We are confident that God listens to us if we ask for anything that has his approval. We know that he listens to our requests. So we know that we already have what we ask him for. [John 5:14-15 (GW)]

God isn’t our personal Neiman Marcus, EBay or Amazon. Making prayer requests is not like looking through a heavenly catalog of blessings and getting to check the items we wish to receive. Like every good parent, God has some guidelines for His gifts to us and our requests must meet with His approval. God certainly isn’t going to offer any divine assistance in sin! Because He loves us, His goal is not our pleasure but rather our salvation! God’s gifts are going to reflect that objective.

Lord, give me the insight to know when my prayers are wrong and patience and persistence when they are right!

We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the Biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God himself. [Oswald Chambers]