Approaching Prayer

The below are some suggested ideas for approaching prayer - ways to encourage regularity and depth is your prayers, to help you grow closer to God.

Obvious Considerations  (top)

• Time of day: Will you be tired and lose concentration easily?
• Privacy: Will your prayers be influenced by events around you at all? If so, in a good way or bad way?
• Motivation: Why are you praying? Is it to grow closer to God, or to impress others?

Mental Drift  (top)

A Common problem with prayer is the loss of concentration and beginning to think about other things. Here are a few suggestions:-

• Try saying your prayers out loud (obviously, this will work better in private - unless you're doing group prayer in which case it's expected!)
• Try reading a biblical prayer, such as a Psalm, altering it to fit your circumstances and praying it.
• Try reading a passage from the Scriptures and as you read consider if it has any implications on your life - if so, pray over it.
• Pray through the Lord's Prayer and expand each line as you say it - so you could pray "Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be your Name - may your name be revered (hallowed) by all around me, and may they see your glory - may the whole earth sing your praises; Your Kingdom Come - Lord Jesus Come!; Your will be done - help me to obey your will, Lord..." - you get the idea...
• You could use prayer points that you prepared earlier, or even a list you compile yourself that takes you through regular things to pray over on a weekly basis. See below for more on this.
• You could journal your prayers in a Prayer Diary - write completely your prayers to God as if a letter, allowing much greater thought on the issues to be covered and allowing you in the future to reflect on past concerns helping you to realise how God has answered past prayers.

Other Tips  (top)

• Learn from others: Choose other Christians, mature in their prayers, and learn from what they pray about, and even ask them for tips on approaching prayer.
• Grow in your understanding of God's will. This is of the utmost importantce, because it is useless praying against God's will! Therefore read your Bible, go to Bible study, listen in church...
• Pray regularly in small groups: Try to organise groups of two or three with a mature pray-er and an immature pray-er so that the latter can learn from the former; and so that you can both/all encourage each other and bring issues to God together.
• Try to get into the habit of praying whenever a concern arises, or whenever you think of a friend or family member who may need prayer.
• Pray until you're at ease with praying: Just about every prayer and every pray-er starts out a bit stiff; but in both cases simply continuing in prayer will allow the prayers to become smoother, easier, deeper and more consistent.
• Humble yourself in prayer: Prayer is the time I've found myself to be most reflective and honest about myself - after all, who can lie to God? So use also the time to consider ways in which you are failing God, and ask his help in knowing how to please him more.
• Vary the way you pray: If it is a nice morning, I may take the dog out for a walk whilst praying (and I get some much needed exercise too!), I may sit in my chair and pray, or I may simply kneel beside the bed in prayer. You get the idea. But again, you don't want to be doing other activities that require much thought, because you should remain focused on your prayer.
• Pray - ask God to help you to pray well and effectively to Him. (!)

Reasons We Use Not To Pray  (top)

I've used and sometimes even continue to use these reasons, to some extent - I think just about everyone has. But they are still flawed excuses...

• "I'm too busy to pray": This should not be the complaint of a mature Christian. Put simply, prayer should be one of our highest priorities in the day - it is time we can take to talk with our creator! Perhaps other things should be dropped in order to allow pressure-free time for prayer.
• "I feel too far away from God to pray - dry and/or unworthy": This is how we should approach God - as we are sinners who by ourselves can have no relationship with God. But we can also approach Him with confidence although we are unworthy, because of Christ. Remember and reflect on the fact that it is through Christ that we can come to God - no matter how "spiritually dry" or unworthy we feel.
• "I feel no need to pray": If you feel no need to pray it's probable that you are relying upon yourself, when you should be relying upon God. It would be an act of grace on the part of God to teach you how much you rely on Him.
• "I have been treated so badly that I don't want to pray and I don't think I should have to": Whatever has been done to you is nothing compared to what God has forgiven you for. So, forgive others so that God can forgive you (cf. Matt. 18:21-35).
• "I am content with a non-challenging Christian life": Then stop reading (I hope no one reading this actually thinks this though!).

Prayer Lists  (top)

As suggested above, a set of prayer points prepared before praying can be invaluable in your prayers - especially in making sure that you pray for everyone and everything you want to.

I use a prayer list and it helps me keep on track, praying for some things and people every day, others five times per week, others three times per week, others twice and others once per week. Every morning I pray using these lists, which I alter fairly regularly, allowing me to bring all my friends, family and concerns before God on a regular basis.

• An Example Prayer List: The prayer list I find most useful (PDF).
• A Template Prayer List: The template of the prayer list I find most useful. Please feel free to use this for your own prayers (Microsoft Word 2000).

     Along with the prayer list...

Along with the prayer list, I also use a daily diary type book to list any special "one-off" prayer points, and to journal my day. This works a bit like the prayer diary in that I will likely mention anything in my journal that I struggled over in prayer - and this with the "one off" prayer points means that I can read back over previous days and see what I was praying for, and meditate on how God has answered that prayer.

     Thoughts on the Prayer List

A valuable lesson I have learned is not to use the prayer list as a list - rather than moving from point to point (as if using a checklist), try ordering the list in such a way that nearby prayer points are in some way related. For example, I have all of our Church Missionaries next to each other, and I will likely put siblings next to each other and couples next to each other. It just seems better to approach prayer with a bit of paper in front of you to remind you of what to pray should you need it, rather than praying as if off a checklist. This approach has two other advantages:-

• The prayers you pray are much more likely to flow smoothly;
• It becomes easier to remember, so that if you want to pray whilst walking the dog, or if you lose your list, you can still pray as if you had the list.

I have also found that I am able to stay in deep prayer longer if I know what's coming next on the list. This may mean doing the above and grouping things together, it may mean scanning ahead and temporarily memorising what is next to pray for; either way (maybe both?) it is nice to have the next point "on your mind" as you pray - I have often found that a point "on my mind" is related to what I am currently praying for, which is helpful in praying meaningfully and helpfully.

     Any Suggestions?  (top)

If you have any key ideas for approaching prayer, let me know and I'll see if I can put them on this page for others to benefit from as well.

     Other studies in this section  (top)

• Introduction: A short history of my prayer life - hopefully an encouragement to persistence!
• The Approach to Prayer: Tips for a consistent and meaningful prayer life.
• An Example Prayer List (PDF): The prayer list I find most useful (PDF).
• A Template Prayer List (MS Word 2000): The template of the prayer list I find most useful (Microsoft Word 2000).
• The Theology of Prayer examined and explained: What the Bible tells us about prayer.
• The Content of Prayers: What we should be praying about and for, and praying in-line with God's will.
• Prayer Points for this site