Yes we pray. Yes we say we believe that God is listening. Yet, do we really believe? If I did, would I get upset if I don’t get what I asked for? If I did would I keep praying for the same thing? Yet we are told to pray with insistence, so I should pray for the same thing, right? Yes and no.
It all comes down to my intention. I should believe without a shadow of a doubt that our Lord listens to my prayers and that if he feeds the birds and clothes the flowers in beauty, how much more will he give me, who am His child? At the same time, I should pray incessantly even for the same thing. My intention, however, should be like Christ’s in the Garden of Olives. “Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass, but not my will be done but yours.”
These words of Christ are our model. We pray without ceasing for what we THINK is best for us or for what we’d like, but we TRUST in God that He will give us what is ACTUALLY best for us. In other words, we accept that we don’t know the mind of God, or think as He does, and we accept that sometimes the things we pray for are not for the good of our salvation. We present to God our petitions, but then we entrust ourselves to Him entirely, trusting in His Divine Providence. Oh, what a great feeling it is to know that we are in His hands, without a single worry, entrusted to our Father!