A Simple Way To Pray

In 1535, at the request of his barber, Martin Luther wrote a little booklet describing and recommending a method of daily prayer that he himself used throughout his life. This method involved always praying with a text (whether it was the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms, the Apostles' creed, or really any part of scripture) and then being guided by the text in four ways. In this way, prayer is a daily conversation with God based on God's word, and not our own ideas.
The four-fold method:
1) Listen to the instruction of the text. What does it teach?
2) Give thanks for God's work revealed in the text.
3) Confess our shortcomings in relation to the text.
4) Petition (ask) God on the basis of the text.