Prayer Is Not Magic

No one should undertake a substantive life of prayer and devotion thinking it will make them holy, eradicate all suffering, or assure a comfortable, successful life. In no way is this what following Christ entails. This is just an attempt at gaming God, and it treats prayer as a form of magic. Thinking that God must do certain things for me because of what I do for God is an absolute and egregious blasphemy! God does not bend to my will or yours; as followers of Christ, we are supposed to bend to his. God is never bound by what we do, even when done out of love for him. We should undertake the things we do for God simply because we must, period. I spend time with Jesus each day not because of how it makes me feel (sometimes I really do not feel like it) or because I promised the Church I would. I do it because I cannot live without it, and in fact, I could not get out of bed if I did not. Perhaps there are other motivations for embracing each new day, but the only one that works for me is Jesus.
—from the book Prayer Everywhere: The Spiritual Life Made Simple
by Fr. Gary Caster