible through Him. We demonstrate our faith when we pray, & our faith, our love for God, grows, whatever happens.
Jesus Christ once taught His disciples to pray. He continues to demonstrate that He is the same, yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13v8) If you seek His kingdom, He will hear you.