Prayer Guide for a Christian

Prayer doesn’t need to be a scripted, perfected, or recited with fancy words.

We can humbly come to God, Our Father, in tears, shaking, barely able to get the words out. We can come to God, Our Father angry, scared, anxious, sad, fearful, and just say what is on our hearts and our minds.

However, we are given some very important instructions on how to approach prayer. This includes how we ask God for things, praying in the secret place, humbly kneeling, and also concepts on what to pray. There is also power in using scripture for our prayers.

SECTION 1: HOW TO APPROACH PRAYER
SECTION 2: WHAT TO PRAY

Pray in the Secret Place

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret, will reward thee openly.”. – Matthew 6:6

It doesn’t matter whether or not it is a room or a closet, it is just a matter of praying away from other people. It is important to find a place that is quiet so you can more clearly hear from God when you are praying, to choose a place free from distractions, and a place that you are truly alone. There is a time to pray with others and there is a time to pray alone. God wants us to spend alone time with him. As I mentioned in my Freedom from Religion blog, we are in a relationship with God when we are born again. If you haven’t, read what it means to be in a relationship with the creator of all things. You can’t be in a relationship with a spouse and not spend time with them. So yes, you need to make time for God.

Schedule Time

Does it seem a bit much for you to have scheduled time to pray to God? I saw this recently something like, “how can we say we want to spend eternity with God, and then say we are too busy for Him now? We know Jesus spent time alone praying to God. If Jesus spent time alone with God, then we definitely need to be! Before and in-between miracles, Jesus went to a quiet spot out in nature away from all people, all distractions, and he prayed. Jesus didn’t go to the church to pray – he went to his secret place which was often the wilderness or a mountain top (Luke 6:12, Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16).

Once you add time with God into your daily routine, it will become so natural to you. You might find that your life starts going more smoothly as you are no longer doing everything on your own apart from God.

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. – Proverbs 3:5–6

If you neglect your time with God, you can fall back into worldly things, fall into pride, fall into disobedience.

Praying in the morning you might find you start the day more peace filled, positive, and grateful. You might realize asking God for His plan for you, which is greater than your plan, is the plan you always needed! Prayer grows faith, trust, and so much more! Time spent in prayer is never time wasted.

⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9

I’m going to say this again: prayer time with God isn’t a religious activity, it is relationship. You can come to God with your worries, doubts, anxiety, fears, and lay them down at his feet. God already knows what you are struggling with before you say a word, but you have to still come, still show up, still seek God wanting to strive toward righteousness, wanting to be transformed to please God. He wants you to trust Him will all things.

² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. – Romans 12:2

There is ALWAYS Time for Prayer

We see there are no biblical instructions that say we should pray this many times a day, we should pray for this amount of time daily, etc. It is not my place to say. You have to figure out your personal relationship with God. Chris and I approach prayer a bit differently. Maybe some days you can’t pray in the secret place, so then you pray in your car on the way to work, during an afternoon walk, perhaps you pray at night before you fall asleep. Do note that praying driving or walking there are distractions, so this isn’t the same as praying in the secret place. BUT there is ALWAYS time for prayer regardless of where it is.

I pray in my secret place after I read my scripture in the morning, but I also pray throughout my day. Sometimes I’m taking a walk and I pray, sometimes doing chores and I pray, cooking, sometimes while I’m driving, sometimes while I’m doing a hobby. I pray multiple times in one day.

There is a correlation between the time you spend with God and the benefits you receive. You make more time for God you will find more peace, more joy, less worry, less anxiety, less stress, etc. As I mentioned in the blog “Life Cheat Sheet,” (God gave me this title) the greatest commandment given in the New Testament is to love God, so our #1 priority in life is our relationship with God.

We Pray “Father”

¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” – Romans 8:15

And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” – 2 Corinthians 6:18

Of course there is also the “Lords prayer” Our father…  Matthew 6:9-13 

So, we pray “Father” after we have been born again because we are adopted children of God “sons” and “daughters.” We are told God is now “Father” to us.

We Pray “In Jesus Name”

²³ And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. – John 16:23

¹³ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.¹⁴ If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. – John 14:13-14 

Pretty much every born-again Christian I know of prays “In Jesus name.” We do this in recognition of Jesus. Jesus is the reason why we are saved. We also understand Jesus is the reason we can ask God for things. Most importantly, we know there is POWER “in Jesus’ name.”

This is a gift we receive with the Holy Spirit being able to ask God for things with great confidence. This is a bit of a challenging scripture because God isn’t going to give us all our worldly, selfish desires. This scripture actually means prayers in alignment with Jesus’ character and authority. These are prayers that will bring glory to God.

Kneeling to Pray

We don’t have to kneel every time we pray, but we see from the scripture that when a person is serious about a prayer, they will kneel before God. It is a way of humbly coming before God in reverence with honor and respect understanding that God is the creator of everything, has the power to do anything and everything, and He is worthy of all praise.

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. – Ephesians 3:14

⁴² So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. – 1 Kings 18:42

Did Jesus himself kneel before God? See below.

³⁹ And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. – Matthew 26:39

---

What do We Pray?

We Give Thanks to God

²⁰ Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; – Ephesians 5:20

Again, we pray saying “in Jesus’ name.” If something is repeated in scripture multiple times, that’s not random, it means it is important!!!

We should see everything “good” in our life as being a gift from God. God gave you your personality, your talents, your strengths, gifts, etc. He gave you the opportunities, the home, career, and all the beautiful things that you love. God gave you the people in your life that you love. We have love because God loved us first.

^“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17

We Ask for Things

 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. – Matthew 7:9-11

²² “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. ²³ “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. – Mark 11:22-24

I love these verses. We see that God wants us to come to Him. He wants us to make our requests known, to give us gifts, to see that He is a good, good father.

God answers prayers from those who are not his children because God loves us that much. So how much more will God provide for you as his adopted child?

So, we pray for:

Hard decisions we have to make, we ask about tiny choices, we ask for understanding, pray for things we need/want, for help with emotional struggles (anxiety, fear, pain), challenges with certain sins, for help forgiving, for mountains to move, how to help others, how to walk in our spiritual gifts, etc., etc., etc.

If you are struggling with an ongoing sin, what do you do? You go to God and ask for help. Maybe you are struggling to forgive someone, that is one of the harder sins to overcome. Maybe you keep having jealous or lustful thoughts, don’t hide your face in shame, pray to God for help! God doesn’t always respond the way we expect, maybe he sends someone to help you, or maybe you hear about a book. God could answer in a number of ways. The answer might not be immediate, but He hears you.

^5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” – James 1:5

We can ask for wisdom:  I never asked for it, it was a gift that was given to me at birth. But anyone can ask for some wisdom. Believe you will receive it!

Pray for Other People

We also want to pray for others. We should treat others the way we want to be treated. The second greatest commandment “The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Mark 12:31. Even people who are unkind to us, we should pray for them. Pray for others health, pray they are saved, pray they receive help with anything they are struggling with, etc.

^“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” – Ephesians 6:18

Pray Reciting Scriptures – The word of God has Power!

We can make our prayers more effective by using the scripture. Anything God promises in the scripture with regards to health, finances, peace, security, etc., we should make note of and recite the scriptures in our prayers. The world says, “this or that is impossible, this doesn’t happen today, God is too busy to do that thing, your not special enough, etc.” But if scripture says it, if God says it is so, it is so! I’ve seen and experienced things I thought at one time were only things that happened in biblical times.

You have a thought in your head and it doesn’t align with scripture, come out of agreement with that lie.

^” That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” – 1 Corinthians 2:5

1 Corinthians 4:20:

²⁰ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (NIV)
²⁰ The Kingdom of God is not just talking; it is living by God’s power. (TLB)
²⁰ For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. (KJV)

Visit BibleGateway.com for other versions.

We Repent & Surrender Regularly

^{8 “}If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:8-9

After a person is born again sinning becomes no longer natural, easy, or habitual by the grace of God (God miraculously changes your heart and mind – scriptures says it & it happened to me). But we are never truly free from sin completely. We can mess up. Sometimes I catch myself saying something stupid and right after the words come out, I’m like, “oh no, that was wrong,” and I repent. But I still add repenting to by daily prayers, as well. Approach God with a surrendered heart, wanting to continue to strive toward righteousness.

Pray with Others – Of course!

⁴² And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. – Acts 2:42

²⁰ For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. – Matthew 18:20

---

NOTE: This is a Basic, Beginner Guide to Prayer

Many people will only pray at this level. But there are deeper levels of prayer. Some will go deeper. There are many ways to pray spiritual warfare, pray intercession prayers, to pray with real authority, to pray in tongues, etc. I have a lot of knowledge on the deeper levels of prayer. I had to go deeper and learn quickly. God sent a mentor to help because I was under intense spiritual warfare after I was saved. As I mentioned in another blog, I leveled up (yeah, kinda like a video game). I don’t know the levels, but I definitely leveled up (more peace is one of the signs of this). In some ways I still feel like a beginner with a lot yet to learn on the deeper levels of prayer. (Note: I’m sharing this in case someone needs help).

I have a feeling I will be writing more about prayer in the future.

---

Personal Note: Prayer Binder

I was hungry to learn, to understand, to be free from beliefs that society, churches, and religion provided me with that were not in alignment with the truth in the scriptures. Therefore, I started printing out notes from videos, writing down scriptures that were meaningful to me, promises, notes on the way I’ve changed, notes on amazing works God’s done in my life, and lists of things to pray. So I have a prayer binder that I will reference when I pray.

If you want to be serious about your prayer life, I recommend creating a notebook or binder with things to pray, maybe something God had me write that you need like born-again mindsets vs religious mindsets, scriptures of God’s promises, and notes on how God has moved in your life as reminders of what to be thankful for, etc. And on the days when prayer is hard you will have something to reference.

If you have questions, reach out.
BLESSINGS,
Jena

---

If you have not been born-again. View my blog Recipe for Repentance (God gave me this idea to help others know the Gospel Truth and what it really means to repent.)