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I spend much of my day puttering and keeping house, gardening in season, outdoors with my animals, walking in nature with my dog. I keep my prayer at that time to a quiet whisper, praising HIS creation, giving thanks, thanking HIM for everything, asking for him to stay with me and to give me light and clarity. If I find myself ruminating in my mind about this or that, I have learned the discipline to yank myself back to be aware of HIS presence. I do that with a centering prayer, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on me, a sinner", like a chant. It pulls me back to being completely centered and feeling alive in the moment. That is one kind of prayer, I suppose it is like contemplative prayer. Then there are the morning readings of Scripture, something from the Old, a psalm or two, Something from the Epistles, and something from the Gospel, closing with the Our Father, with the emphasis on "Thy Will Be Done", and meaning it. I pray before I eat, sometimes silently, or muttering If I am in despair about something, personal or worldly, as in the condition of the world, someone else's suffering and pain, again I finish with "thy will be done". If there is a prayer request, I will think about the person asking it, and ask of God in my intention, for God to guide and protect of heal that person. I try not to pray for every whim that comes my way, as in pain, I have it all day long, there is a reason for it, physically. So I ask God to give me strength to endure it, and remember his pain on the Cross, and the pain of the rest of the world, so mine does shrink in comparison. My prayer life is more important than my supplement regimen, my food, my drink. I have to remember if I become lax in this practice, the devil is doing push ups and gaining strength. When I pray fervently, it is often due to my shortcomings and remembering my unGodly ways of my youth, and then I confess to HIM and plead for forgiveness, and try to think of a way to amend . If I find myself wasting food for instance, I will make sure to donate to the food pantry that week. If I have a flash of anger and speak harshly, I apologize. There are many kinds of prayer in my personal practice of my Christianity. I go to church occasionally, and the one I go to is known as the "singing church" in town, and on a summers day with the doors open you can hear us up and down the street, I raise my voice and sing the hymns with all my heart and really get swept up in the words of worship of the Hymn, it is wonderful! I am so grateful that my life is just how it is, somewhat secluded and very close to nature, it gives me the freedom to speak out loud to HIM.. "what a friend we have in Jesus" is my reality, HE is my companion, HE is my significant other. Even though I understand that HE already knows what I have done, what I am doing, and what I will do (or the choices I will face), it wards off any kind of loneliness or shame I may feel for my past, or any kind of pain I may have in my present. I wish I had known this when I was younger, my life would have known peace and contentment earlier. But we come to him as ourselves, not what we want to be, but as we are HE loves me no more than the next person, and I try to Love HIM as HE loves me, and of course I fall short daily.

You are getting some good input from the comments here. I'm going to offer a response from a metaphysical approach to the topic, one that I think is relevant. It might come across as intellectual, but I believe it fuses very well with the heart dimension, and the ideas have been confirmed to me through experience.

Firstly, a look at one of the fundamental principles governing God's creation.

Our God is a Father and an absolute being of relationship. All the creation was designed to exist, act and develop through relationship (cooperative relationship, not conflicting relationship, as Marx wrote [lied]).

The foundations of relationship are twofold: one, common or shared purpose; two, mutually common nature or qualities. When common purpose and common nature are present, then relationship develops via a dynamic of giving (investing) and receiving (responding).

(It's not easy to find the perfect words to express the ideas, but fwiw, "common purpose" indicates a common or shared motive and desired outcome.)

A basic example on the human level: a family. A man and a woman come together with the shared / common purpose of establishing a relationship and establishing a family. The man, although primarily masculine, also has latent feminine nature, and the woman, primarily feminine, has latent masculine nature.

They both desire love, they both want to give love and feel joy in love. They both desire for their love to be received. Their innate nature (God's heart) is to desire children so that they can pour their love into them, into a family.

Their distinct nature allows them to give something unique to each other, and their common nature allows them to resonate with each other. Thus, relationship is born, grown, matured, and their relationship produces children, forming a family.

We have a common nature inherited from our father. We have heart, emotion, intellect, will (intent). This is God's nature, in us.

When we pray, all of those aspects can come into play. In prayer, we become the initiator, connecting to God with that nature of God we have inside ourselves.

But there also needs to be common purpose. This is why, when we pray, an important question is what purpose we have or hold, what motivates us, and does it align with God's purpose and motivation? Is it shared purpose? The more profound and the greater degree of shared purpose (common motivation), the more powerful the connection is made, and the more powerful the relationship that results.

For example, if I pray, with my heart, "Father, please liberate the people of my nation from their fear, their anguish, their ignorance", is God going to share that same purpose? Is God also motivated for that? (How much does this prayer, this purpose I have align with God's heart and will?) If my heart is sincere, for the sake of my people, then surely this will also be God's desire, and our common purpose comes together.

What if, however, I pray, "Father, I want to win the lottery, so I can have buy a Mercedes and drive around in a cool car! Please let me win the lottery!" the question is, how much does this align with God's purpose and motive? I think we can agree that God's primary desire for any of his children is for them to secure and experience eternal life and wellbeing. He's not really that focused on material gain. At least, not as a priority!

An interesting idea comes in to play here. It's energy. Consider the English expression "invest your heart in (something)". What about a meal or dish that you really pay close attention to, that you really infuse with love for the people you are feeding, that you exert yourself to make excellent and nourishing and tasty, with the heart that your guests have a special experience? Which would you rather eat? Such a dish, or a dish that is prepared in a factory, impersonally, and then just taken from the freezer, thawed and served without attention to presentation?

The point is, that as beings of heart (like our Father), when we invest our heart and love in our efforts, this generates a force, and the more we invest our heart in something, the greater its energy and capacity to draw love from the cosmos. So, sometimes, some people feel (consciously or unconsciously) that extended prayer is a way for them to express their sincerity, their dedication, etc.

Of course, the key factor in all endeavors is the heart, the sincerity and love we pour into it. That's true with prayer. Just as we respond to the effort and heart that someone invests when they engage or give something to us, does our Father also naturally feel drawn and respond likewise, by heart, by love, by invested sincere effort? If we have that nature, its from God, so one has to conclude that indeed, our Father also has such a nature to respond in such a way.

If we are requesting something from God, which is more likely to move God's heart? A sincere, heartfelt prayer that resonates with God's intent for us and the world, or a short, off the cuff prayer that takes little effort? Jesus indicates that God's primary nature is the heart of the parent (and I fully agree with you about Jesus being our parent in heart).

I'm not saying that prayer needs to be this way or that way. After all, it's not the form that counts, so much as the content. And the content hinges of faith on one hand, and heart or love on the other.

A momentary prayer offered in deep sincerity and faith can be powerful. But like an artist who puts his effort, time, skills into creating his work of art, a prayer can likewise be infused with effort, time, and offering. The more effort, time and offering infused into a prayer, the more powerful it becomes energetically, and that energy can impact on and influence the spiritual dimension, not to mention God's own heart and nature. Why? Because, as you so rightfully pointed out, God (or Jesus) is a parent of love, and he wants to respond, if he can.

Some of my most profound and deep prayers took place when I found a silent place in the woods, when I bowed down on the ground on my knees, clasping my hands together, and poured my heart into seeking God's heart. After praying, and investing, and praying, and praying, suddenly God's heart would burst forth in my own. Overwhelmed or rather, overshadowed by God's heart, I shed many, many tears for humanity, for his children, feeling like my own heart was his heart, filled with love, sadness, grief and sorrow.

At the conclusion of such a prayer, I felt like I had gone to the mountain top and met God. (Actually, I literally had!) I also felt such a sense of release, and relief, and such hope.

Such profound experiences are transformative. They become something it is impossible to forget, etched deeply into one's heart. Such experiences begin to infuse your life and the way you see people, the world. You see someone in difficulty, and you cannot forget how God shared with you how he feels when he sees that.

So, sometimes a prayer can be about asking something from God, but prayer can also be about trying to give something to God. (Blasphemy??!!!)

No one likes to be nagged, but the nagging unpleasantness comes because the lack of shared purpose, common purpose. The person is always asking you to do something that you don't want to do, or that is not part of your purpose.

But if we nag God for something that IS part of his purpose, does his dislike that? Oh, stop bothering me! Stop praying for the people! Or maybe God is relieved to find that one of his children actually cares about X more than usual?

In my experience, when considers the above ideas, and reads Jesus words about prayer, and read scriptures about Jesus' own practice, different insights come.

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men. And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Then she will stop wearing me out with her perpetual requests.’ ”

And the Lord said, “Listen to the words of the unjust judge. Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He continue to defer their help? I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

A final word. Do you think that Jesus ever gets lonely? Does our Heavenly Father ever get lonely?

God and Jesus invest themselves continually to reach out, raise up and love the world, guiding each and every person as much as they can in the direction of The Kingdom of God (aka the world where God's love reigns). How will they feel if someone comes along, and spends many hours in prayer, for the sake of the world?

Will they feel bugged or nagged? If the person's purpose is self-centered "please fix the world because its giving me so much trouble! And I want the Mercedes!" then it won't resonate. But if the person's purpose is truly for the sake of the world, for the freedom of God's own children, then surely God and Jesus will feel like: "Wow. Finally someone gets it! Finally one of my children feels the way I do about the world! Child, come close! I will never leave you!"

Because the common nature is enhanced, and the common purpose is shared, so that relationship is deepened and made all the more profound.

Don't you imagine that God felt this way when Jesus was born, grew up and spent hours and hours in the mountains, fasting, praying, seeking God's heart? I do. To me, I imagine that this is how the Father and the Son become one, in fully shared heart, and fully shared purpose. Infused, a relationship raised to an absolute level, beyond any possibility of separation.

I think that is the kind of relationship Jesus wants for us also to have with our Father.

(BTW, I'm not suggesting that God ever leaves us, but rather, I want to emphasize that God is a Father of heart and that he responds with heart. God may always be close to us, but does he always FEEL close to us? Does he always FEEL like we are close to him? How to enhance the feeling of closeness?)

So, pray long or pray short. What really counts is the heart (common nature) you bring to it, and how much your desire or purpose resonates with God's own desire and purpose.

Disclaimer: I'm not attempting to say what is right or wrong or correct or not. Just really attempting to share some of my own thoughts on the topic, thoughts which have evolved and sprung up from my personal experiences, among other things. Hopefully, there's something there that adds to the discussion.

In any case, for what it's worth, I think that Jesus really appreciates the pure trusting faith that you approach your prayers with. Thank you!

I think one of the strongest reasons for a person to pray out loud, is, because as you’re praying to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Satan cannot be in the same room with you. He hates the name of Jesus, and he hates that we pray to the living God. For that reason alone, I will pray out loud. However; I don’t think length of prayer, is a qualification for it being answered. But… While you are in prayer, you are truly communing with God. That could never be a bad thing. But He knows we have lives, and we must be living them.

I will say this, and I don’t know where I heard the story, and I don’t have a source for it. But here goes - I remember hearing about this when I was in Kauai..

There was a building, somewhere in the Midwest, where these people set up a prayer ministry. They decided that they would be praying. 24 hours a day. There would be different shifts. Well throughout existence of this rayer house, all kinds of miracles were performed, people got healed, and it was a big deal.

Come to find out, the building that they were living in, used to be a place where nuns lived, and that’s all they did was pray. All day long. Back in the day, they had the same results. Miracles, healing, etc..

There is something about the power of prayer, collectively. The second group of people did not know about the nuns that lived in that place before they did. They didn’t find out till much later. Now that’s God’s power. I’m all for that.

Some verses like this I just don't understand. It gives root to ideas that God is like a vending machine, just asking for whatever you want and it will be yours. I dunno. People have quite a formulaic attitude towards God. I struggled with constant unemployment during the Bush/Obama years back when I lived in America. "Oh, you just need to pray the 'Prayer of Jabez'." I got tired of hearing that. Prayer of Jabez! Pray for money! Joel Osteen type stuff. Eventually I'd just say, "Prayer of Jabez... is that the prayer asking God to grant me the power to telekinetically explode the heads of people I don't like, like in the movie Scanners? Because so far it's not working."