It is recorded in the Bible that a guy named Elihu told a guy named Job, If you sin, do you really think it bothers the Creator and Intelligence of the universe? Or if you do a good thing, do you think He is benefited? (Job 35 paraphrased) Today, thousands of years later (!), the questions still need to be asked because too many of us are still thinking and acting like God is manlike, needing our obedience and support!
Why this persistent, absurd, material conception of God? It seems to go with a material sense of man, and no amount of reprogramming will help. The clearest explanation I have found is in the 1st Edition of Science and Health, where the distinction is made between Principle and personal sense. The individual who embraces personal sense, a self-centered view of himself, the world and Deity, is doomed to the age-old misconception. However, the individual who acknowledges he is merely the outcome of God, Soul, the idea of Principle, is no longer trying to please, but instead is striving to align himself to his Maker, to fulfill his true destiny.
Listen to this superb elucidation of prayer: