Part of any strong relationship is good communication.

God communicates with us in many ways. Sometimes its through others such as Sunday school teachers, sermons, etc and other times its through the reading of His word. God may choose to answer our prayers through signs and still again He may confirm something we may have asked Him through someone else. Although God has many varied ways He may choose to communicate with us, we primarily communicate with God through prayer. In order to pray more effectively, there are a few things that we must know about prayer.

The basics of Prayer.
Prayer must be done according to God's will
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. ¹⁰ Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven
Matt 6:9-10

Prayer must not be done for selfish gain or worldly lusts.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. James 4:3

Must be done in private unless doing a corporate prayer such as in Church. It also must be done in plain speech and not fancy cliches.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. ⁶ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. ⁷ But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Matt 6:5-7

Must be done repetitiously until answer is given. That answer can be yes, no, or wait.
Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. ³⁷ And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. ³⁸ Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. ³⁹ And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. ⁴⁰ And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. ⁴² He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. ⁴³ And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
Matt 26:36-44

Must be done in the name of Jesus. We are to dirty to stand before God and He can only accept things brought before Him by His spotless Son. Jesus will not bring anything to God that is not in His will.
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Col 3:17

Must be done in Faith
⁶ But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. ⁷ For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. James 1:6-7

How prayer works.
First it must be understood is that at the moment of salvation, Jesus becomes our high priest and intercessor to Father God. Many think of Him as our intercessor when we stand before God at the last Judgment but not as our intercessor in prayer. Just like the high priest used to take the old testament believers request before God, Jesus does so with our prayers. Jesus functions as our High Priest today. Here are some scriptures concerning the High Priest.
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Hebrews 9:11

Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; ² A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. ³ For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
Hebrews 8:1-3

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
¹⁵ And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 9:14,15

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
¹⁴ For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; ^15
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.Ephesians 2:13,14,18

Next it must be understood that every Christian is engaged in spiritual warfare.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. ¹¹Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹² For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:10

Satan and his demons do not want your good and pure requests answered by God. He will try and discourage you from praying.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; ² Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: ³ And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. ⁴ And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; ⁵ Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. ⁶ And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. ⁷ And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Luke 18:1-7

What we can not see.
A good example of what goes on behind the scenes when we pray is illustrated in the book of Daniel. The word angel means messenger and it is apparent that this is a primary function of them. It is not clear how Daniel's prayer made it to God, but it is clear that the answer came back by angel. Even though Daniels prayer is heard immediately,

The angel had to fight in order to bring him an answer and actually needed help from another angel.

This whole process delayed him two weeks.

This would be like a message sent by pony express that was delayed because it was attacked by Indians. The rider takes cover in some rocks and wait for reinforcements to come. When they come they fight their way through but the message is delayed. I believe persistent prayer is the key to getting reinforcements and therefore an answer to our prayers.

What does scripture say about repetitious prayer

Once we truly understand the methods and means of prayer, the very thought of praying one time for something we really need will never enter our mind.
The teaching that a prayer done in faith should only be done once is a concept that is totally foreign to scripture. The Bible is very plain about persistence in prayer and it's modeled by both Jesus and the Apostle Paul. It's also taught by parable and if taken as a whole, the scriptures make it hard to believe in praying in any other way.

The Bible says that prayer should be without giving up.
¹⁷ Pray without ceasing. 1 Thes 5:17

Jesus teaches a Parable on prayer.
¹ And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; ² Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: ³ And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. ⁴ And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; ⁵ Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. ⁶ And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. ⁷ And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? Luke 18:6

It should be clearly seen that God does not see a Christian that prays repeatedly as faithless. God sees them as diligent. Man is helpless to change many of the circumstances of his life yet God expects him to do the only thing he can, pray. If I go to work and I do not see a paycheck at the end of the day but am promised one at the end of two weeks what do I do? If I have faith that my check will come in due time I will continue to work even though I do not see the fruit of my labor. If I don't have faith, I will quit. People that continue to pray to God even though they may not see something happening, prove to God that they believe that in due time God will come through. All we need to do as Christians is not quit! P.U.S.H. is an acronym that accurately describes what a Christians prayer life should be.
Pray... Until... Something... Happens.

Examples in Prayer
The Bible teaches us to be imitators of Christ and Paul teaches that we be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Both Jesus and Paul are good role models to follow. It is with great authority then, that both have biblical examples of repetitive prayer.
Just before Jesus was betrayed and sentenced to hang on the cross, this occured in the Garden of Gethsemane:
³⁹ And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. ⁴⁰ And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. ⁴² He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. ⁴³ And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Matt 26:39-44

When Paul got tired of suffering from some type of ailment, he prayed for its removal three times.
⁷ And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. ⁸ For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. ⁹ And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Cor 12:7-9

Asking in my Name

¹³ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. John 14:13-14

Many mistakenly think that asking "in the name of Jesus" is some sort of magic formula to get whatever it is we want. They liken it to saying "abracadabra" before preforming a magic trick. If this were true, God would be held captive to do whatever it is we asked and not whatever it is He wills. Both ridiculous and Poppycock!

In the book of Acts there was a priest had seven sons who thought that they could use God's name the same way. After witnessing the apostle Paul casting out demons in the name of Jesus, they thought that by doing the same that they could also drive out evil spirits.

Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 14And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 15And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 16And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Acts 19:13-16

It did not work out very well! This scripture illustrates at least two fallacies with this sort of thinking.

First, the phrase "Jesus whom Paul preacheth" basically means "this Jesus that Paul is talking about." Its not good enough to pray in the name of a Jesus who someone else knows, we must have a personal relationship with Him. We must be the children of God.

Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. John 9:31

Second, asking in the name of Jesus is actually asking something in the will of Jesus, on behalf of Jesus, in the power of His holy name. If whatever it is we ask for is not in His will or on His behalf, we will never receive it no matter how much we confess it. Christians are left here to be the representatives of God. We are here to carry out His ministry and His desires. We are here to glorify Him. If what we pray for is in line with this, He will more than likely fulfill our prayers but even then in His own time.

Lets say that we have a enemy that we witness breaking into our house and vandalizing it. In our anger we sincerely pray that God strike Him down or subject Him to some other type of torture. This will not be answered because it totally contradicts the will of God. It contradicts the spirit of love. The Bible tells us:
⁴⁴ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; Matt 5:44

We see this exact same thing when the disciples ask Jesus if they can destroy some people who did not receive Him.

And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 54And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 55But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. Luke 9:53-56

Faith and Prayer
The Bible teaches that prayer should be done in faith and according the God's will. The last part of it, In God's will, simply means we must recognize that if something is not in agreement with God's plan, He won't do it. To believe otherwise would basically mean that we would be telling God what to do. This is obviously not the case with prayer. Prayer is something we do to talk to God and also ask Him things. The first part of a successful prayer is to have faith. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. ⁷ For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. James 1:6-7

Faith is to believe in something that we do not yet see and is evidenced by our faith itself. ¹ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen Hebrews 11:1

This is were the teachers of one time prayer fall into error. They reason that if I pray for something, and I do it in faith, then I believe that I am going to receive whatever it is that I have prayed for. if I pray for something that I already believe I have received, then I prove that I don't believe that I have already received it. In other words, a prayer of faith is done only once, to pray more than that actually proves our lack of faith. Admittedly, this concept makes a lot of sense but thankfully the Bible has something to say about things that seem wise to man.
⁵ Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Prov 3:5

And this to say about the ways of God compared to the ways of man.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:7-9

The only logical way to know what is a prayer of faith is and how God wants us to pray is to see what scripture says, see what Jesus taught, and finally see how He and His apostles prayed.

Conclusion.
Man is not supposed to lean to his own interpretations but whole heatedly support what God has stated in His word. It makes perfect sense to me that the receiver of a gift would know perfectly well what gift it is they wish to receive. If it's my mother's birthday and I work at a candy store, it would make sense to give her chocolates. However, if my mother is allergic to chocolate, she may want flowers instead. Do I still give her chocolates even though she does not want them? Certainly not.
One time prayer is damaging because it will render a Christian's prayer life utterly useless. We will always stop praying before we receive the answers to our prayers. It teaches the very opposite of what God wants from us. Lastly it hurts our relationship with Him because God loves us and wants to hear from us more often and not less. We are to pray to God in a way that He wants it and that my friends is repetitiously and in the name of Jesus.