Praying Wrong

I haven't wanted to pray much recently because it seems like God doesn't answer my prayers anyway. This makes me feel like God doesn't care about me or the things I value. But the thought is growing in me that maybe I have it backwards, and am the one who doesn't care about God or God's priorities. When I'm honest, I have to admit my prayers are often very self-centered, and merely in response to the unreasonable amount of worry I have allowed to creep into my life. I really want God to answer me and help me, but only on my terms. Maybe if I want God to answer my prayers, I need to be willing to do things his way?

When I strip down my priorities to their most basic elements, my prayers start to sound an awful lot like this:

"God, please help me to look good in front of all my friends (i.e make me more successful), work things out in my favor so I can have a comfortable, secure, and fun existence (i.e give me more money), and please answer all my questions and meet all my desires NOW, so I won't need to deal with the uncomfortable and inconvenient process of trusting you, seeking you, or loving others in a costly way."

But if I were to pray more in line with what God values, it should actually sound very much the opposite:

"God, please keep me desperate and hungry for you so my faith and endurance will grow. Wreck my life so I can be free of the things of this world. Please help me to understand your love better by giving me opportunities to truly love people who don't deserve it. Please humble me, and give me experiences that will help me be patient and kind. Please teach me self-control by not letting me have everything I want. Please bring storms into my life so I can experience your peace, find and hold onto the hope you offer, and learn what it means to truly trust you. Please put a blindfold on me so I can walk by faith and not by sight. Please send me through the fire so I can be more like you. Please help me to lose the world so I can gain my soul."