Prayer is the breath of the soul.  It is as necessary for a newborn Christian to pray as it is for a newborn baby to breathe.  When a person is born into the kingdom of God by grace through faith, one of that person's first acts of faith will be to pray.  When the Lord came to the prophet Ananias and told him to go visit Paul, Ananias was told, "Behold, he prayeth" (Acts 9:11).  Jesus comes into our hearts as an answer to prayer.  The prayers of others may sustain us temporarily, but sooner or later we must begin to pray on our own or our life in Christ will atrophy and disappear.  It is through prayer that we open our hearts to God.