As Christians, prayer is vital in maintaining our relationship with God. However, I'm sure there are some of us who would agree that we could use a little pre-prayer pep talk. Understanding how we can we go about improving our prayers is entirely dependent on what elements are in need of strengthening. But, there are two common areas that we can address.

Results

One concern that we can sometimes have is that our prayers are not being listened to because whatever we've asked God to make happen in our lives hasn't come to fruition. But this concern makes prayer seem as a one way dialogue - we ask, we get - and that couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, prayer does give us an opportunity to ask God to impact change in areas of our lives but that doesn't mean that He will do so immediately, or even at all. The ability to manage our expectations and more importantly, listen to what God is saying to us can really help improve our approach to prayer. Each time we pray, we have lots of things to be thankful for. Opening our prayers by showing appreciation for the blessings that we tend to take for granted is a useful way to put things into perspective.

Routine

Towards the end of last year, the Church of England launched a prayer campaign, Just Pray. The campaign encourages us to take time out to pray. What's positive about the name and concept of the Church of England campaign is that it aims to inspire us to just do it, to not be afraid of talking to God, to not be afraid of trying, because "trying to pray is praying". In addition to praying whenever and wherever we feel like it, setting aside a certain time of day to pray can help too. By doing this we can consistently put our focus on God and address the issue of not making enough time for God. Planning our prayers shouldn't meant that they become a chore. There's no need for routine to result in the reduction of our enthusiasm and passion. In fact, knowing that we're due to communicate with God at a set time should be something that we look forward to.

When it comes to prayer, practice doesn't equal perfect but it does equal progress, and that's what we should be aiming for.