We tend to think “If I pray and God does thus and so, I’ll believe in God. And if God doesn’t show up, He must not exist.”
If God answers a prayer, we think, “Yaay! God’s on my side! He must love me!”
I have found that what works is to find out what God’s about and get on God’s side. This means I must be willing to do whatever God wants regardless if He ever answers my prayers!. When I did that, that’s when I began to see answered prayer.
In other words, it’s not about me. It’s not my agenda, but God’s.