Because he bends down to listen...

...I will pray as long as I live.  --Psalm 116:2
Pray without ceasing.  --1 Thessalonians 5:17.

This suggests that my whole life is supposed to be a prayer.  In everything, and every day, communication with God is of paramount importance.  Of course "prayer is good," but to have an explicit command to devote oneself to prayer unceasingly gets at something more substantial than just "needing to pray more."

Therefore I urge you, in view of God's mercy, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.  --Romans 12:1

God's mercy in Psalm 116:2 is that he bends down to listen.  That a Being so much "other" than me, and much better, would condescend to notice the whimperings of a soul buried so deeply within the confines of the universe... whatsoever my reaction may be, it must contain some sense of gratitude or hope at having been found and tended to.  In relationship with God, I realize that I have no place except that which is bestowed upon me, for I am an outcast by nature.  So gratitude increases, although tinged with the failure to understand my inclusion in the presence of All-Sufficiency.