Why Does God Not Listen To My Prayers?

God tells us in His Word to pray without ceasing. 

What does that mean to you? How is your prayer life? Are you satisfied or maybe it is time to make some changes in your prayer life with God?

Some time ago God laid a verse on my heart. 

I meditated on it for some time and the Holy Spirit told me that my prayer life left something to be desired. I was only praying when I needed something or when I was in trouble. After much thought these are some of the changes that I made in my prayer life.

To me prayer is like a phone call. 

If you only call someone when you need something soon the person you were calling would get tired of your phone calls (Thank God we have such an amazing and patient God). A good phone call is when you talk and listen. A good phone call is when you talk about everyday life. I believe that God loves to hear about your problems, but He also loves to just chat.

Pray without ceasing

My other problem was that I view prayer to be a time alone in a very quiet place. I believe that you need this time, but it does not satisfy "without ceasing." So how do you solve this? I started talking to God about EVERYTHING. 

When I was at work I would talk to God about how I should build this end cap (I worked at Family Christian Stores). When I was driving home and some nice guy would cut me off, I would tell God how mad that made me. When I was at home watching TV I would ask God if He thought it was funny. I started to include God in everything I did. It was very simple and really took no effort at all, but I cannot tell you the peace that I started to feel and how much it improved my relationship with God.

So again, how is your prayer life? Are your "phone calls" one sided? I hope my suggestions can help draw you closer to our very cool GOD!