Pray correctly and efficiently.

Michelle, welcome to Christian forums.

God understands our prayers even when we struggle to find the words to say them.

Jesus teaches us how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13; as he taught His disciples how to pray:


The Holy Spirit is our helper and guide in prayer with God the Father. Let Him lead the conversation. God already knows what's in our heart and what's on our minds.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord. —Psalms 106:48

Michelle1299 said:

Usually, I go outside and walk around the neighborhood and try to tell God how i'm feeling, and what i'm thankful for, and what i'm sorry for.
I try to put passion and emotion into my prayers. I want to have a strong relationship with Jesus.

Click to expand...

Michelle, welcome to CF.

You are already doing great. Prayer is just talking to God. Tell your Heavenly Father how you are feeling. Talk to God about your needs, your fears and your worries.

This might be helpful to you -

There is no formula to prayer—it is simply conversing with God. It is essentially talking with God as you would talk with an earthly parent who loves you and wants the best for you. God is your heavenly Father who loves you perfectly.

The ACTS model will be helpful to you as you learn how to pray. ACTS stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.

• Adoration means worship. We encourage you to begin your time of prayer by adoring and praising God. Praise Him for who He is and for all that He has done for you. God delights in your praises!

• Confession, the next component, means agreeing with God about the things that you have done wrong. It’s a time to express sorrow about what you have said, thought, or done that is not pleasing to Him. Ask God to forgive you for these things, and then believe that He does so freely. When you confess your sins, you receive God’s cleansing and this helps to remove any barrier in your communication with Him (read 1 John 1:9).

• Thanksgiving basically means being thankful to God. Thank Him for His love, protection, and provision just to name a few things.

• Supplication is the final component, and this means praying for your needs and for the needs of others, such as friends, family, your pastor, missionaries, government leaders, and persecuted Christians around the world. You may want to pray for such things as God’s guidance, wisdom, and opportunities to serve.

Keep in mind that the ACTS model serves as a guide to help you, not a rigid formula to follow. There is no “canned” approach that you need to take; just talk from your heart.

Prayer is best learnt using following general guidelines - it's like using crutches, until you are able to walk without them.

ACTS is a good one, and captures the basics of prayer well. Second to this is, read the Psalms, and other parts of the Bible. You can make the words there your own, until you have the ability to "improvise" well (it'll happen for sure)

Ultimately, learning to pray is best done by praying. The Spirit will teach you - every praying person eventually becomes good at it. That's the key: be a praying person. "Pray without ceasing", and about the small things. If you develop faith by making small requests and praying about small things, and seeing them answered, the big things come much easier. "He who is faithful in little is faithful also in much."

However, to make your prayers 'correct', you will have to avoid some things. It's not about talking correctly, it's about having the correct attitude.

1) Don't treat prayer casually and thoughtlessly, enter it mindfully, and pay attention. It is disrespectful to be casual and treat prayer negligently. Try to cultivate a reverent attitude towards it. (Avoid going too far though, reverence is just respect and awe, not fear)

Try keeping in mind something like how God is surrounded by millions of angels while you pray, or something else that suits you.

2) Don't go along with your mind when it wanders (your mind will definitely try to wander during prayer), bring it back immediately. If you go along with distractions (daydreams, worries, tomorrow's dinner, etc), confess it. Imagine someone praying to God Almighty when worrying about food, or what someone said to them yesterday, and so on! Wouldn't that be odd?

3) Don't talk casually, as if to a schoolmate or acquaintance - ask God to teach you the right way. These days it seems common to take God lightly in prayer, avoid that pitfall. (I have heard of some people teaching it's okay to be angry at Him, even!)

I'd say those are the types of things you want to avoid.

Hi Michelle, and welcome to the forums!

One thing you should understand about prayer - and it may make your question somewhat irrelevant. It is just simple communication between a child (you or me) and their Father. (God). While formal prayers are good for a communal gathering or making sure you say all you want to; that is only one kind of prayer. Sometimes it is just saying I love you Lord. Or just listening for His voice to you personally. Or maybe just enjoying being with HIM.

So you walking around the block is just fine; a girl going on a walk with her dad. What could be more normal and natural?

But realizing He is always there, you can just pop off a quick question or comment to Him at any time and any place.

Note that both Jesus and Paul use the term "Abba" referring to God. Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15, and Galatians 4:6. It's an Aramaic term that was used within family circles for the father. Described as originally being a term of endearment. Probably not too far off of Dad, Daddy, or Papa in English.

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.” (Rom 8:15)

Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” (Gal 4:6)

These verses seem to imply that some degree of intimacy is appropriate is our prayers at least some of the time. Speaking for myself, I pray differently in public than in private. I tend to be more formal in public and more conversational in private. In public, I tend to use Father or Lord to start prayers simply so as not to let more conversational language be a distraction to other people. I suspect other people do the same thing.

In terms of physical posture or gestures, there are times I pray on my knees and bowed down. Other times, I just pray wherever and however I happen to be standing or sitting or relaxing. There are times it seems to be appropriate to be in a more formal posture, other times a more casual posture seems appropriate. I don't fold my hands. Depending on the situation, I sometimes close my eyes and sometimes not. Similarly, I sometimes pray out loud or sometimes silently in my head.

I don't try to stoke up emotions in order to pray "more intensely" or whatever. If I am deeply concerned or troubled over something, that will be my dominant emotion and often what I am praying about and asking God for His help. If I'm happy about something, that will be my dominant emotion in expressing thanksgiving for something. Now, there are times that the act of praying and being with God changes my emotions as well and what I am focused on. Many days, I tend to start with a, "Okay, what do You want me to do today?" type of prayer and meditation. I often do my Bible reading first so as to settle my mind down. I find reading and study works best for me to calm down and start to focus more clearly. (That's just me. Everybody is different.)

Sometimes I use written prayers or scripture as a basis for prayers. Though most of the time, it is more extemporaneous and I'm telling Him what is on my heart. I also often stop to listen and meditate as well. Sometimes I find that God brings people and situations to my thoughts to pray about. Other times scriptures will come to mind to meditate on. For me, my challenge is avoiding the extreme of day dreaming all over the place and tunnel vision where I've already decided what I'm supposed to pray for and will only think about that. I try to walk a balance where I'm focused on prayer but at the same time open to God's nudges about what He wants to teach me or show me what to pray about case it's not what I thought it was.

As an observation, I've noticed that people are different. I've known some people that operate best by setting aside a dedicated prayer time at a particular time every day for the same amount of time. I've known other people that operate best by having the habit of praying during the day whenever they have breaks and then on weekends or on a periodic basis having an extended time alone for prayer. Those who seem to do it best are those that make it a positive habit they engage in consistently (however it is that they do it) that energizes and strengthens them and not turn it into a rut or something they are doing out of guilt.

Simply talking to the Almighty about any ol' thing is great. He wants you to include Him in everything.

As for prayer... Here are some things the Bible says about how to pray. The Apostles asked our Savior to teach them how to pray and He gave them what is called The Lord's Prayer. Notice that it says "Give us this day our daily bread." That means it is a prayer to be said daily.
The Bible also tells us to pray first for those in authority over the earth.

We are told to praise far more than we are told to pray. Before approaching the Throne for our requests it helps to remember where we are told "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name." Though, in a pinch, in a hurry for a pressing concern, I have also felt that sometimes it helps greatly just to lift my heart to Heaven and say "HELP!" lol.

There are many things you can study in the Bible about how to pray. However, the most beautifully articulated, Scripturally faithful, prayer will fall flat if we do not pray with heart and humility.

Amen

Michelle1299 said:

Can any of you guys give me some advice on how to pray so that your prayer will be "correct" in the eyes of God? i know that you can prayer however you want. I've recently just started praying such as grace at dinner and a prayer at night.

Usually, I go outside and walk around the neighborhood and try to tell God how i'm feeling, and what i'm thankful for, and what i'm sorry for etc., but i'm trying to get into the habit of praying daily and more than once a day that is, but whenever I feel like praying, I can't even start because I don't know what to say and my mind goes blank. also, i don't know if regular Christians are supposed to do the sign of the cross, but that's what i do.

I was raised catholic and was baptized and had communion, and we went to church but never prayed outside of church. I try to put passion and emotion into my prayers. I have to look up a sample prayer because I don't know what to say to God but I want to have a strong relationship with Jesus.

Click to expand...

So, The Lord, burn the path beneath my feet.

So, the Lord, light up the fire around me.