What matters?

-From Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom

"Let us think about our prayers,
yours and mine;
think of the warmth,
the depth and intensity of your prayers
when it concerns someone you love
or something which matters to your life.
Then your heart is open,
all your inner self is recollected in the prayer.

Does it mean that God matters to you?

No, it does not.

It simply means that the subject matter
of your prayer matters to you.

For when you have made your passionate,
deep, intense prayer concerning the person you love
or the situation that worries you,
and you turn to the next item,
which does not matter so much-
if you suddenly grow cold,
what has changed?

Has God grown cold?
Has He gone?

No, it means that all the elation,
all the intensity in your prayer
was not born of God's presence,
of your faith in Him,
of your longing for Him,
of your awareness of Him;
it was born of nothing
but your concern for him or her or it,
not for God."