It can be difficult to know how to pray if you’re new to the Christian faith or have no ideas on what to say. Whether this is your first time or you simply hit a rut in your prayer life, here are some cues to kickstart your prayers:
Use an outline to pray.
One way to pray follows the ACTS model: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (an appeal to God). Begin with praise to God, confess sins and ask for His forgiveness, give Him thanksgiving for protection and provisions, and finally, make your requests known. Another model is known as The Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13. You can find a helpful guide to The Lord’s Prayer here.
Create a prayer list.
It can be immensely helpful to write down what you want to pray about before you get started. Use a journal to keep track of your prayers. To encourage your faith, take it a step further and mark the date your prayer is answered or follow up with an entry about God’s alternate plan.
Read scripture out loud.
If you want to know how to pray, begin in the book of Psalms. The prayer life of David is a good place to start. Here’s a few of my favorites: Psalm 30, Psalm 51, Psalm 63, Psalm 91, Psalm 139, Psalm 145. Proverbs is an entire book of wisdom to pray over your life. Another place filled with prayers is in the first four books of the New Testament where Jesus gave us His words to pray. Use a segment of scripture and make it yours by rewriting the verses in your own words.
Make it musical.
Did you know the book of Psalms is actually a book of poems? Hymns and lyrics to many Christian songs come right off the pages of scripture and teach us how to pray. Sometimes remembering a song or singing verses from the Bible is easier than speaking them.
Keep it short.
We can get caught up in the length of our prayers and struggle to come up with words to fill the silence. There is no rule on how long your prayer must be. And, there is no benefit to babble. God sees the content of the heart. Stretching out your prayers for the sake of filling time is useless.
Pray like you.
God created you to communicate in a unique way. Don’t get caught up in saying the ‘right’ things, speaking religious jargon, or praying like someone else. Prayer is meant to be a personal conversation with God, and sometimes even a wrestling match. When you come to God, let go of any perceived restrictions or requirements and just be you. God wants all of YOU.
Still struggling with how to pray?
Simply listen.
Put on worship music and get into a posture of prayer. Scripture reminds us, For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26 ESV
When you don’t have any words to say, let the lyrics in your worship music speak on your behalf. There’s great value in being still and simply listening during prayer. Here’s a list of worship songs to begin with.