What is prayer?

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Accepted answer

Prayer

  1. a devout petition to God or an object of worship.

  2. a spiritual communion with God or an object of worship, as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or confession.

Prayer is, essentially, any type of communication directed to God, whether thoughts or vocal words. It can also be, simply, the act of devoting your heart towards God.

Anything that is, as dictionary.com put it, "spiritual communion" can be prayer, including acts that are not normally considered religious (driving a car, flying a kite, etc.)

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The answer is probably best viewed from the perspective of the Jews, and therefore of Jesus Christ, who taught us the Lord's Prayer.

To a Jew, a prayer time is a time of self-judgement.

Source: for example, visit the site https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/682090/jewish/The-Meaning-of-Prayer.htm

The Hebrew for “prayer” is tephillah. According to NAS Exhaustive Concordance, it comes from the verb, palal that means “to intervene, interpose”, or as indicated by Brown-Driver-Briggs, “to arbitrate, judge, intercede.” Its reflective verb is lehitpalal, “to judge oneself”. Thus, a prayer time should be a time to examine ourselves carefully, critically and sincerely, knowing that we are all sinners and fall short of God’s glorious standards (Romans 3:23):

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Since we cannot possibly meet God’s expectations, we do not deserve His blessings and favors. Therefore, we humble ourselves before Him and confess our sins in our prayers. Psalms 51 and 69 come to mind as some of King David’s most significant prayers that are unparalleled in their long, sincere and careful examination of thoughts and feelings. It is only after first carefully, critically and sincerely examining ourselves that we can partake in sanctification with the help of the Holy Spirit.

It is from this Jewish perspective of what a prayer should be that we can fully understand the Lord’s Prayer – why we begin by exalting God's name when we say Our Father in heaven, holy be your name, humble ourselves before Him when we say forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sinned against us, and then request the Father not to bring us to the test but deliver us from evil, which is exactly meant for our sanctification.

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Prayer is defined by my (Lutheran) Church as being

A heart to heart talk with God.

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