How to Pray

Prayer is so simple yet so vast. We hear stories of our aunties, grandmas, or pastors spending hours in their 'prayer closet', yet we can struggle to stay focused for 5 minutes, none-the-less hours. So how can I begin to develop a rich prayer life? Thats where this guide can be extremely helpful. This is by no means the only correct way to pray. It's simply a way to use the Lord's Prayer to organize our thoughts. So whether you are new to prayer, or you can spend hours in prayer easily, this resource can be of aid to you.

We begin by praising God, who He is and what He’s done. I like to say theres three different languages to praise God in. The first is Walmart language, meaning talk to Him the same way you would talk to your friend in Walmart. "God you are: cool, awesome, my friend, etc." Then there is Bible language, meaning how God is described in the Bible. "God you are Jehovah [Jireh, Nissi, Shalom, etc], my Shepard, Alpha and Omega, etc. Then there is the heavenly language, which is praying in tongues

Next, we submit ourselves to God's will. We lay ourselves bare and acknowledge His Lordship and direction over our lives. We align our hearts with God.

This is where we seek supplication, or another to put it is ask God for stuff. This could be physical needs, emotional, spiritual, or anything else. We can also use this time for intercessory prayer, meaning praying for other people. This could be people we know, marginalized people groups, or areas of the world yet to hear the gospel. The list is endless. The Lord is a good God, and wants to hear our requests. It's interesting to note that this comes after submitting ourselves to God, aiding us in making sure our requests line up with God's will.

You've probably guessed it, its time to pray for forgiveness. Forgiveness for the sins we've committed, as well as forgiving others who have hurt us. Much easier said than done, but a necessity. "Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die" - Saint Augustine

Next, a prayer of deliverance. We're claiming our identity in Christ, and declaring the enemy has no foothold in our lives. Praying to purify our minds and hearts. Also, if God has convicted you of something, praying to drop that sin and walk in accordance to how God is leading you. One way you can think about this is, forgiveness is praying over the past mistakes we made, deliverance is praying over our future.

We end the same way we started, with praise.

So there you go: Praise, Submission, Supplication, Forgiveness, Deliverance, and Praise. If you are looking to boost the amount of time you pray, you can set a 5 minute timer for each part. For example, set a 5 minute timer and begin praising God until the timer runs out, then do the same thing for submission and so on. If you run out of things to say before the timer runs out, don't worry, thats fine. See if the Lord lays anything on your heart to pray with the remaining time. At the end of this exercise, you would have spent 30 minutes in prayer! Then begin increasing the length of the timer as you see fit. Or, if in the beginning 5 minutes is to much, start with a 2 or 3 minute timer.