Learning to Pray

"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Matthew 6:6

I have been studying the Bible lately, to find out what it teaches us about prayer. I know in my heart, that prayer is vital to God and to us. In my research, I have discovered that there is not a great deal of scripture devoted to instructing us how to pray. There is much said about the subject of prayer; our need to pray, the need for persistence, and the overall importance, but little is actually said abut what we say, how we speak, etc. Jesus taught us how to pray, as noted in Matthew 6. We call this, "The Lord's Prayer." This is one of the few times that he actually spoke about how we are to pray. So why is so little spoken about such an important thing?
    I believe the answer is so simple that it may elude us. We are to just speak with God about what is on our hearts and minds. He created us with mouths and ears to be able to communicate with others. We speak what we want them to hear, and we listen to what they have to say. It is such a basic part of our lives that we don't think about it often. When we pray, God expects us to talk and listen, just as if we are speaking to another person. Prayer is having a conversation with God.
    I appreciate the fact that God isn't impressed with someone who has a great vocabulary. It doesn't matter to him if we are loud or quiet, if we speak many words, or few. He just wants to talk to us. He longs for that relationship in the same way we long for it with him. You can stand, sit, lie down, kneel, or squat. It doesn't matter to him. He just wants to talk with us.
    Why do we make prayer so difficult? You and I have intimate relationships with God. He lives in us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. When we pray, it must be as if we are confiding in our best friend. We can tell him things that we cannot tell anyone else, because there is no fear that he may break our confidence. There is no safer place to share the deep things of our hearts than in the presence of God. When we do this, he will respond with the perfect answer. If you can have a conversation with another person, you can have a conservation with God. It is as simple as that.