An essential aspect of our prayers is the motivation with which we pray. More important than the words of our prayer is the heart that prays them. The efficacy of our prayers depends on the desire of our hearts. As James once wrote:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:3

Commenting on this passage Matthew Henry observes:

If we…seek the things of this world, it is just in God to deny them.

But, if we seek any thing so we may serve God with it, we may expect he will either give us what we seek or give us hearts to be content without it, and give opportunities of serving and glorifying him some other way.

(Taken from Henry’s commentary on James).

God always loves to answer the prayers of his children and his children always love his answers whether they’re “yes,” “no,” “later,” or “not in the way you’ll expect it.” The great question, then, of your prayers is this: are you ultimately saying, “My will be done” or “Your will be done”? The answer to that will determine the answer to your prayer.