Daniel 9:4 I prayed to the Lord my God, and confessed saying, “Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always keep your promises and show your trustworthy love to those who love you and keep your commandments.

Daniel was a man of prayer. So much so he spent a night in the den of hungry lions for refusing to stop praying. Maybe that is one of the reasons why he prayed the way he did. He had experienced the promises and protection of a great and awesome God. But when we come into His presence to pray there are certain ways in which we should approach Him.

First, we should come to Him with praise. He is a great God who created all we know with His word. The only reason we know truth, integrity, righteousness and goodness is because these are His characteristics. So praise Him for these. Praise him for his goodness to you and all that He has helped you through. Sometimes He takes care of the problem, sometimes He holds your hand through the problem and sometimes He says no and waits for your faith to shine through during the problem. No matter what the answer it is the best answer for you, so praise Him.

Then there is confession. Confession is us admitting to ourselves how bad we reacted or the sin problem we refuse to acknowledge. Confession is not necessarily asking Him for forgiveness as much as acknowledging and meditating on our sin. It gives us the ability to realize how far we have fallen. Then allowing Him to forgive us and then allowing Him to help us strengthen and grow ourselves.

This is just a few thoughts on the act of praying. This is not an exhaustive expository on prayer. I hope it prompts thought on your behalf so you can have a richer prayer life. May God bless and keep you.