Neither of the latter two. God is holy, and as we learn what he is really like through living in obedience, that truth will work its way into our heart. From such a heart we will recognize who he is better and treat him with great honor and respect, with deep reverence and we will be overwhelmed in our awe of him ("fear"). Then obedience is much easier, in part due to the fact that along with knowing him that well, we will trust him that whatever he wants us to do, it is so he can bless our socks off. Why people sin becomes incomprehensible, because it will be obvious to
you that obeying is such an amazing delight (because of who he is and what he is like).
But regarding your original post, yes, prayer is holy. I would call it a holy communion with the great and awesome God. It is choosing to enter into a kind of unity with God. Being able to persist in prayer is even better (and has rapid results, too). IMO, your life becomes different with 1 hour/day of prayer, and it's very noticeable with 2 (no need to do it all at once). There is much breadth and depth to what prayer is.
There's lots of books on prayer for everyone; I'd recommend classics, though. The first one I ever read was
Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds (but I don't remember how good it was
).