https://thewalrus.ca/why-i-pray/
The first, most central, reality is that prayer is far more about changing oneself than about about pressuring God into action. Because of its intimate nature, we’re at our most honest in prayer, assuming in a great thrust of trust that we can say and admit anything—odd in that we only pray if we believe God can hear, yet we seem to not mind, not be embarrassed, by what is heard. While we do make requests, we more often confess to what we really are, who we really are. That’s an incredibly difficult and challenging exercise, and something rarely attempted in modern, secular society.