NOTES for Isa 44:1-28
It is not that we pray to idols, but often we think about God as though He had not made us, but we had made Him. Idolatry is terrible and absurd not because unfortunate people worship the wrong god or, through ignorance, have wrong ideas about Him, but because the essence of such religious relations is power over one's god. Instead of seeking the will of the One who truly IS, people strive to invent gods for themselves in their own image and likeness, so that with their help they can carry out their own will.
Such paganism is not limited to the ancient world or distant countries. It weaves itself into our faith and into our prayer, in which we ask for the fulfillment of our own will, ask for health, happiness, and comfort for ourselves and our loved ones, without the least thought that the One to whom we pray may want something from us, simply because it is He who created us, and not the other way around.