An important point to note first is that we are not to use prayer to try and get God to do what we want done. Many believers try and use prayer to get their own way, not God's way. Prayer must be compatible with God's will and God's way. Sometimes that may be our will and our way, but other times it may not.

1Jo 5:14-15 "And this is the confidence which we have before
Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that
we have the requests which we have asked from Him."
Prayer is not designed to get us out of trouble, but rather to express
our helplessness, our humility, our total dependence on God, and our
recognition of His grace and His mercy toward us. Prayer is not
what we want for ourselves, but what God wants for us. In fact,
prayer is an expression and an extension of Bible doctrine resident in
the soul.
We fail in prayer because we fail to understand and utilize Bible doctrine correctly.
Joh 15:7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask
whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you."
Prayer was never designed to fulfill our lusts and desires; prayer is
designed to fulfill the will, plan, and purpose of God for our lives.
That's why Jam 4:3 says "You ask and do not receive, because
you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your
lusts."
So prayer is not a Christmas list. Too many prayers are an
expression of what you want, not what God wants. This is why we
need to pray according to the will of God. To express the will of
God in your prayers, you have to know what the will of God is and
therefore how to ask for the will of God rather than your own will in
any given matter.