Tonight at church, Billy spoke on prayer, specifically, practicing the presence of God in our lives. He talked of how so often we aproach God in prayer with an agenda- what we can get out of Him, what we want from Him, what we want Him to do. Yet He has created us for communion, for friendship & fellowship. So often we seek His hand and not His face. If the only times my girls ever talked to me was when they wanted something or were in trouble or had problems and expected me to fix things- we would have a disappointing relationship, at least to me. Maybe God doesn't always answer our prayers the way and when we want because He wants us to focus on "practicing His presence", just learning to be with Him, not just getting Him to act on our behalf. We often mess up one of two ways with prayer- we either treat God like a genie from a lamp, or we don't talk to Him at all. Both are dangerous. Billy quoted some author as saying, "Prayer is like breathing- When you don't do it, its like holding your spiritual breath and suffocating yourself."
"Pray without ceasing" 1 Thessalonians 5:17
i.e. practice the presence of God- He knows what we need even more than we do.