Answered Prayer

There are times when Christian believers are in too much of a hurry. Like our secular neighbours, we get hooked by an inappropriate desire for the immediate. Instant gratification is expected, even from our prayer. In that scenario, God becomes our servant rather than the other way around!
That is why I am becoming more and more convinced that fasting and prayer are necessarily two sides of the same coin. They are mentioned together over and over in the scriptures. Fasting requires the intentional passage of time...hours, even days, in which all the activity around food...gathering, preparation, presentation and consumption is replaced by quiet listening. Table fellowship with others is intentionally set aside so that the believer can be with and wait upon the Lord.
It is out of that deliberate space and time that the cry of my heart reaches the Lord, up from the depths of my soul to the ears of God. Then I wait for an answer; my soul waits and hopes - it listens intently and patiently over time for the "still small voice" of God to speak out of the quietness. "My soul waits for the Lord, more than the watchman for the morning." Psalm.130:6 (ESV)
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Religious Observance or Faithfulness

Many Christians never really understand the true call of the gospel or the awesome blessings available for those who assent and pattern their lives upon it. God is not in anyway interested in our pastoral disengaged  religious practices. The true state of our heart is revealed in righteous action on behalf of His people. That behaviour reveals the authenticity of our faith and the actual condition of our relationship with Him.
In Isaiah 58:1-14, the prophet makes it very clear that this is the case. The people ask why God pays no attention to their fasting and worship? The Lord responds, "Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers...Is not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness...is it not to share your bread with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked, to cover him and not to hide from your own family?  If you pour out yourself for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted...then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noon day" There is a undeniable link between a believer's behaviour and God's willingness to both hear and respond with blessing.
Jesus confirms this again in the gospel. "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe...and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. Those you ought to have done without neglecting the others...For you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside are full of greed and self-indulgence. (Matthew 23:23-36)
Our righteousness is defined by God according to our response to the needs of the poor and homeless, the least and the lost, not by our religious fervour and liturgical observance.