Prayer is not a skill, to be worked at and developed. It is a particular way of being in relationship with a unique God, the God who chooses to be involved with us through the abiding Spirit of his Son. There is no one way of going about it. All that is required is that we acknowledge our need for God and turn to him. The way to do this lies through Jesus Christ, so the turning simply involves a letting go of whatever is causing us to resist him. It is usually something inside our own heads or hearts, a fear, or some intellectual habit which has become a kind of protective garment in which we disguise our true selves, thinking we can hide from God. Jesus would have described it as a ‘stumbling block’. If we pause to identify whatever it is that gets in the way of our praying, we usually sense that same old fear returning and we slip back into it, or grasp it and wrap it around ourselves for protection – lest we should fall into faith, perhaps. Prayer begins by letting go of this protection, whatever it is, and saying OK God, you win. We then immediately find that we are no longer on a battlefield, needing protection, but in a field of peace – a very good place to start praying.