>>584122
First, a quick definition of faith is in order. In the words of the First Vatican Council:
>faith, which is 'the beginning of salvation,' the Catholic Church holds to be a supernatural virtue. By it, with the inspiration and help of God's grace, we believe that what He has revealed is true, not because of its intrinsic truth seen by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God revealing it, who can neither deceive nor be deceived
It can't be achieved by any human means: a direct, supernatural intervention is needed; that said, you ought to actively work and pray towards obtaining it, even though in the end it's a free choice of God to give it to you or not. If you persist and cooperate, you can be sure that sooner or later you will receive the gift.
I suggest you first learn about God using natural reason, not faith (obviously, you should constantly strive towards supernatural faith and pray for it - and it's very much, indeed I think more, possible that you will believe before you will have proven by reason God's existence and attributes). Since this is based on proofs and logic, it's not trust, and therefore not faith - but it's helpful aid and powerful motivation. I recommend Kerr's Aquinas's Way to God and Feser's Aquinas for a proper start - Aquinas' terminology, although very precise, uses words that to a person unaccustomed with the philosophy of the times may be misleading - in Aquinas "movement", for example, means something entirely different from what we usually nowadays mean by "movement"; this leads to many fallacious refutations of Aquinas' arguments, which indeed due to peculiarities of their terminology at first glance look erroneous. For this reason, you need a professional introduction.
As for prayer, there is obviously no prescribed, obligatory form to which you must conform; I personally prefer to pray in my own words, but many others prefer formulas. Rosary in particular is known to work wonders. Just be confident; sometimes God doesn't answer, but this is because he has some even greater gift to give. Here is an article about prayer you might find helpful: http://catholicexchange.com/recognize-power-prayer