Learning to pray

I've been raised with prayer, I've prayed before, but when it comes down to it, I'm not sure that I'm really confident that I am good at prayer. I understand He wants us to speak to Him as familiar as possible, to be personal, heartfelt, and honest...and most of all faithful. As I develop a more personal, or a renewed personal, relationship with Him, I am learning to pray. Pray more often, more habitually, in good times and in bad. So why is it that prayer does not come easily when that is simply what God wants...sounds so easy!

I am learning to trust that my soul knows what He needs to hear when I pray. I also try to just talk with Him as if He was at my side physically, like a friend in the car you talk casually with as you get where you're going. I admit that I think my own personal inhibitions and insecurities play into my prayer, and I have to fight the tendency to worry what He'll think if I say something wrong or not good enough. Why is it that of all creation, God is certainly the Master of unconditional love, and it's even hard to trust THAT?

I will keep learning to pray and learning to trust that my heart and the Holy Spirit know what I need to say. I expect like talking or walking, this is a skill that gets better and easier with use. I keep recalling the verse that says 'when I am weak He is made strong" and thinking that I am like spiritual steroids for God---I am certainly giving Him plenty of opportunity to become stronger. :)