Fire. Ice. Breeze. Love. A short word will grab your attention and convey meaning better than a long description.
It is the same in prayer. A short word from deep in the spirit is better heard by God than mumbled prayers from a page. A short prayer pierces heaven.
Pray in the depth of your spirit with few words, ideally a single word of one syllable.
Prayer is reaching out to God to obtain good and remove evil. So if your goal is to remove evil from yourself, concentrate on the removal of that evil with just one word: "sin". But if you want to obtain a good, then concentrate on the one word that is the source of all good: "God".
© The White Swami 2009