Prayer and Reorientation

To be honest, I don't entirely understand how prayer works. I am actually probably less understanding of this than I allow others to see. Yet, I do know and believe that there is power in prayer. God responds to it, as is clearly evident in Scripture; though, as some seem to think, I do not believe that prayer somehow controls God nor do I think that a lack thereof hinders God. Moreover, I believe and think that prayer changes and transforms the person praying, especially when praying from a place of deep despair. Praying reorients the heart and mind in such a way that the person praying finds him/herself in a place where he/she admits that he/she is incapable of doing anything about that for which they are praying. It is our confession that we need God to move in, take control of, hold onto, etc. whatever circumstance for which we are in prayer. I wonder, therefore, if prayer isn't the ultimate act of humility toward God?
To "seek God with all of my heart" while praying means that, with all of my heart, I admit that I am helpless in that given situation. If this is the case, and I hope, for me, that it is, then this reorients the person praying. It flips one's perspective of being in control of, or being able to cause some outcome to happen, on its head, as it places the person in a humble position of inability and God in the place of absolute capability.
Interestingly enough though, the person praying does not remain in a place of humiliating servitude. Maybe it is God's grace or God's desire that we work alongside God, but in the act of praying, we become, when rightly situated, workers with God in the situations for which we are praying. Moreover, there are times when we find God using us in ways beyond our praying, as we literally walk with those for whom we pray or in those circumstances for which we pray.
Is this the reason why church history has coupled the disciplines or prayer and Scripture reading/study? For, as we pray and walk with God in the working out of his will in the lives of people and circumstances in this world/creation, we are in need of rightly conducting our lives, whatever "rightly" might mean. Therefore, unless we know that Scripture instructs us to be generous, how will we know to be, in our own lives, generous with the impoverished? Or, if I am praying for Jeanine and am unaware, due to a lack of Scripture study/reading, that she is to be honored, adored, and cared for in ways beyond what is obvious, how then will I know to do so?
I have always known, since becoming a follower of Jesus, that prayer and Scripture reading/study were necessary. I think, though, that I often forget that they go like hand in glove in order that we may, when rightly situated, work with God to participate in the transformation of not only peoples' lives but of the world.