Proverbs 28.9 describes, anyone who turns his ear away from hearing the law — even his prayer is detestable.

Nearly everyone prays, even the atheist in his darkest hour. We all pray because we all have times in our life where we have run out of resources to help us, so we cry out to Him Who is outside of our resources and has the power by His resources to help us in our time of need.

While everyone prays, not everyone has their prayers answered, at least according to their satisfaction. Like a good parent who will often say no to their child’s frequent whims and wants, so too the Father in heaven can and does say no to His children. Yet the biggest reason our prayers seem to be unanswered is because their focus is our pleasure, or our purposes and not God’s purpose.

The prayers God delights most to answer are those that align with His will for us and His world. When we are asking the Father for His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven we are speaking sweet music to His ears. The knowledge of what God wills for us and His world comes from the Scriptures which He has Himself dictated to men for our ability to know Him and to obey Him.

If we ignore His Word then our prayers will be all about us but if we study His Word then our prayers will be all about Him. Our prayers are the communication link to God for accomplishing His will on earth as it is in heaven, not for accomplishing a heaven on earth for us to live in.

Those who seek God to serve God will speak to God in a way that makes a response from God clear and obvious, but those who ignore God will find their prayers having little effect and will experience the feeling of God ignoring them.