Depth of Prayer

I was examining my own prayer life and I came to a sad conclusion. I spend to much time talking and not enough time listening. I believe the requests and petitions are needed but what about the listening?

Listening is something we all do; we listen to our bosses, our spouses, our TVs etc. But I know I do not listen enough. I understand we listen to God primarily through His word, and our answers come from His word. There is a but here. The but is that I do not quite myself long enough to see what the quite voice is saying.

How does this change? Is it that I spend more time, more effort, more reflection?

There is also a point that applies to some of us. We do not want to hear the answers. We pray and then we go about making things happen the way we want. Is this truly prayer or is it something we do to say we did it?

I know I find myself in both categories, not spending the time and sometimes not wanting to hear the answers, sad but true.