The Bible depicts an annotation of prayer in a story about Jesus' disciples being in this huge storm in a small boat, and how they thought they were going to be killed because of it. Jesus was just sleeping in the back of the boat, seemingly oblivious to the circumstance at hand. (John 8:23-27). So the disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He got up, rebuked the storm, and there was a great calm.

Well another separate story pertaining to His disciples being on a boat depicts Jesus walking on the water toward His disciples, and He would have passed them by had they not called out to Him. (Mark 6:45-51). It's as if He waited for His disciples' invitation before intervening.

He also did something very similar after His resurrection when He walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. After speaking to them for some time He acted as if He were going farther (Luke 24:28,29). He waited for their invitation before He accompanied them home. Thus, if you want Jesus to intervene in your life, you have to ask. He won't likely intervene without your invitation.

Well often times in our life it seems as if the Lord is sleeping. "God, why don't You help me? I'm sinking fast, and You're not doing anything! Don't You care, Lord?" But God responds, "O you of little faith!" He knows all about our problems, and He plans to deal with them in His way.

So I believe that praying is essential in a relationship with God as it is with breathing for us to be alive. But with knowing all this, it's still sometimes unnatural and awkward for me; knowing that He already knows my thoughts and needs before I express them. So how about you? Do you often feel awkward in prayer, that it's not going to change a circumstance, or do you think there is a reason for it?

I find prayer to be a little awkward when I'm doing it to or with an audience even if it is only 1 or 2 other people. When I pray by my self I don't find it awkward at all.

Also I find that when I pray alone I enjoy the experience more and it just feels to me that god is listening to me alone no one else, and it feels good.

"So I believe that praying is essential in a relationship with God as it is with breathing for us to be alive. But with knowing all this, it's still sometimes unnatural and awkward for me; knowing that He already knows my thoughts and needs before I express them. So how about you? Do you often feel awkward in prayer, that it's not going to change a circumstance, or do you think there is a reason for it?"

I don't feel awkward at all. Sure he knows what we need, but like so many other things with no effort on our part I don't see why we expect to get everything we want/need. Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you. It requires something from us in order to receive it.

I don't feel real awkward about it. That's the cool thing about God, he might be freakier than standing in front of 10 million people, but its like he removes discomfort.

I'm not much of a public prayer kinda guy... I mean, I will do it, but you won't catch me volunteering. Privately though, I'm perfectly fine... I don't even know why I feel that way, I have just never been emphatic about praying in front of other people... I guess because I want prayer to be as a special conversation between my Heavenly Father and myself :/.

bigNATE : Now isn't that what is cool about God? He is bigger and sometimes scarier than being in front of millions of people yet he still keeps it comfortable for us to talk to him.

I would have to say no prayer isn't awkward. Because, my pastor always says "Prayer is simply, just talking to God" Also, I find that prayer and faith in the Lord is all you need to be truely successful in life. I remember my pastor preaching a sermon on this. He said, " A wealthy man who knows not God is not rich, but a man with no money, but knows God has all the riches of the world." So prayer is absolutely neccersary to get ahead in life.

Prayer is never awkward for me. Probably because I'm not so formal when I pray, like I don't kneel on the side of my bed, recite Our Father and Hail Marys, or even think of God as an omnificent force. I just lay in bed and talk to God. I tell him my problems, other people's problems that I sincerely think of, talk about family in need, ask him to help me get through the next day, say "thanks" for things I'm grateful for, and I ask him to visit sometime like a close friend. So pretty much, I just talk to God when I pray like I would to a best friend or like writing in a journal. God knows everything so there's nothing to hide. To me, God is a friend that you can talk to when ever you need guidance and he/she (I feel sexist saying He) never judges until the final moment. So yeah, it is never awkward praying to God nor should it be.

I never volunteer to pray in a group, though that's just my personality, I'm bad with people, not with God. Though often when praying I feel like I'm just trying to say what he wants me to say to get what I want, and of course I know he sees right through it so I mention that, and then it gets all recursive.

When I pray, I just speak in my head. No need to always pray outloud. I hate praying in groups just because I really don't like being around people. I'm not a recluse, but I prefer not to be in groups.

Well everyone's replies have reassured my faith, however, my mindset is that every second that I'm awake is communion with the Lord; but my point is that before I actually begin to pray, I know that He already knows my thoughts and as such, I'm hesitant to even say anything.

However I do pray most of the time afterward because of my awareness of Him in my life, but it's awkward nonetheless. I'm not talking about publicly praying as it is before a different audience.... I just meant for the audience as God alone.

I feel sometimes as though, when I discuss things with my friends that it's like a non-chalent agreement to decide upon what *sounds* fitting to the group as a whole instead of an individual response because 'it might not be considered correct'.

Concisely, what I'm saying is that I feel that I don't actually pray enough because I'm too hesitant, so I feel that I'm in the wrong. Can anyone relate, or is it just me?

tRIUNE : Nope not to me. God comforts me when I pray. I bet even if I was in front 20k of people I could do it. Because god helps me get through and overcome any obstacle in my life. I love you JesUss

I totally feel you on prayer being awkward sometimes.  He's the omnipotent ruler, and yet He's supposed to be personal.  How do you even begin responding to that?  I used to think I needed flashy words and, well, thick drama when it came to how I spoke to God alone.  It was like every time I talked to Him had to be a show.  Now I speak to God with all the "like"s and "um"s attached, and it's actually really refreshing.  
I've found that I have trouble listening and hearing God, so I've kind of started dominating my conversations with Him.  I have to work that out, because I don't it's quite right either.

On the being hesitant part:  I get hesitant too.  Usually because I think "Well, he already knows what's going on...and I don't really feel like talking about it anymore...so let's just not."  I also sometimes feel like I don't even know where to begin with what to pray, as in, what to ask for or how to express being thankful in a real way.  I get overwhelmed, and usually hesitate in praying again.

I hope this made sense, all I'm trying to say is I understand the feeling and I relate.

scoutsmcgee : Yeah what you're saying is exactly what I was getting at.

Yeah, I've got to the point now where I don't really care what I pray about, because He already knows... it's still difficult though, because my personality dictates me to conceal emotions, which I shouldn't do with him.

tRIUNE : Something that helped me express myself better to God has been (slowly) learning that prayer, ultimately, is for us.  God doesn't need the communication He has with us, but He really does want it.  So, in the beginning, I was basically and spitefully being like "You want honesty? I'll give you honesty."

What started out as something very angry involving God really has turned into something precious. Anyway, what I mean is don't be worry about what you have to say to God, however intense it may be.  He can handle it.

For me its only awkward around people, when I'm praying to myself I feel just fine.

I have pretty much read the previous posts, and I feel I am on the same page as several people here. I agree with geeogree that despite the fact that God already knows our thoughts prayer is to be our effort. "Ask and you will receive." So I would say that I do not find prayer awkward. I ought to state though that I sometimes I lose focus on my prayer and I get lost in though with other things. In some of these instances, I just end a bit abruptly, believing that God already knows what I planned to say so why bother trying to continue? Looking back it was not good reasoning on my part.

Usually, when I pray, since I know he wants to be a friend, I tend to not be very formal in my prayer. It does help to relieve some of the awkwardness and finding the right words. But when I pray around people, they don't seem to know that most of the time, and I have to go back to being formal and awkward...