The things good Lord that we pray for give us the grace to labour for as Sir Thomas More expressed it. The inner voice of prayer expresses itself naturally in action just as the inner voice of my brain guides all my bodily actions.

As the books of Job Jeremiah and Habakkuk clearly show God has a high threshold of tolerance for what appropriate to say in a prayer. God can handle my unsuppressed rage. I may well find that my vindictive feelings need Gods correction - but only by taking those feelings to God will I have the opportunity for correction and healing.

God formed an alliance based on the world as it is full of flaws whereas prayer calls God to account for the world as it should be.

If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes why God doesnt act the way we want God to and why I dont act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge.

When I pray for another person I am praying for God to open my eyes so that I can see that person as God does and then enter into the stream of love that God already directs toward that person.