A Final Word About Prayer

I would encourage everyone to read my article about prayer. Some of you may see how long it is and think you really don't have time for that. Well this little post intends to sum up that huge article about prayer. But for those who would love to read the big article; be my guest.
The most confusing thing about prayer is defining what it actually is. At it's basic level, prayer really is simply communicating with God, whether it be spontaneous or liturgical. God hears both. But I do believe that it is a conscious effort; an entering into a holy place. It is not simply thinking about God or about God things. It is consciously recognizing yourself in the presence of God and talking to him about whatever. There is no set of rules about what we're allowed to pray about or pray for. We literally can talk to God about anything. But... we must not forget to remember that God's name is holy when we pray, that God is our daily provider, that we are nothing without Him. We must pray for His heavenly kingdom to invade the earth. We must pray that He would help us to be gracious and merciful like He is, and to keep us away from sin. This is what Jesus told the disciples to pray for when they said; Teach us to pray. I think we would do well to pay attention.
We tend to think of prayer as more than communicating with God. We tend to think of it as a way to get what we want. Some of us get discouraged when we don't get what we want and we start to doubt God, and others of us set up motifs like "God said yes. God said no. God said maybe." Not that this isn't helpful or true, but the request way of looking at prayer is limited. If we are upset that God hasn't "answered" our prayers we are revealing that are motives in prayer are misguided. We ought to pray as an act of relying on God, and showing that we trust him, being content with our circumstances before we ever enter the holy place. Prayer is all about showing God, and even ourselves that we recognize that we need Him and that He knows better than us. Not praying is communicating that we do not need God. Therefore, not praying is a lie. Praying is an opportunity to experience the special presence of God, and can do nothing but bring us closer to God in such a way that our circumstances become of little importance in comparison to knowing God.
There's a lot of general things there. Assuming that there are questions. Let the discussion begin.