It would seem that if I was to start building a prayer habit I would need to change where I keep myself focused.

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory! – Colossians 3:1-3 GNT

Is it not true that every once in a while I say I need to pray more, so I sign up for a prayer meeting or two, set aside more time to pray and sooner or later am back where I started?

What happens when I fix my focus on heavenly matters instead? Will I pray regularly?

One thing for is for sure – prayer does not happen by accident.

Listen to my prayer, O Lord,
    and hear my cry for help! – Psalm 102:1 GNT

Here is a double take that includes both prayer and crying out.

Luther had an idea of what the difference was between the two.

“The intellect makes the prayer, but the feeling makes the cry.” The feeling is the impulse of desire: vague, unstructured, nonthematic. But the prayer is formed, directed, and instructed: it shows the feeling “what it should desire, and how and whence.”

Luther had some thoughts too of what this looked like when it came to praying with the spirit and with the mind.

Praying with the spirit is, “strictly speaking, not a prayer but a cry.” On the other hand, to pray with the mind, that is, with meaning, is to have the meaning of the words which one reads or speaks. And according to this form the cry and desire is shaped, according to which prudence and thought forms every act of the will.”

They may be distinguished but they do not have to be kept separated – as the Psalmist encouraged – the prayer model has them both happenig at the same prayer moment.

Crying out and praying – praying and crying out – either way God will hear.

Eugene H. Peterson’s book on prayer through the Psalms is “Answering God.” Though he uses the title “Answering God” to describe the Psalms themselves, I believe this also serves as an excellent and compressed definition for all prayer. – Timothy Keller