I talk to Jesus, but my prayers usually go: "Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you in the precious name of my Lord and Savior and your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ. Father, ..." And then I close in Jesus' name. My wife always tells me that that's really formal and that she wishes she prayed like that, but it doesn't matter. That's just the way I've prayed since day one of my walk. I almost always go to the Father in the name of the Son.
Formal prayers are all nice and everything, but if anything, Jesus implied in the Bible that they aren't really necessary, that He is more looking for heart-felt prayers, that you mean what you say and say what you mean. Now, I'm not saying Formal prayers are Bad, nor am I trying to accuse you of doing anything wrong, but I'm more trying to say something of your wife, that if your wife's prayers aren't so structured and formal, that perhaps her prayers are just fine, as long as she is saying what she means, and means what she's saying.
We could consider two people: a Pharisee from back in Jesus's time would meticulously go over this long line of prayers, very structured, very formal, very eloquent but devoid of emotion, and he's doing it only because that's how it was handed down to him and taught in traditions, and the people who memorized the longest prayers were thought to be the "best".
The second person is some random believer who has a concern, or a worry, or even some love that they want to express to the Lord. Let's say for simplicity's sake that they are a believer and that they have some simple need. Let's say they are in some pretty bad pain because of an injury, and one day they go "Oh Lord, please help me with this pain." and... that's it. Not very structured, eloquent, or anything like that... but yet this guy means exactly what he said, and said exactly what he means.
IMO, He is probably more likely to listen to the second guy rather than the first. And I wouldn't be surprised if there are times that we prayed
unknowingly; does He require us to say what we think of is a prayer every time we bring a concern to Him?
Paul in Ephesians 6:18 tells us that we should be "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit".
Well, we can't
always be praying (in the sense that most people think of it); we'd either be running out of breath, or we'd get distracted, or eventually fall asleep, right?
I believe that "prayer" is more like a state of mind where we have Him on our minds, and the things we say and do while in this state of mind are directed towards Him, and the "prayers" that we think of as prayers are more... I dunno... something like a "sure-fire" way to make sure to ourselves that we're talking to Him.
Again, not saying formal prayers are bad... I'm merely saying that they aren't the only way to pray and one shouldn't feel that they are lesser because they aren't as good at it. I, myself, struggled with this for my first few months of walking with Him, I kept telling Him in my prayers that "I'm really not very good at praying, but..." but as time went on, I felt a bit better about it after I read some resources (like gotquestions.org) and of course, the Bible. Now there are still times when I want to pray for someone, but I'm not sure what exactly to say, sometimes that's when I'll say something like "Holy Spirit inside of me knows what to say, is it not written in Scripture that Holy Spirit makes intercession for us in prayer?" or something to that effect.
Either way, each believer's walk is different, one shouldn't measure themselves against other people; one should measure their walk against what the Bible says their walk should be.
