Prayer

If you are in relationship with a person, you will want to spend time with them, sometimes in silence together, sometimes in conversation. That time together in conversation with God is prayer.

It’s personal — no one can tell you what words to say to your parents, even less so of your conversation with God.

But just as your brother or sister may talk about conversations they have had with your parents, so it may be helpful to hear of how others have spoken with our Heavenly Father, and some of these are listed in the posts below.

Aspects of Prayer

The important things to remember about prayer are that it needs to be personal, simple, and sincere — not for public show like the hypocrites in Matthew 6:5-7:

“You shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. … do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.”

But some traditional aspects of prayer are as follows:

Acknowledgement: Acknowledging God for who He is, and responding with respect, humility, and praise;
Contrition: Confession and repentance of our sin, and a desire to be restored to God;
Thanksgiving: Thankfulness for all He has done for us, especially in Jesus;
Supplication: Bringing the burden of our concerns and needs that would weight us down, and allowing God to lift that burden from us.

These traditional aspects of prayer were summarised as ACTS — Acknowledgement, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.