Prayer is not

Luke 18:1 "Jesus told his disciples a story about how they should keep
on praying and never give up:" CEV

Prayer is not:
like a vending machine,
like a genie waiting to grant us 3 wishes,
me manipulating God to give me what I want,
a get out of jail free card,

Prayer is like how John the apostle put his head on Jesus chest, prayer
is like listening to the heartbeat of God and allowing it to change us.
We all have needs and wants, but that cannot be the focus of our prayers
- for that is very selfish.

Sometimes there is a process involved for us to get to the answer to our
prayers and we need to be prepared to pray through our problems - even
when it seems like God is turning a deaf ear to our pleas. As people we
don't always have the answers, but we trust in God who knows everything.

Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find.
Knock, and the door will be opened for you." CEV

Some prayers take longer to be answered than others, some prayers should
not be answered because we ask for the wrong things - but if we
continually search for God then we will find Him.