As I mentioned in the page “Going to Sleep”, I remember my trying to pray to God as a child. At the age of eight, I asked Jesus to come into my heart and He did. Shortly after that, I remember praying a prayer for my sister, which my parents said was impossible, but God answered it that very day.
On one occasion, Jesus was praying to His Heavenly Father, and when He finished, His disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray …” The prayer that He taught them is commonly referred to as the Lord’s Prayer. It is found in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. This simple prayer contains much of what should be in any prayer that we pray to our Heavenly Father … honor, praise, prayer for His will to be done, prayer for daily needs, asking forgiveness, prayer for protection from Satan and his schemes … I commend this prayer to your study.
A simple way to remember the basic components of prayer is the acronym ACTS.
“A” stands for Adoration … giving praise, glory and honor to the Almighty God who made heaven and earth. Remembering who God is, and what He is like, is extremely helpful in getting our hearts and minds in a right attitude to approach His heavenly throne room.
“C” stands for Confession … we need to keep short accounts with God … when His Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, we need to quickly seek His forgiveness. Psalm 51 is a prayer of David, which he prayed after his sin with Bathsheba, and serves as a good example for us.
“T” stands for Thanksgiving … there is so much that we can be grateful to God for. We need to express that gratitude regularly … for our very breath, for food, for clothing, for a roof over our heads, for forgiveness, for friends, etc.
“S” stands for Supplication … these are for daily needs, for family, for friends, even for our enemies, for ourselves … God cares about the big things and the little things.
I encourage you to try praying through the Psalms. I did this for years with a good friend and it was so beneficial, helpful, encouraging. God’s word has so much more to say about prayer. Go to BibleGateway.com and enter “pray”.