One time of prayer

Walking home from Church today, I had about half an hour or so when I could just pray... I am so thankful for so many things. God has blessed me with so many things. I'm sure that a lot of you have sung (or at the very least heard) the song "count your blessings, name them one by one". Not really sure what the name is, but I think you probably know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I was thinking about all the different blessings I had and simply thanking God for those blessings. Well one of the really big ones was prayer. I was thinking about it, and its so easy and it happens so often that we pray because it's "time to pray". I think this mostly happens before bed and at meal times. Pretty sad when you really think about it. We can talk with the Almighty God of the universe! Wow! This is the same God that people in the old testament had to serve without ever being able to go into His presence. There was one time a year when one priest could go into God's presence.... Most people in Israel were not priests, meaning they would never enter God's presence. Most priests were not even able to go into the "Holy of Holies" (where God was). We as Christians can speak to God. We can request things of God and He hears our prayers. He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. He has always been with us and will always be with us. When we speak to Him, He is with us. When we aren't speaking to Him, still He is with us. Amazing that the God which we serve would hear our prayers and yet what do we pray for? I think that what we pray about reveals what our heart's true focus is. How much of our prayers are focused on our wants? How much of our prayers are focused on other people? How much time to we spend praising God? How much do we actually thank God from whom every good and perfect gift comes? It is somewhat startling how often I find myself praying for me, what I want to happen, what I need. Do we really believe that God will answer our prayers or are we just praying because we should? If anyone right now is praying because it's the "right thing to do" I think there is a blessing that isn't being counted. Most people serve they're god's out of fear, out of selfishness and out of hate sometimes. How amazing it is that we have the ability and freedom to actually talk to God.