When my children ask me to buy them something, I hope they know me well enough to ask me for something that they know I would approve of. I hope they don’t ask me to buy them a video game rated “mature”, or an outrageously risqué outfit.
I hope my children understand who I am and what I stand for. In not asking for what I don’t approve of, as well in knowing to ask for what I would approve of, they are choosing to pattern after my values.
In the same way, when the Bible says to pray according to God’s will, I think God desires us to understand him and what he stands for. And when we do, we will ask what he approves of, and are choosing to pattern our lives after what He wants for us.
Prayer is not just to get something from God. In the process of prayer, we learn to know God, who He is, what he stands for, and what he wants for us.
That is how we can get to know an invisible God.
(BTW, if I ever write my book “Everything I know about God I learned from my kids” that has been in my mind for 10 years, this post will be in there.)