Let us take an example from life. A person is waiting for a certain detail in his life to fall into place. He does everything he can... he davens, he visits kivrei tzaddikim...and yet he waits for the yeshuah to arrive. Now, in general, when we daven, we’re focused solely on the yeshuah that we want—and we daven for our interest. And while the Ribbono shel Olam is a merciful Father, there are other calculations that come into play. If a person has aveiros, chas v’shalom, the Ribbono shel Olam may help him cleanse his neshamah from them through these yissurim.
It’s not that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, “Ah... you’re focused on yourself? I will reject your request based on that. I don’t care about you....” Of course, we retain all the rules that our mothers and grandmothers taught us about how Hashem listens to our tefillos—they’re all true. However, many times, it is for the ultimate good of the person that his wish not be granted, that he should have to wait a bit for what he wants. You want your personal good? B’seder. This is for your good!
However, the moment that a person takes himself completely out of the picture (we know that this is difficult to impossible, but suppose we could press a button and all of our biases and personal interests would vanish), then he would daven solely for kevod Shamayim, without any personal interest. He would say, “For my part, I don’t care what happens to me, but I am asking for salvation for the Shechinah’s sake.” In such a case, there is no place for any judgment against the person—because he’s not in the picture.
