Does your prayer life leave you feeling empty or full? Is it something you do because others do it or because you truly desire communion with the Father? For your prayer life to be effective, there must be a regular block of time set aside. "One minute" or "five minute" Bible readings that I've seen in some Bibles will not work. If one is too busy or rushed to set time apart for their Creator, do you think He will want to spend time with you? Think how uncomfortable you feel when talking to someone who is in a hurry. You feel like you are in their way, that you are holding them back from something more important. Yet we do this to our God - how disrepectful! It may take some doing, but cultivate the habit of getting up earlier to have plenty of time for the Father. The habit will soon develop and you will be filled! I try to allow an hour to an hour-and-a-half, and I still find that I'd like more time. Try starting with a smaller block of time and gradually work yourself up.
     There are no special formulas or special words for prayer. One must simply "learn to pray from the heart and not the head."  The scriptures are one of the best helps if we learn to meditate on God's word. "Begin with a small passage and "digest" it before going on. Draw from it its fullest meaning - think it through. Can you think of other verses that are related? Memorize the passage." I have found so much more richness of meaning when I commit God's word to memory. Pray His word and you will find it is much easier to focus on God's presence and not stray in your thoughts. After time, I actually see the message of the verse begin to take place in my life. "Remember it's not the quantity you read, but the quality that will be to your benefit. Allow each individual truth to be meditated upon."  This is not the time for speed reading. Getting through the Bible in a year just for the sake of accomplishment will not be of much benefit to your soul.
     After you have been meditating on the word for some time, it will gradually grow easier to come into God's presence. Prayer will not be the burden it once was, rather it will be a time to look forward to. "Now try remaining in silence for awhile when you come before the Father. Enjoy Him. If you feel a release, continue in prayer. Seek nothing from God in these moments except to love and please Him."  So often our prayers consist of requests and those are mainly for self. We miss so much in this way. Coming into the presence of God seeking only Him brings true delight. It is truly loving Him.
     "There are times when God may conceal Himself from you for a time. It may be to arouse you from laziness or because you haven't been seeking Him in love. Whatever the reason, He does it for your good."  Don't give up. Persevere through this difficult time. It is a testing of your faithfulness. Generally these times of dryness are followed by closer communion with Him. "Wait in patience, humility and silent worship. This shows the Father that it is Him you seek and not the selfish delights of your own satisfaction. Wait patiently. Your prayer life will increase and be renewed."
     "Abandon your entire existence to God. Every moment of every day you must come to realize that you are in God's immediate will. Knowing and understanding this conviction of abandonment will cause you to regard everything that comes your way as being from the hand of the Father."  Understanding God's soveriegnty takes away our natural fear of the unknown. We don't have to worry about trying to control circumstances or other people. The control rests with God and with that brings freedom. Please don't misunderstand, God's soveriegnty does not exempt our God-given responsibility to do right. "Abandonment means casting off all selfish cares in order to be altogether at His divine disposal. It is essential to continually submit your will to God's will and renounce every private inclination as soon as it arises."
     Another fear we have is the fear of suffering, whether it be of pain, sickness or persecution. Often we are afraid of giving ourselves fully to God becaused we fear some form of suffering. "You begin to feel resistance in your spirit, resign yourself immediately to God. Give yourself and your circumstances to Him in sacrifice. God gives us the cross, which gives us Christ. The soul hungers for God in the same proportion as it hungers for the cross."  Pain is a great purger of self and a great cleanser of sin. The perfect, sinless Christ suffered intensly. How much more so should we, the depraved sinner suffer. When you begin to see the connection of suffering to growing closer to the Lord, you will cease to fear and you will be able offer yourself fully to the Lord and learn to be pliable in His hand. "If divine love glows within you, you will not try to flee suffering and adversity. You will think of only how to please your Beloved in that circumstance. Forget yourself and your own personal ambitions. Let your love for God increase."
     Our fleshly nature wars against the new nature God has given us. We're taught to trust our feelings, to go with our emotions, but this is dangerous. Our emotions fluctuate constantly and cannot be relied upon because they are subject to outward influences. "The only genuine means of bringing about change is by inward means. You must commit yourself wholly into the hands of a loving God. The simple act of commitment in every circumstance where self exerts itself will, in time, produce a separating of the carnal from the spiritual. Dying to your self-nature is a command from God. It plays a vital part in your relationship with Him and with others."
     Dying to self is not something that we can bring about ourselves, anymore than salvation is.  "God has placed a desire in your heart to continually draw nearer to Him. The closer you grow to God, the stronger the desire becomes. It becomes natural to place God at the center of your life. It is only by divine grace that we are able to know God. You must never presume that it is by your own efforts. You are not capable of coming to God unless He has chosen to call you first."  He is the force that draws us to Him. This force is His great love. It is irresistable to His children.
     "As the Creator's workings abound more and more with us, they will absorb our own self-efforts. This is also the case with your own efforts in prayer. Since God's light is so much greater, it absorbs our little flickers of activity. No amount of self-effort will bring you into His presence. It is of the utmost importance that you remain as silent as possible, relaxed and peaceful."  When I have read people's steps to a successful prayer life, I have thought, "OK, now all I have to do is thus and such and I will be in God's presence."  This never works on my time-table. I cannot summons God at a whim, thinking I have the magic formula. He will come when I sit quietly, when my heart is seeking and willing to listen. God says to be still and wait patiently on Him. It is the only way to hear His still small voice and His quiet nudgings and promtings. "When distractions come, simply turn from them and draw nearer to God."
     If we carry known sin in our heart, God will not hear us. Sin blocks communion with the Father. "Abandon yourself in examination as well as confession, to God. When you are accustomed to this type of surrender, you will find that as soon as a fault is committed, God will rebuke it through an inward burning. He allows no evil to be concealed in the lives of His children. Turn to God and bear the pain and correction He inflicts."  Do not shun it to avoid the pain, you will end up cutting off God, which cuts you off from the Life. It does hurt, but that's OK. He knows what He's doing and you will be the richer for it.
     Prayer is sacrificial. It is an incense offered to God by a contrite and broken spirit. It is a sacrifice of praise. "True worshippers shall worship the Father "in spirit and in truth." Jn.4:23  "This worship is "in spirit" because you are drawn away from your own carnal, human methods into the purity of the Spirit within you; and it is "in truth" because you are in Christ, and in Him is all truth. In order that the Spirit of the eternal Word may exist in us, we must give up our lives as He Himself lives in us. This means denying self and honoring God as supreme and soveriegn."
    One of the benefits of remaining quiet before the Lord in prayer, of the ceasing of our own activities, is that the activity in your spirit is now being moved by God through the Holy Spirit. I believe this can happen only as self ceases to exist. In that way is a person willing to move as the Spirit moves and only as He moves. "Therefore, your actions will not reflect on you but rather the Creator who made you. This 'activity' of being led will always surround you with peace. When you interrupt the Spirit's leading, you will always sense it because you will feel either forced or constrained. When your actions are under the influence of the Spirit, they will be free and natural."
     Real prayer is vitally important to our Christian walk. It is through prayer, through the Holy Spirit, that we gain access to our heavenly Father. We give our heart to Him in this way. Prayer is dependence on the Father for all our needs and growth. It is through this communion with Him that we learn of our hidden sins and it is how He purges us of sin. Shutting ourselves off to prayer is like not watering a plant. We will soon wilt and die. "God requires the heart above all things. By this means alone, we can destroy the dreadful sins of drunkenness, blasphemy, lewdness and theft. The decay of internal holiness is unquestionably the source of many sins that have appeared in the world. Sin takes possession of the soul deficient in faith and prayer."
     The workings of prayer in our life prepares us for heaven. It makes us holy as He is holy. It prepares us to be united with Him forever. What does it mean to be united with a pure and holy God? It means that self, which is the root of our sin nature must be completely done away with. How else could we dwell with God? How else can we desire holiness for eternity?  We must be purged, refined and pruned. It seems a difficult thing to give up ones will, to give up cherished desires, to give up our preferences, to give up our lofty opinions. But that is the road to death. Give it up and have life eternal. Give it up and have all the peace and freedom that God offers. "All that is of man and his own doing, be it ever so noble, must first be destroyed. The very existence of self must be destroyed. Nothing opposes God more that self. The purity of your spirit will increase in proportion as it loses its selfhood. The whole desire of our heavenly Father is to give Himself to His children according to the capacity in which we will receive Him. Do not be like the majority of mankind who pride themselves on their own blind wisdom."

"Pray without ceasing."   I Thess. 5:17