> But God is a person, not a machine. Sometimes God doesn't answer prayers. Sometimes God makes things happen that aren't prayed for. It's not unlike your own actions: sometimes you do things because people ask you to, sometimes you refuse the requests of others, and sometimes you do things without being asked.
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> The central purpose of prayer is to nuture a personal relationship with God, which is not only pleasing to God but essential for personal spiritual health. As with any relationship, the communication that sustains it goes far beyond making requests. As is required to maintain a personal relationship between two human beings, there is, or should be, all kinds of different types of communication going on.

Yes, and to put it still another way: prayer is not for the purpose of aligning God with my will, but rather to align myself with God's will. When I'm praying for something I desire, I typically ask for it and then immediately ask that God help me to be faithful to Him regardless of what actually happens.

When you consider an exemplary Christian, her mentality is almost Buddhist-like in a way. Her reason for existence is simply to serve God and love Him, and so long as she is faithfully fulfilling that purpose, she'll deem the circumstances of life comparatively unimportant. Her attitude resembles detachment from the world, and in fact that's what it would be, if love for God did not entail love for God's creation as well.

Most of the time, however, we love the world not because God loves it, but because we love ourselves and want whatever circumstances produce good feelings. Self-interest is not really a good position from which to petition God on behalf of the world -- yet wanting good and pleasant things isn't wrong, either. It's just a matter of priorities: do I want the thing that God also wants, and do I want it for myself, or *because* God wants it?

Anyway, to get back to the original question Faux Pas raised: I tend *not* to expect that asking God for something will sway Him to work things to my liking. I think of both God and myself as agents at work in the world, each with our own personal agendas. God's agenda will always be right, so what I really need to pray for is to follow God in pursuit of the same goals. As Sam said, some of those things won't be pleasant for me, but that's not really worth considering. My purpose is to love and serve God, who is worthy of love and service. Prayer is a way to become more perfect in fulfilling that purpose.

Iss "writing this is way easier than doing it" achar