Prayer

STEP 1: Posture

Christians often find it helpful to bow their heads, close their eyes, or kneel to pray. This helps to quiet your mind and block out distractions. It also reminds you of your humble posture and dependence on God.

Aim for at least five minutes of prayer, but don’t be surprised if once you get started, you want to keep going! Formal or planned times of prayer once, twice, or even three times a day are complementary to informal and spontaneous prayer as needed or as the Spirt prompts you.

STEP 2: Structure

Jesus gives us what we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ as both a prayer to recite (“When you pray, say…”) and a structure to follow (“This, then, is how you should pray…”).

The Lord’s Prayer can be found in Matt 6:9–13, and it goes like this:

God (remembering who he is), God’s priorities (hallowed be his name, his kingdom come, his will be done), Our Needs (general and spiritual—daily bread, forgiveness, and lead us not to temptation), Others (as we forgive those…) All for God’s glory.

Here are two other helpful structures for how to pray:

A.C.T.S.

Adoration: Tell God how wonderful he is; worship him
Confession: Admit your sins, cry out your brokenness, ask for forgiveness
Thanksgiving: Say “thank you” for all God has done in your life
Supplication: Make your requests to God—for yourself and for others

S.T.O.P.

Sorry: Say sorry to God for our sin, ask for forgiveness
Thanks: Thank God for all his wonderful gifts
Others: Pray for others’ needs and for God’s will in their lives
Please: Ask God for what you want and need

STEP 3: Resources

PrayerMate
A free app to help you pray more faithfully and widely. Bring all your prayer points together, so you don’t worry about what to pray for or if you’ve forgotten anything - available here

Inspire Saint James app
You can find prayer points from the church for every day of the month on the Inspire Saint James app. These prayer points can also be added directly into the PrayerMate app (iOS or Android app)

Enjoy Your Prayer Life by Mike Reeves - available here

Every Moment Holy: Volume 1 - available here