Remember, prayer is about faith. So where does faith come from? It comes from hearing the word of God. As Paul wrote, ‘Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ’ (Rom. 10:17). Faith – and so prayer – is birthed by the gospel. That’s why scripture and prayer are so often put together. . . .
It is the word of God, the gracious message of Christ, that awakens faith and so prayer – and so that must be the basic shape of our everyday communion with God. We need to set Christ before ourselves. That is, we hear the word of Christ in Scripture, in song, through each other and by reminding ourselves as we praise him. We should long that our eyes might be opened to see the beauty of the Lord and that we might be drawn afresh to want him – and then prayer is simply the articulation of our heart’s response. To summarise what we have discovered so far, prayer is the chief exercise of faith. Naturally we’re rubbish at prayer because we’re sinners. Yet the solution – what will give us the true life of real communion with God – is the gospel of Christ that awakens faith.

– Michael Reeves, Enjoy Your Prayer Life