Approaching God’s Throne Room (1 John 5:13-15)

It is easy to think that God is distant or that God does not care about the here and now.  However, when we learn about prayer the opposite is rather true: we are those who have life in the Lord and we can talk to our Lord.  Is prayer something that is merely a psychological thing or does the Lord really hear our prayer?  How does our prayer continue to ground us in the Lord?