When we pray, there are many preconceived ideas about what is taking place. And I would argue, at least in the Western world, wrong preconceptions. Typically, when we pray, we are asking for things. Not necessarily bad things, selfish things or even physical things, but we are asking God to do or provide something that we think would be good or beneficial. Does this not presuppose that we think we know what would be best or possibly good?
One needs to step back and honestly assess our position. Almost all of us have been alive for less than 100 years, yet somehow, especially those of the 18-25 year range, seem to think that we know best. Honestly, our exposure to reality, our experience with ourselves and with others and the volume of our knowledge is incredibly small. When we honestly think about how small, insignificant and uninformed we actually are, how could we dare to think that we know best about anything?
The Orthodox position on prayer (the historical position) is radically different than what the Evangelical/Protestant world promotes. Prayer is not an appeal to a divine Santa Claus. Prayer is not a casual chat with a buddy. Prayer is learning to silence our ever busy, distracted minds and "listen" for the direction of the Holy Spirit. It is bringing our mind into our hearts and simply listening. Ultimately, it is an appeal to God to have mercy on us.
We are so distracted, so temporally minded, so earthly, that we cannot even think straight, not to mention even pray "straight". The "Jesus Prayer" has been a foundational standard for the Christian world for many centuries, some would argue even from the beginning of the church. This is the place to start to learn how to pray.
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