Why is prayer so hard??

A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being. (James E. Faust)

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. (Colossians 4:2)

I once read that one cannot truly develop a relationship with another without communication. There must be some form of communication - even in the wildlife we can observe there is a form of communication that occurs that welcomes, warns, or wins the attention and affection of others. To be a Christian and NOT pray is kind of like saying you want a relationship, but you aren't willing to see it develop. You want the 'association' without the 'communication'.

Paul's instruction to us is to 'devote' ourselves to prayer. When we devote ourselves to something or someone, we are concentrating on it, appropriating time and attention to that pursuit. When we 'devote' ourselves to prayer, we are making a conscious choice to share a little bit of our heart with Christ, allowing him to share a bit of his with us. Each time we communicate in prayer we are opening the door just a bit wider for that sharing to occur. 

Prayer involves an alert mind. That might just put an end to some of the 'rote' prayers we have gravitated toward in so many religious circles. To recite the same prayer over and over again doesn't really require us to engage the mind, much less the heart. When the words come from our heart, even though they aren't many, nor are they 'fancy' or 'polished', they mean so much more to Jesus. His heart responds to ours and we begin to form a 'relationship' as a result of that truthful and heartfelt sharing.

If we want to grow by leaps and bounds in this Christian walk, it begins in prayer from an alert mind and a thankful heart. It may seem a little hard at first, almost like you have to 'make conversation' with him for a bit, but the more you share, the deeper the connection will become. It will get easier. You just need to make that first connection. Just sayin!