Questions on Prayer

Paul posted some questions on Safe Harbor's website, so I'm bringing them here to answer them. Enjoy.

Discuss prayer in the following ways:

How does it affect you personally and/or practically?
Prayer is something I took for granted growing up. I seriously thought that unless my prayers were eloquent enough, or meaningful enough, then God wouldn't hear them or answer them. I even said "excuse me" if a coughed or sneezed during my prayers. What a weirdo! But after I got saved, I realized that it's more of a conversation between me and God...one I don't take advantage of enough. It's so easy to bring our petitions to God, but not so easy to just worship him for who he is through prayer. I can sing to him all day long, but worshipping him through prayer is different. Practically, it's easy for me to (in my mind) say a prayer and then check "pray" off my proverbial list. It's a control thing for me - I don't want to have to pray about things because I believe I can handle it.

What is it?
Like I said, a conversation - it doesn't have to be formalized or memorized, although those types of prayer aren't bad. Either way, it needs to be from the heart.

How do you pray spiritually? (I ask this because not everything of our faith is practical)
Well, if by spiritually, you mean like, in worship rather than asking God for things, see answer to #1.

What does scripture say about it and what examples are seen in scripture?
Anytime I think about prayer in scripture, I always think about the ways Jesus mentions in the Gospels. I think about how even He needed to take time away by himself to pray. I think about the prayers of the pharisee vs. the prayers of the humbled sinner. I think about the women with the issue of blood - she had all of her prayers answered with one touch. I guess I connect prayer in scripture with faith - it's better to pray about something when you have faith that God will do it.

Could our approach to it be all wrong? (un-answered prayer)
I know my approach is wrong at times. It's so easy to fall into this step-by-step mentality about prayer - a checklist, like I said before. I know I should pray for my family, my church, my friends, my needs, my faith, etc. But then it's just my, my, my...I guess we should allow God some room to speak in our prayers, and to put specific things on our hearts to pray about. Paul and I were discussing this as he was preparing to post these questions, and I know I don't allow God any space in my prayer life (or lack thereof) to speak to me...to commune with me...to conversate with me. Unanswered prayer is so frustrating, but I so easily forget that sometimes, I'm not dealing with unanswered prayer - I'm dealing with God answering my prayers in a different way than what I'm expecting. We need to remember that when God answers, it's rarely in the way we think we need him to.

Sometimes I hate being married to Paul because if something is on his heart or is affecting him, it begins to affect me, even if I don't want it to. ;)