A Guide to
Prayer is not a formula you memorize for a specific response from God, nor is it a magic spell where you string together various spiritual words. In the simplest terms, prayer is our way of communication with God. Prayer is also a discipline that we need to grow in.
What is Prayer?
- Prayer is pouring out our hearts to God in praise, petition, confession of sin, and thanksgiving. (New City Catechism Q&A 38)
- Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of his Spirit; with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. (Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 178)
Ways to Pray
"7 Ways to Pray" by Navigators
We’re always a simple word or a single step away from a conversation with God. And yet taking that step or saying that word can sometimes feel confounding or daunting. These seven ways to pray draw from the deep well of Christian history to make praying a habit to enjoy in our crazy, bustling, wearying times.
1. Praying with the Bible
There are different ways to use your Bible in your prayer time. You can personalize Scripture by putting your own name into a verse. For example, “Amy, my peace I leave with you … Amy, do not let your heart be troubled.” (John 14:27) Try writing out a prayer from the Bible, adapting it into your own words. Or write the words of Scripture into a poem, just using the key words.
2. Praying through the Bible
Lectio divina is Latin for sacred reading. The practice of going repeatedly through a short section of Scripture has been used for more than a thousand years. There are 4 steps—reading, meditating, praying, and contemplating. Each time you go through the Bible passage, take time to pause, notice, and interact with the Holy Spirit.
3. Practicing the Presence of God
Practicing the presence of God can be done anywhere and at any time. It’s simply calling to mind that God dwells within us through His Spirit and His Son. Being aware of God in our daily lives takes being intentional. Welcome Jesus into whatever you are doing. You might want to set a timer at various intervals to remind yourself to call to mind the presence of Jesus.
4. Hearing God
Our Bibles burst with God speaking to His children, from Genesis to Revelation. One well-loved example of God’s communication with young Samuel in 1 Samuel 3. Samuel needed help from Eli, at first, to understand God. As we practice listening prayer, we can test what we hear from God with three helps: Scripture, impressions of the Holy Spirit, and circumstances.
5. Praying with Lament
Our prayer book in the Bible, the Psalms, bursts with songs of lament, not only those written by individuals but those for corporate worship. The psalmists cry out to God, asking and even demanding that He help them. The psalmists often move through their lament in four stages: address, complaint, request, expression of trust. Follow this pattern to pen your own prayer of lament.
6. Praying Imaginatively
Praying imaginatively involves opening our hearts and minds to receive from God in a different way. We do so asking the Holy Spirit to guide and guard us. Imaginative prayer involves entering into a biblical narrative and interacting with the characters in the story, including Jesus or God the Father. Some people do this visually, as if they are in a film. For others it might be more of a journaling experience.
7. Praying the Examen
Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit order of priests, practiced a five-step process called the examen: give thanks, ask, review, repent, renew. The regular practice of the examen can free us from the effects of unconfessed sin. With the examen we can also become more sensitive to discerning God’s voice and moving forward with Him, as we reject our sinful desires.
We’re always a simple word or a single step away from a conversation with God. And yet taking that step or saying that word can sometimes feel confounding or daunting. These seven ways to pray draw from the deep well of Christian history to make praying a habit to enjoy in our crazy, bustling, wearying times.
1. Praying with the Bible
There are different ways to use your Bible in your prayer time. You can personalize Scripture by putting your own name into a verse. For example, “Amy, my peace I leave with you … Amy, do not let your heart be troubled.” (John 14:27) Try writing out a prayer from the Bible, adapting it into your own words. Or write the words of Scripture into a poem, just using the key words.
2. Praying through the Bible
Lectio divina is Latin for sacred reading. The practice of going repeatedly through a short section of Scripture has been used for more than a thousand years. There are 4 steps—reading, meditating, praying, and contemplating. Each time you go through the Bible passage, take time to pause, notice, and interact with the Holy Spirit.
3. Practicing the Presence of God
Practicing the presence of God can be done anywhere and at any time. It’s simply calling to mind that God dwells within us through His Spirit and His Son. Being aware of God in our daily lives takes being intentional. Welcome Jesus into whatever you are doing. You might want to set a timer at various intervals to remind yourself to call to mind the presence of Jesus.
4. Hearing God
Our Bibles burst with God speaking to His children, from Genesis to Revelation. One well-loved example of God’s communication with young Samuel in 1 Samuel 3. Samuel needed help from Eli, at first, to understand God. As we practice listening prayer, we can test what we hear from God with three helps: Scripture, impressions of the Holy Spirit, and circumstances.
5. Praying with Lament
Our prayer book in the Bible, the Psalms, bursts with songs of lament, not only those written by individuals but those for corporate worship. The psalmists cry out to God, asking and even demanding that He help them. The psalmists often move through their lament in four stages: address, complaint, request, expression of trust. Follow this pattern to pen your own prayer of lament.
6. Praying Imaginatively
Praying imaginatively involves opening our hearts and minds to receive from God in a different way. We do so asking the Holy Spirit to guide and guard us. Imaginative prayer involves entering into a biblical narrative and interacting with the characters in the story, including Jesus or God the Father. Some people do this visually, as if they are in a film. For others it might be more of a journaling experience.
7. Praying the Examen
Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit order of priests, practiced a five-step process called the examen: give thanks, ask, review, repent, renew. The regular practice of the examen can free us from the effects of unconfessed sin. With the examen we can also become more sensitive to discerning God’s voice and moving forward with Him, as we reject our sinful desires.
Additional Guide:
What is Prayer?
By Barry J. York, Ligonier Ministries
Reformed Christians have a ready answer to the question, “What is prayer?” The Westminster Larger Catechism 178 asks that very question, stating in response, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of his Spirit; with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.” Three defining truths regarding prayer emerge.
Prayer is the communication of our desires to God our Father. Prayer is not simply thinking about God or having concerns. Rather, prayer is expressing need from the heart to God. B.M. Palmer says in Theology of Prayer that prayer is “the language of creaturely dependence.” Those who do not sense their needs do not truly pray. They are like the Pharisee in the Lord’s parable who, standing in the temple stating how superior he was to others, “was praying this to himself,” not to God (Luke 18:11).
In contrast, the Scriptures picture true prayer as an offering rising up and seeking heaven’s attention, like incense offered before the Lord in the temple (Rev. 8:5). Prayer is casting anxieties on God (1 Peter 5:7), crying to God in trouble (Ps. 34:17), and making needs known to Him in every circumstance (Phil. 4:6–7). Prayer is desire offered to God.
Prayer is coming to the Father by faith in the merits of Christ. An American citizen cannot hold office in the United Kingdom or assume he deserves special privileges from the queen. Likewise, no sinner can stand on his own merits before the King of heaven. Yet by faith in Christ’s work, we become citizens of the kingdom of heaven through His righteousness. Thus, we gain “confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). This righteous standing before God is what it means to pray “in the name of Christ,” as the catechism states. Consequently, every time we pray, we should remember our standing by confessing our sins and thanking God for how He mercifully receives us through Jesus.
Prayer is the Holy Spirit’s enabling us to talk to the Father. At the very moment of our conversion, the Holy Spirit who regenerated our hearts also sealed us as adopted children of God. He put into our hearts the cry of a little child to God: “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15).
The Spirit then continues to help us in prayer by providing recorded prayers for us (Matt. 6:9–13), filling us with biblical praise (Eph. 5:18–19), and helping us whenever we ask the Father (Luke 11:13). When our suffering is simply too great for us to express with words, the Spirit even groans for us (Rom. 8:26). The Holy Spirit is the very breath of the church’s prayers.
Prayer, then, is having the Spirit’s breath helping us to communicate, the Son’s blood making a way, and the Father’s ear attuned to our every plea. Our triune God provides all we need to pray.
Prayer is the communication of our desires to God our Father. Prayer is not simply thinking about God or having concerns. Rather, prayer is expressing need from the heart to God. B.M. Palmer says in Theology of Prayer that prayer is “the language of creaturely dependence.” Those who do not sense their needs do not truly pray. They are like the Pharisee in the Lord’s parable who, standing in the temple stating how superior he was to others, “was praying this to himself,” not to God (Luke 18:11).
In contrast, the Scriptures picture true prayer as an offering rising up and seeking heaven’s attention, like incense offered before the Lord in the temple (Rev. 8:5). Prayer is casting anxieties on God (1 Peter 5:7), crying to God in trouble (Ps. 34:17), and making needs known to Him in every circumstance (Phil. 4:6–7). Prayer is desire offered to God.
Prayer is coming to the Father by faith in the merits of Christ. An American citizen cannot hold office in the United Kingdom or assume he deserves special privileges from the queen. Likewise, no sinner can stand on his own merits before the King of heaven. Yet by faith in Christ’s work, we become citizens of the kingdom of heaven through His righteousness. Thus, we gain “confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). This righteous standing before God is what it means to pray “in the name of Christ,” as the catechism states. Consequently, every time we pray, we should remember our standing by confessing our sins and thanking God for how He mercifully receives us through Jesus.
Prayer is the Holy Spirit’s enabling us to talk to the Father. At the very moment of our conversion, the Holy Spirit who regenerated our hearts also sealed us as adopted children of God. He put into our hearts the cry of a little child to God: “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15).
The Spirit then continues to help us in prayer by providing recorded prayers for us (Matt. 6:9–13), filling us with biblical praise (Eph. 5:18–19), and helping us whenever we ask the Father (Luke 11:13). When our suffering is simply too great for us to express with words, the Spirit even groans for us (Rom. 8:26). The Holy Spirit is the very breath of the church’s prayers.
Prayer, then, is having the Spirit’s breath helping us to communicate, the Son’s blood making a way, and the Father’s ear attuned to our every plea. Our triune God provides all we need to pray.