This is a grand truth, but it does not exhaust the functions of prayer, as we see at once when we read the Apostles own prayers as recorded in Colossians and Ephesians. God is to be sought, and entreated. The eighth chapter of the book of Zechariah looks far into the future of the people of Israel, and tells of the days when Jehovah returns to Zion and dwells in the midst of Jerusalem. Far in the future there will be access to God in His temple, where His favour may be sought, but right in the present there is access to Him through Christ and although He has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the celestials in Christ, there are still favours He is waiting and willing to grant us for our earthly life and walk, if we ask Him. And it must be self-evident to anyone who has bad any experience at all of the gracious dealings of God in this earthly life that, notwithstanding the natural law by which He operates the universe, He can and does intervene sometimes without, but frequently in response to, the requests of those who call upon Him in faith.
Prayer is the souls sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed.
All through the Scriptures we have instance after instance of men of God seeking Him in prayer, sometimes for worship, sometimes in contrition and sometimes with definite requests for His active intervention. There is no higher pattern upon which we can model our own petitions. Let us turn back to the basic truth and believe it. He is a rewarder of faith, and of those who diligently seek Him. On the contrary we should beseech our God about them, even as Paul did about his splinter in the flesh.