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“Prayer is not about what WE want. It is about understanding what God wants.”

Now that strikes me as very “unOrthodox”. As Kosta points out, we pray for God’s mercy, which we both want and need. I would add that we pray also for the blessing of accepting God’s decisions/will. We KNOW what God wants. The Church teaches us that in multiple ways. The problem is that we very often want something else and choose to proceed to act on what we want rather than what He does.

Now that strikes me as very “unOrthodox”. As Kosta points out, we pray for God’s mercy, which we both want and need.

God knows what you want and need before you know.

Prayers bring things bubbling to the surface, for me. Even things I know are unworthy desires can become known to me during prayer. I can tell Father that I didn't really mean it, but He knows better. While praying the "Our Father", if my mind is fully engaged with the meaning of each part it will bring things out for me. He is Great, have I been paying attention? He's been providing, Have I noticed & thanked Him? I worry about evil, but He can move mountains, I need to stop hiding under my bed & get into the battle. He forgives me, goodness I've been holding on to my anger toward another, time to deal with that.

I would add that we pray also for the blessing of accepting God’s decisions/will. We KNOW what God wants. The Church teaches us that in multiple ways. The problem is that we very often want something else and choose to proceed to act on what we want rather than what He does.

Have you ever noticed God's hand acting in your life? Look at your words again, "I would add that we pray also for the blessing of accepting God’s decisions/will." If He's dabbling in our lives, are all of our actions our own, the result of total free will?

As Kosta points out, we pray for God’s mercy, which we both want and need.

Yes, you're correct that we must also pray for God's mercy which is what we want and need. I would also say this is the will of the Father for us to repent wouldn't you? So praying for His mercy is understanding and praying for what God wants.

We KNOW what God wants. The Church teaches us that in multiple ways.

I don't wish to sound like I'm trying to slip through on a technicality. I started off somewhere back by saying that prayer is a very complicated issue that is difficult to discuss on a forum like this. And I certainly wouldn't be honest if I said I have it all figured out. There are few Christians that do. It is, after all, communication with God and that, in itself, is difficult. (Look how hard it is for us to communicate with our wives and you'll get the picture.)

There are a number of things we should pray for and some things we are not to pray for. Some of the articles I have read on prayer gives very detail laundry lists of prayer. There are different purposes of prayer, and times to pray, and methods of prayer. As soon as we start talking about one facet of prayer, another facet raises it head. We'll be all over the place on this subject.