What are your expectations when you pray? Romans 1:9-10

Hello everyone,
Well back to Mobile for another couple of weeks and then it looks as though I'll be able to finish up my year working on a case in L.A.  As I traveled today, I thought about several possible devotionals and ended up with this question:  What are your expectations when you pray?  In Romans 1:9-10, Paul writes, 'God knows how often I pray for you.  Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by telling others the Good News about His Son.  One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing,  to come at last to see you.'  If we pray and don't expect our prayers will be answered in His name, what is the purpose?  Thank God and pray with expectations that He will answer according to His will!  In  Genesis 18:33, God showed Abraham that asking for anything is allowed, with the understanding that God's answers come from God's perspective.  Just like the potter continually forms his clay, God may be molding you into a priceless vessel.  That takes time!!  Are any of you in a crisis?  I can think of several of you that are and you aren't sure what God has in store!  Sleep does not come easily during a crisis.  Psalm 3:5 lets us know that David could of had sleepless nights when his son Absalom rebelled and gathered an army to kill him.  But he slept peacefully, even during the rebellion.  What made the difference?  David cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard him.  The assurance of answered prayer brings peace.  It is easier to sleep well when we have full assurance that God is in control of circumstances.  If you are lying awake at night worrying about circumstances you can't change, pour out your heart to God, and thank Him that He is in control.  Then sleep will come.  One of the problems we seem to create is when we give God our problem that we are faced with, we then have a tendency to take it back!  Why?  Why do we cling on to our dilemma instead of clinging to the 'Solution'?  Once you release your concern, remember to praise Him at that very moment.  Praising God changes your whole makeup and keeps your eyes and heart on Him instead of falling back into the trap!
Your brother in Christ,
p