What is prayer?

As I continue to explore prayer in my readings and personal life, I am struck by this quote, 

“Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful, acknowledgment of His mercies...Prayer is simply ‘the turning of the soul to God.’” 

-The Kneeling Christian, pg. 40

Later on, in this book, this unknown author writes about praying in the name of Jesus, 

“to pray ‘in the name’ of the Lord Jesus is to ask for things which the blood of Christ has secured - ‘purchased’ - for us.”  pg. 51

This is key to understanding prayer, so much prayer is based on our whims and desires, not on the promises of God in Christ.  So much is based on our wants, instead of grounded in the working of Jesus Christ.  We want wealth and health, he wants holiness and generosity for us.  We want miracles, he wants obedience and trust.  This is not to say that these things are necessarily opposed to following Christ, just that we ask without taking Jesus’ desire seriously that “if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

Prayer is nothing less than the turning of our life and soul, heart and mind, strength and will to the God who made us and is immensely interested in our welfare.  When we remember this, our prayers will begin to be filled with adoration and thanks for all God has already given and selfish desires will begin to wane as thankful hearts replace our lust for more.