Prayer

The issue for me is not whether God answers prayer or not; the issue is that we have reduced prayer to being something that requires an answer.

Imagine being in love with someone who only called you or spent time with you when they wanted something and ignored you the rest of the time. Multiply that by seven billion and you can get a glimpse of what it must feel like to be God.

Prayer is being intentionally present with God -- choosing to intentionally spend time with God. If my relationship with God is based on me asking for things and God giving me things, then I've confused God with Santa or a genie.

We get to know God the same way we get to know everyone else -- by spending time with God. If we only spend time with God when we need something from God, then we are just exchanging "love" for goods and services.

We love God when we stop treating God as a means to an end. If we love God because of what God can give us, then we don't love God, we love those things, and God is merely the means to get those things. When we can love God and ask for nothing in return, and be content with nothing in return, then we love God.