How do we approach God in prayer?

Much of the following description is taken from

(William C. Brownson. Words of Hope. 2002)

Hebrews chapter 4: verse 16

Let us then approach the throne of grace  with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Many people today don't really feel as they know God, they feel he is someone far away and they don't really know how to talk to him. We can learn how to approach him, with confidence.

Suppose you to want to aproach God in prayer, to come to his presence with your needs and concerns. How should you go about it? What sort of attitude should you have?

Here is the heart of the bible's answer, "with confidence".

Sometimes confidence is translated as boldness. This comes from a root which means literally total freedom to speak. It suggests praying is in an unhibited way , without fear or hesitation, trusting fully that we shall be heard. It pictures a childlike freedom in pouring our hearts out to God.

If we ask how we should approach God, we could say approach him with "reverence and awe"  "with penitence" (the action of feeling or showing sorrow or regret for having done something wrong) also quite appropriately "with thankfulness" and "with humility" but also a willingness to trust God.

However no one of these or all of them can take the place of Holy confidence. 

To pray with confidence is to pray with faith.