Once you step back aways from the painting and ask yourself what you see, you might be surprised at the conclusion. Over thousands of years man has slowly evolved into a paradigm (and there are many with different shades of lunacy) of religious lifestyles wherein we have been deluded into thinking we, the finite ones, could somehow control the infinite One(s). We deceived ourselves many eons ago and religion is keeping the fires burning. On a very practical level, just ask yourself. Do you think you could play “Let’s Make A Deal” with God? And yet that is exactly what PRAYER is to by far the majority of religious. I know that’s hard to take but I also know the truth of that resonates deep within your spirit-man and here’s why.
How could one call some spirit God, with any degree of power whatsoever, if all you had to do was rub his belly and make a wish? Or, could there be a God who would be fooled by your promise(s) to repent? If He was who we think He is, then He’d know, we’re not really repenting. And do you think that we could so manipulate this divine being into helping us out if we simply prayed more often? If I pray the same prayer for a month will that be better than if I pray for a day? Does FREQUENCY of our prayers get the deed done?
Would He respond more if I prayed LOUDER? 
Maybe if we pray LOUD and in unknown TONGUES as well?
Come on, we know the answers, but nonetheless, we still think somehow it’s going to make an impression. When we get alone and quiet and talk intimately with the spirit that resides within us, we know way too much of our life is not about “spirit“but religion. We’re following customs, practices, creeds, formulas, and methods that we’ve been taught. Go into most churches and how you hear and see one pray is how they all pray.
It’s all about the religious culture.
Before you get too riled up, I’m not saying that PRAYER isn’t valid, or doesn’t work. What I am saying is that so much of what “we call prayer” is nothing more than wasted time because it’s purpose is to get God to do something that we believe He wouldn’t do unless we pray. We’re not trying to get something done here, because that’s the way it is where we’ve been told the streets are made of gold, but we’re trying to manipulate God into our “earthly thinking“.
What does God want?
How about if we make that our starting point? What if get quiet our minds, commune with Him, ask Him what He’d like to see done at-this-moment (can you say a-tone-ment?): like NOW! And if we hear nothing, we don’t try to so something anyway. And we keep it up until one day we’ve learned to hear Him and then when we pray it’s a Psalms 37:4 prayer and IT HAPPENS!
If you’d like a little historical background on how we got to this kind of “theistic thinking“, click here (Beyond Theism) NOW!
I saw an NFL game this year where the field goal kicker come running out on to the field to kick the winning field goal in the final seconds doing his “Catholic thang” with his hand to his chest. Then the camera spanned the opposing sideline and a protestant player was on his knees, head bowed, eyes closed. I’m sure these spiritual giants were praying “Nevertheless, not my will, but the Lord’s will be done”. Me and the Lord started laughing. It would have been a good time to find out if the Father was protestant or catholic, don’t you think.
Since we’re both Protestants and “still protesting”, we both KNOW who God IS.