What conversations are you having with The Lord? If you slow down and listen to yourself, you might find that you’re falling into a familiar pattern.

I know from experience how easily our prayers can become a totally unproductive, one-way “conversation” with Jesus.

To affect a more effective prayer life, do these three things:

1. Listen
   “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” John 10:1-5
2. Trust
   Trust in the Lord with all your heart
   and lean not on your own understanding;
   in all your ways submit to him,
   and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
   And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6
3. Do
   Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22-25