What is prayer?

I read this request on a forum:

What is prayer?

I'm not interested in the systematic theological definition. I don't want a three page quote from one of the confessions (I know where to find the confessions). I don't want the exhaustive list of all scripture verses regarding prayer.

Synthesizing the systematics, the confessions and the verses, I want a short paragraph that gives a working, everyday, practical, down-and-dirty understanding and explanation of what prayer is and what it is supposed to accomplish in and for the Kingdom. Brevity is next to godliness.

Here's a reply that will be rare, and on-the-mark:

The most important and practical aspect of prayer is its forcing you to humble yourself by simply recognizing that there is something higher than you. Vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will refuse to recognize anything higher than them. They control a human being. Once you begin to recognize God, recognize He that created you, that is higher than you, it begins to mortify the vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will within you. This is a practical result of simple prayer. God knows what we need, and what we need isn't always what we desire or think we need; but nevertheless the act of prayer at its most simple level is an act of the new man within a believer and it cultivates the new man inside you by morifying the old man inside you. Everytime you turn to God in prayer and recognize him - literally just talk to him - it mortifies the old man. That is why it is hard and it seems embarassing even at times. The old man within you doesn't want you recognizing that which is higher than you and that is real. That's the death of the old man in you. So the simple act of prayer actually cultivates and develops the new man in you in this way.

Again, just the simple act of recognizing God (who is higher than you) when you pray mortifies the old man in you and cultivates the new man in you. You will feel friction in the act for this very reason. This is the practical element of basic, simple prayer.

On not getting what you prayer for... Obviously we can all see how our prayers can be answered but in ways we can't predict, or that we don't expect. (A woman prays that an abusive person will get out of her world, and she expects him to then move away, but she finds herself moving away. The prayer is answered, just in a way she didn't expect.) I prayed once for a nephew who was in a bad situation. I prayed to God that the infant would be taken care of and all that. About three days later the infant was dead of SIDS. There's a shock to your system! Since the child had been born with drugs in his system, and since his parents were the worst kind of drug addicts, maybe delivering the child from that by taking him to be with God was the answer. Who can know? Maybe God took the child out of his time and allowed him to be born in a healthy body to real parents who would care for him? (Theologians who think they understand time, and even what the Bible says about time, will scowl, but so be it. There's more going on there than exists in your seminary professor's world... Time's a wildcard, kind of like the Word of God is, in how God operates regarding his sovereignty in creation, providence, and grace; and God is above time...but I digress...)

I have full, confident faith that what I pray for will be answered. I don't question God though if the result is not what I expected. It may also go against God's will in a way you can't know about. Still, I have confidence God still accomodates the prayer of his elect.