Toward a guide of "placing God"

One thing I've come to learn is that in most situations, you cannot have any sort of meaningful spirituality if you do not pray regularly and seriously. One of the benefits of the life of prayer is that between your prayers, you notice that God responds to prayers through events that happen during the day. It might be the case that I am normally well fed, eating three meals a day. However, if I daily wake up and pray for God to provide me with the food I need, eating takes on a new light. Before, when I ate, I might not have thought that God had anything to do with my eating. However, now, as I eat, I recall my prayers. As I eat, I can see God doing what I have asked him to do: providing me with food. Now, God did not start providing me with food when I prayed. God always provided me with food. The difference? Now, I am thankful. Now, I place God in my life, seeing my meal as a blessing, as a provision from a wonderfully merciful Father. And imagine now that I've been praying for food and then something happens so that prevents me from being able to eat. The fact that I've been praying for daily food adds significance to the event. Because I know that my eating depends on God, I know that these events which are preventing me from eating are also the work of God. God specifically denied my request. This causes me to wonder about God's purpose in preventing me from eating. If I had never asked for the food, then I wouldn't consider the lack of food a denial of my request.

In this way, praying, even for obvious or regular things, helps us to place God in our lives, allowing us to see God more vividly.