How should we pray?

In the midst of a tragedy in 2014, I realized I had been praying wrong my whole life. Instead of making hopeful requests sprinkled with doubt [as I had always done], I learned to pray that night with faith.

To be more specific on how to pray, though, we always need to go to the scriptures to find the answers.
This first verse is HUGE when it comes to prayer.
Proverbs 28:9
One who turns his ear from hearing Torah —even his prayer is an abomination.
We find in the scriptures that if we are not obeying the words and the ways of the Father, then our prayers are an abomination to Him. So step one is to learn and follow the ways of Yehova.

The Lord’s prayer is universally known, but I’m not sure people take it seriously, or even understand it.
Matthew 6:5-13
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Amen, I tell you, they have their reward in full! 6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room; and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, shall reward you. 7 And when you are praying, do not babble on and on like the pagans; for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 9 “Therefore, pray in this way: ‘Our Father in heaven, sanctified be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Yeshua Messiah is instructing us to meet privately and intimately with the Father when we pray. We are told to keep it simple and straightforward. There is no need for eloquent, long-winded, wordy prayers, and especially this – – we are not to say ‘fancy’ prayers for the sake of others around us who might hear.
Then we get to specific instructions, the Lord’s prayer. He is not telling us to repeat this sample prayer word for word, as it is often done. He is not showing us what to pray, He is showing us HOW to pray.
‘Our Father in heaven, sanctified be Your name.
This is a simple greeting of reverence for the Creator of all things.

Your kingdom come,
This is an acknowledgment that His kingdom will come, and portrays our anticipation for that day to come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Another acknowledgment of His will [which is His Word, His instructions, His Torah] – and our alignment with His will, that it might be done. Not only in our own lives, but throughout mankind, and that His will would be done on earth, just as pure and holy as His will is in the heavens.

Give us this day our daily bread.
This statement is two fold…
One – a simple prayer that Yehova will meet our needs each day. Food, clothing, shelter – basic needs.
Two – bread is a symbol for the Word all throughout the scriptures. This is a prayer for His Word to be what guides us each day.

And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
This is a simple prayer for forgiveness, that we would be granted forgiveness when we fail. But at the same time, it is a prayer to state that we have forgiven men/women who have harmed us.
We see the absolute importance of this in Matthew 6:14-15 (directly following the Lord’s prayer)
“For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Our own forgiveness is dependent upon our ability to forgive others. Better get er done…

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And lastly, a prayer request for strength of spirit to not walk into temptation, and therefore, sin. Paul goes into great detail about living in the spirit and not in the flesh. Our flesh will fail, and will sin. We are told that if we live in the spirit, it is impossible for us to sin.

I did a bible app search for ‘prayer’ and came up with about 142 references. ‘Pray’ came up with 340 references in the scriptures. There is more to learn about prayer in the scriptures than what I’ve covered in this short study, but this is the simple gist of it:
1. Follow the words and the ways of Yehova, otherwise, our prayers are an abomination to Him.
2. Pray in a manner as Yeshua describes above.
Not word for word [as in reciting the Lord’s prayer], but concept for concept as it might apply to your life on any given day.