One of the greatest helps Rabbi Stan has suggested in terms of drawing near to the L-RD in prayer is to use praise and worship music for the first 30-45 minutes, then remaining silent in order to hear the L-RD. I’ve been surprised how well it works in terms of reaching that critical amount of time to start hearing from God.
The songs help keep one’s mind focused on the L-RD more sharply. And there’s something Scriptural about staying in prayer for at least an hour in order to hear from the L-RD; after all, in the Garden on the night in which He was betrayed, Yeshua Himself came back from prayer more than once and found his talmudim asleep, and scolded them, saying, “Could you not tarry with me even a single hour?”
So even though Yeshua prayed more than once that night, it seems each session as about an hour or more in length, given that statement. And if an hour or so is good enough for Yeshua, well… that’s who our model is, right? That’s why we call Him Messiah.