What do you think our prayers should contain?

[returntosender]

From what I've seen many have problems with prayer. I for one have a big problem with repetition. My prayers are always the same and i feel guilty. So I'll start:
Praises to God.
Prayers and blessings for family, friends, neighbors and enemies. Government, country, emergency people, vets.those in need current problems and needs, sigh.......

 

[sandman]

Heart and Truth ... It is just you communicating with your Father. Whatever is on your heart and from your heart.
And Truth ...don't hold back on anything your are feeling or going through or desire or want to do ( in the physical realm & spiritual realm).
It doesn't have to be flowery, flow or be poetic. There is no right or wrong way to pray... and there are no special prayers that bring blessing.

 

[tturt]

I understand what you're saying. So...

Noticed in The Lord's prayer (Matt and Luke), it starts with acknowledging Our Father. What an honor and privilege it is to talk with our uncreated God. He created us Mal 2:10.

Hallowed be thy name (researched and use some of God's names, titles, and attributes to express awe and love to Him).

Remind myself that it's about His kingdom and His will.

Thank Him for His forgiveness. Repent. Thank Him for numerous, various people, situations, places, etc

Make petitions. (I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour). I Tim 2

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

 

[Blade]

From what I've seen many have problems with prayer. I for one have a big problem with repetition. My prayers are always the same and i feel guilty. So I'll start:
Praises to God.
Prayers and blessings for family, friends, neighbors and enemies. Government, country, emergency people, vets.those in need current problems and needs, sigh.......

Always use what HE said in His word. Take fear .. in that moment what did God say? "God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power love and a sound mine.". I always pray what my Father said. In my needs "Father you said..." What God said He always does for its already been spoken it His word will not come back to Him void but will do what He said. Gods will is His word.. Its why we have it

 

[SavedByGrace3]

1 Timothy 2:1-3 KJV
1. I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2. For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

 

[Veni]

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

 

[friend of]

I feel the same way with my prayers lately (for a long time actually). It makes me jealous of those other Christians who can make long, beautiful prayers aloud. I pray to pray more. I did get to pray for others at church last week and I was able to an extent but this surprised me. I would say don't give up and don't feel too bad about it. God knows what we need and what we're going to say anyway. Praying before I go to sleep is good cuz that's time you have alone with God.

 

[oikonomia]

From what I've seen many have problems with prayer. I for one have a big problem with repetition. My prayers are always the same and i feel guilty. So I'll start:
Praises to God.
Prayers and blessings for family, friends, neighbors and enemies. Government, country, emergency people, vets.those in need current problems and needs, sigh.......

You asked for short and sweet. Okay then.

Open to the book of Ephesians. And with some praise and thanks giving, regularly pray for God to accomplish
the things written about in that book, two three lines at a time.
Praying sincerely "Lord, do this for Your great name."

 

[Tranquil Bondservant]

I have OCD and was having trouble with ritualised prayer where I was saying the same thing every night and essentially turning prayer into something wooden & dead and then essentially feeling like I couldn't stop doing because doing so felt really, really wrong (due to the OCD). The Lord used Matthew 6:7-8 to correct me. I felt an overwhelming sense of liberty in prayer and now I pray what's on my heart. Even though I still do request prayers for some of the same things every night I'm no longer going through the same dead ritualised words every single time. At the end of the day if you whisper a single syllable of a word that has nothing to do with what you're requesting, The Lord will know what you're asking for.

It's important to remember that prayer is speaking to your Father. It's not it's own independent action like Communion or something along those lines. It's the things that happen during prayer that's important, not necessarily the act on it's own.

God bless and I hope all will be well in the future

 

[oikonomia]

I have OCD and was having trouble with ritualised prayer where I was saying the same thing every night and essentially turning prayer into something wooden & dead and then essentially feeling like I couldn't stop doing because doing so felt really, really wrong (due to the OCD). The Lord used Matthew 6:7-8 to correct me. I felt an overwhelming sense of liberty in prayer and now I pray what's on my heart. Even though I still do request prayers for some of the same things every night I'm no longer going through the same dead ritualised words every single time. At the end of the day if you whisper a single syllable of a word that has nothing to do with what you're requesting, The Lord will know what you're asking for.

It's important to remember that prayer is speaking to your Father. It's not it's own independent action like Communion or something along those lines. It's the things that happen during prayer that's important, not necessarily the act on it's own.

God bless and I hope all will be well in the future

If you wish to grow spiritually more you should stop these ritualized canned prayers.
They may become heartless with no exercise of your spirit, your praying organ.

But it is quite effective to use a portion of Scripture to pray back to God.
The whole Bible is at your disposal.

Take a book like Ephesians or Colossians or John or any book.
Take a few lines and mix your reading of them with petition, thanksgiving, praise, proclamation.
MIngle your reading of the word of God with prayers - PRAY-READING the word. (Or READ-PRAYING if you prefer)

That is an excellent exercise of your spiritual muscles so to speak.
And it will cause you to grow. You want to grow spiritually.

For sure when you pray back God's word to Him you will touch His will and His heart.
But this should not be mechanical or without consideration of what the Spirit wants you to petition and supplicate about.

Ephesians 6:17,18 -
And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God,
By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints,

See? Take the word of God by means of all prayer. Take the word of God as the practical way to lay hold of the abstract Spirit.
The word of God is the sword you can handle, of the Spirit. The word of God is a way we can take hold of the Spirit.
We should do so by means of all prayer and petition - using the word of God as our base.

 

[DragonFox91]

Praise & worship, confession of sin, requests. Sometimes there is repetition, but when you have a lot of bases to cover, it's easier to avoid that. You are on the right track, OP.

I do want to echo sandman tho: say what's on your heart. Speak your mind. I often find speaking my mind leads to prayer that is right - the Spirit intercedes!

Another thing I want to add: some repetition is okay! Catholics (+ Orthodox probably) will be able to give a different interpretation of what avoiding repetitive prayer means, but also, as sandman says, there's no magical prayer either.

 

[CoreyD]

From what I've seen many have problems with prayer. I for one have a big problem with repetition. My prayers are always the same and i feel guilty. So I'll start:
Praises to God.
Prayers and blessings for family, friends, neighbors and enemies. Government, country, emergency people, vets.those in need current problems and needs, sigh.......

I would ask the greatest man who ever walked the earth - the closest person to God.
Luke 11:1

It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”​

Luke 11:2-4

And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.​

Give us day by day our daily bread.​

‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation.’”​

Jesus is not saying his disciples should repeat this as a recitation, but rather use it as a template, or model.
Matthew 6:7

“And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.​

Hence, when praying, I would consider
the most important things, first :

• The honor and sanctifying of God's name
• The things surrounding God's kingdom, and his accomplishing his will on earth
• Included in these important things are thanksgiving, for God's works, past (creation, the gift of life, the sacrifice of his son, which makes a relationship with God possible; having our sins forgiven; the hope of everlasting life; his word the Bible, that allows us to know him), and present (his spirit that guides and invigorates us; his congregation on earth) Philippians 4:6

our personal need, after :

• Our daily bread - both physical and spiritual
• Forgiveness of our sins, and the spirit to be merciful towards others, and forgive them
• The love and fear of God, to help us resist giving into temptation
• Anything else that is in harmony with God's will - John 14:13, 14; 1 John 5:14, 15

Using Jesus template, or model prayer, we will soon find that we have so many things to pray about, we might have to leave some for another day, or hour.

 

[returntosender]

You asked for short and sweet. Okay then.

Open to the book of Ephesians. And with some praise and thanks giving, regularly pray for God to accomplish
the things written about in that book, two three lines at a time.
Praying sincerely "Lord, do this for Your great name."

I'll have to try that, thx.

I have OCD and was having trouble with ritualised prayer where I was saying the same thing every night and essentially turning prayer into something wooden & dead and then essentially feeling like I couldn't stop doing because doing so felt really, really wrong (due to the OCD). The Lord used Matthew 6:7-8 to correct me. I felt an overwhelming sense of liberty in prayer and now I pray what's on my heart. Even though I still do request prayers for some of the same things every night I'm no longer going through the same dead ritualised words every single time. At the end of the day if you whisper a single syllable of a word that has nothing to do with what you're requesting, The Lord will know what you're asking for.

It's important to remember that prayer is speaking to your Father. It's not it's own independent action like Communion or something along those lines. It's the things that happen during prayer that's important, not necessarily the act on it's own.

God bless and I hope all will be well in the future

Nice.. Maybe we shouldn't label it ocd since most of us feel our prayers are repetitious.?

 

[DragonFox91]

I do my main prayer before dinner or after.
("man doesn't live on bread alone")

 

[SavedByGrace3]

I just pray as moved. I am often "moved" in the wee hours of the morning. Most often these are intercessory prayers.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

It sounds like you need a deeper form of prayer as in contemplative prayer.

This is one way that I've been following for over 30 years.

I pray the Liturgy of the Hours, morning and Evening and often I include Day Time Prayer. I use
the Breviary from the Catholic Book Publishing Company.

I begin with the Office of the Readings, then I do Centering Prayer for 10 to 20 minutes. I then
do Morning Prayer from the Breviary. There is an on-line site with instructions.

Divine Office – Liturgy of the Hours of the Roman Catholic Church (Breviary)

For learning how to do Centering Prayer, or originally Called Prayer of Quiet:

Guide to Centering Prayer with instructions and background — Spirituality for Questioning Minds

Guide to centering prayer, a silent method of contemplative prayer from the Christian tradition, with instructions and background.

www.lindsayboyer.com

As a Discalced Carmelite Secular OCDS, Morning and Evening prayer is in our
Constitution (Rule of Life.)

 

[OldAbramBrown]

Christians need MORE:

- philosophy
- imagination
- repetition

ONLY not the vain kinds.

When I'm inarticulate whch is most of the time, I just string together Glory Be's.

All the other things people are suggesting are fab. Thank you because you're doing us (and agnostics of good will and everyone around them) a power of good.

 

[returntosender]

Christians need MORE:

- philosophy
- imagination
- repetition

ONLY not the vain kinds.

When I'm inarticulate whch is most of the time, I just string together Glory Be's.

All the other things people are suggesting are fab. Thank you because you're doing us (and agnostics of good will and everyone around them) a power of good.

I like the glory B's idea, thx

 

[Tranquil Bondservant]

Nice.. Maybe we shouldn't label it ocd since most of us feel our prayers are repetitious.?

You can label it ocd if you want mate, there's no harm done. I'm sure what you're struggling with shares similar characteristics to OCD which makes it a fair comparison. God bless .

 

[oikonomia]

I'll have to try that, thx.

Nice.. Maybe we shouldn't label it ocd since most of us feel our prayers are repetitious.?

Do not be suprised that if you start to pray for God's will as from out of Ephesians or some other book,
that things in your enrivonment will suddenly seem to become more troublesome.

If you begin to pray from His word that God's will to be done, you will get opposition from the Devil.
A companion in this kind of prayer is good protection.

Ask for His covering and protection as pray-read the word of God.