I have recently been reading a blog by a guy named Seth Godin. He is a marketing/business guru. His blog posts are generally short, but he has really clever insights. In a post from this week, he highlighted a company who was spamming him in pursuit of his business. He speaks of the way that in his mind, the company lost points with him by interrupting his life with spam. He goes on to say,

You can contact just about anyone you want. The only rule is you need to contact them personally, with respect, and do it months before you need their help! Contact them about them, not about you. Engage. Contribute. Question. Pay attention. Read. Interact. Then, when you've earned the right to attention and respect, months and months later, sure, ask. It takes a lot of time and effort, which is why volume isn't the answer for you, quality is.

As I read this post, I could not help but think about how this truth relates to our spiritual lives. While we really can’t earn the right to God’s attention and respect, we are able to build our relationship with him. So often we spam God with our prayers, just hoping that one will stick. We send up the list in hopes that God might respond to at least one of our requests. God is not interested in our spam prayers. He wants relationship with us. Read this quote one more time and read of from the perspective of our interaction with God.

Contact them about them, not about you. Engage. Contribute. Question. Pay attention. Read. Interact.

This is the sort of prayer life that God desires we have. If we will take the time and effort to build our relationship with God now, we may find that in the times we need Him the most, approaching him will not be so hard. Sure, he is always there for you. Sure, there is nothing that we can do to deserve God’s open ear. But I do think that God is interested in time with you, intimate, personal, one-on-one time with you. Not spam prayer.

Seth Godin Blog
The post I am referring to in this article